Richard_Morrison

SOME wall elevations are showing the side wall extents in Layout, others are not. See example attached. The dining room looks good before I send it to Layout, then the wall line disappears. The bath next to it in Layout is okay. (BTW, the layout window is oversized to be large enough to include the side line.) These two views have exactly the same layer set. Any idea what might be going on? ("Room" layer is turned on in both.)

This could be a bug. (I've reported similar, and had it reproduced by tech support.) I have had similar instances where a copied anno set reverted to another, where it was just copied with some label changes. Making some significant changes or just deleting one and recreating it again helped. Not sure what the exact issue is, though.

My guess is that back in the day of offices where you'd have many people drafting by hand on the same project, it was easier to get a reasonably consistent look in lettering by using all caps. I can't think of a good reason today to use all caps, other than it's easier to demonstrate that you're complying with a minimum letter size requirement to the building department. (which is often set at 1/8")

If you had X5 set to use the advanced graphics card on a per-program basis, it won't automatically happen for the upgrade, since this is seen as a "new" program, and has to be explicitly set for the new one. EDIT: Here are some directions: http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/t/19474269.aspx

Are you absolutely sure that your laptop is using the Radeon graphics card for Chief? The reason I ask is that most laptops with a "brand name" video card ALSO have a built-in graphics card that the machine uses by default. I had this same issue with my two year old Lenovo, until I found out that you have to use the graphics software to tell the laptop to use the high-end card rather than the standard one, either on a global or program-by-program basis. When I set the laptop to use the higher end graphics card for Chief, all my problems went away.

Boy, are you living in a legal dreamworld... While you might be able to make that claim for tangible property where there is a presumption of transferable title, this is not the case with software. And "I'm just stupid" probably won't be a good defense for a copyright infringement lawsuit, which Autodesk and other large companies have not shown much reluctance to prosecute.

Well, I meant taking a back-clipped cross section and setting the depth to 0. If you need to get framing in, as Perry says, you can make it deeper.

Try a zero-depth back-clipped cross section.

The latest version of iPhones even has the local hotspot feature built in. But what if you are many miles offshore on your boat, or in a remote village of Nepal, trying to get your plans done? Oh, yeah, there are times when that hardware lock really comes in handy!

Some of the best architects I know still use a pencil to draw plans. While I think that they are missing out on some great time-savings and error-avoidance, a client who doesn't hire them because they don't like the tools they use is missing out, too. I would focus more on the quality of the relationship (e.g. how interested are they in what you have to say) and the design quality of past projects, than the specific tool they are using. If they don't have e-mail, that might be an issue. If they are using Vectorworks or Archicad or Autocad, rather than Chief or Sketchup, you shouldn't care, IMO.

Lew, There is an amazing new invention called WiFi. You do not need to disconnect anything. I have never been to a client's home who didn't have a WiFi network, or at least an Internet connection. (And anyway, all my presentations are done online now. I don't go to clients' houses for Chief presentations anymore.) And as harsh as it may sound, if you have multiple computers and no WiFi, you probably aren't really in business.

Lew, You have never used this feature, have you? You can activate and deactive from the same machine now. So - go to client's house with laptop and use their wifi. (Or go to Starbucks for a couple of minutes.) Use laptop to deactivate desktop and activate laptop. Go to office and forget that you left your laptop at home. Deactivate laptop and activate desktop from desktop. Takes about 60 sec's max. They finally got this right.

"Am I missing something?" Yes, you are missing a signature which tells us which version of Chief you are using.

This is a very helpful tool. Would have been nice to include it in the "What's New in X6" information. EDIT: My apologies. I see that this was in X5, too. I didn't know it was there, either.

Correctamundo. The entire X6 Data folder, including the User Library, is on Dropbox. It is really nice to add something to the library on the desktop at the office, and then find it in the library upon opening the laptop at home. If I tweak a toolbar or add a keyboard shortcut on the laptop, it is there at the desktop, too.

Well, I have about 1.2GB, and it takes just a minute or two in Dropbox, even with a relatively slow connection. I'd try it before you give up prematurely.

Oh, a Mel Brooks fan....

Well, I decided to throw caution to the wind and put all of my X6 project files, as well as my User Data files, on Dropbox. This includes, of course, my User Library, archive files, toolbars, hotkeys, