rcmcdougle

Thanks guys, In the context of renovation work... I am onsite or in a clients abode frequently when needing this feature. Don't have my multi screen desktop with me, or a lot of screen space on my laptop to keep the ALDO open all the time. ChromeCast does a great job throwing Chief to their big screen TV but... I was hoping for a macro or something I could execute with a button that would do this. I have created such in other CAD software using Python. Is this something that can be done through Ruby?

I do renovation work frequently. As part of my process I load a PDF of the existing plan then trace over it. I would love to have a button on my main toolbar that would toggle that one layers visibility. It is a pain to click through the layer dialog many times a day for this. Any thoughts?

Thanks Dermot - Rebooting did not help but calling tech support revealed that it was a video driver issue. I updated the nVidia driver to the most current and all is well again. This is on my SurfaceBook laptop.

I have checked all the data folders and they appear correct. What is odd is that it is trying to write to the non-existant X8 folder. The material issue is not plan related. It happens as well when I start a new plan using the default profile that ships with Chief. 4 walls + 1 door -> Select door and try to change the exterior material color or any other material -> Library Materials function <> Plan Materials do not. If I try to edit the plan materials I can but then when I accept the change and close the dialog Chief freezes. There is no cursor in the drawing field and none of the toolbar buttons respond. I can close the program by clicking the X window button and it asks if I want to save. This is making me crazy. I've never seen such problems in Chief.

Not sure if this is related but I get this error on my laptop. That directory does not exist and I cannot find a reference to it in any of the Preferences dialogs. What could be going on there?

When I open an object [Exterior Door] -> click on Materials -> select item to change material [Exterior Color] -> click Select Material -> the Select Material browser opens with Library Materials active. When I click on Plan Materials, I cannot select any material in the plan. Use Default is highlighted but I cannot scroll the list with the arrow keys or any other way. The same with Material defaults. Library Materials works as expected but VERY slowly. I noticed this behavior when I was working on my laptop then checked for updates and now Chief is updated to ver 20.3.0.54x64. No change in behavior... it is still failing.

Many thanks guys, you delivered what I need for now. Robb

I have been requested to deliver a video of the exterior of a house for Historic District Planning review. They would like to see a turntable style overview of the project. I can set the house spinning but am having difficulties controlling the speed. I would like to record that spin for the movie. Any suggestions appreciated. TIA Robb Chief x10 / Win 10x64 Pro

I'm working on a renovation using CA Premier X10 build 20.2.2.3 x64. I can't get the bay window to look correct. Image 1 shows the window correct but no lowered ceiling. Image 2 shows the lowered ceiling properly but brings walls down into the glass area of the windows. This window installed via the Bay Window button. Any thoughts on how to correct this?

I am working on a remodel and the bay window that exists is not performing correctly. The 2 attached images show different dialog box situations. 1) BayWindowfail-01.png shows the desire interior wall configuration but the exterior walls intrude into the tops of the windows. Dialog box has checked >Lowered Ceiling = 15" 2) BayWindowfail-02.png shows the desired window to exterior wall configuration but the interior wall is incorrect. Dialog box has unchecked >Lowered Ceiling. How can I get that exterior wall out of the window? TIA, Robb

Thanks Eric - That did the trick. Of course moving that landing down to the foundation level disconnected the stairs and I needed to go back and adjust top and bottom heights manually for all sections. Any thoughts on how I can clean up that interior stair? Thanks again, Robb

Here is the Plan file. there are a lot of odd goings on (intentionally) as this is still in the sketch stage. That BIG gutter will become a more substantial fascia detail as the client gets clearer. Other features are like that as well. It is a renovation of an existing split level with indoor pool. Would love to understand how to get that interior stair under control as well. Lots oddness around that. Plan view is correct but a camera from any angle is not good. Can't show the sketch with that missing corner tho... Thanks, Robb TyCaer_x10-08a.zip

This is a renovation project started in X8. Now on my 5th revision in X10 and this corner of the house opened up when I attempted to raise the lower breezway roof 3". I have tried pulling back the roof edges that contact the main house and even deleting the roof and but the walls don't return. They are correct in plan view. When I pull the walls back in plan view then re-join that corner I still get what you see here. Ideas anyone? I would hate to backtrack to an earlier revision. TIA, Robb

I just upgraded from X 8 and am very happy with X 10 so far. I'm working on a renovation project in an old building in NYC. There are practically no walls that are orthogonal, parallel or perpendicular. I have attached an image that shows my issues. 1) I have a cursor that I have never seen before. What does it mean? 2) It is very tedious to keep toggling the "Ignore off angle walls" indicator. Is there a way to disable this alert in preferences for this plan? 3) I am generating a lot of messy wall intersections. How do I clean these up or turn the display off? Thanks for the help, Robb

The wall segments are selectable in 3D. They indicate exterior room when selected and will not delete. Here is the plan -> Somehow ceiling heights had gotten all wonky. This generated the exterior rooms and various other flaws. It was a lot more work than I would hope for but I think i can move forward now and flesh out that project. Thanks for all the input - it was helpful. Robb

The wall segments are selectable in 3D. They indicate exterior room when selected and will not delete. Here is the plan -> gat-atelier-1.plan

Thanks for that... but do you have any suggestions on how to proceed with the fix up? I can't find the exterior rooms to start addressing the floating attic walls - if I delete a roof & build a replacement the problem returns.

What do you mean "rebuilding the roof"? Is there a button for that? thanks...

A client just decided to move ahead with a project begun in X4. There were some challenges in getting the roofs to work properly in X4 but they were resolved completely = First image - Front-01.jpg When I brought the project into X8 for continued development all sorts of strangeness related to materials and roofs. The materials are relatively easy to sort out but the roof are making me crazy. I have a few exterior rooms that I can't locate and windows that are blocked by what appears to be attic wall bits. images - AtticWallFailure-1.jpg - AtticWallFailure-2.jpg. HHEEELLPP - grasping at straws here. Robb

Just updated yesterday and when I click for help I get an error -> The page could not be found! Error loading: qthelp://com.chiefarchitect.1_0_0/doc/CHM_Title_Page.htm Please make sure that you have all documentation sets installed. Searching Program Files/Chief folder for *.chm returns only 1 for x4. Where can I get an updated .CHM? Thanks, Robb

I have worked with Chief as my design platform since version 2. Doing mostly interior work in NYC I have a number of Chief renderings shown on my website. -> http://www.studiorcm.com Of particular interest might be the panoramic bubbles (featured in the Chelsea Loft and UWS apartment) I started playing around with. I have not pushed that technique as far as I could due to a lack of time for my own projects. The clients found the bubbles suited their needs as is and we moved on. I support several clients with modeling and rendering of their projects. You may reach me directly via the info on my website.

I have been running Google Drive for a few years and it has been a very reliable vehicle for keeping my multiple machines in synch. I have a paid account for most of my projects plus there are three folders in my Google Drive that are hosted by clients (created by them on their drives and shared with me) and our shared projects stay in synch.There can be trouble when we both try working on the same file but conflicting files get flagged as such and can be resolved. Where I have seen problems in Chief is when I save a big file - do a little more then try to exit and save. Google hasn't finished synching the previous save and chokes. Another issue is giving Google Drive time to finish updating before shutting down the workstation. Finally, I make sure that archive and temp files are in a folder not on the Google Drive tree. Office 365 and OneDrive seem inevitable and I just want to optimize that experience into my CAD heavy environment.

Sorry for the off topic of Chief but... trying to make sense out of the integration of Windows 10 into my computing ecosystem. All Win 7x64 pro now with Office 2007 and Google Drive working well. New Surface Book laptop forcing the question of Win 10 integration. My Google Drive has folders shared with different clients and hosted through different accounts. Office 365 seems an attractive upgrade as I migrate to Win 10 throughout. OneNote can replace Evernote it would seem... but I can't abandon Google Drive so I would need to run it beside OneDrive for full Office 365 functional benefits. Anyone doing that now? What are the pot holes like? Any performance issues? TIA Robb ​

I built my terrain on the first floor and some retaining walls are causing the main exterior walls to update incorrectly. Is there any way to move the terrain to the foundation floor so that those intersections occur correctly with the foundation walls? TIA Robb Chief since v2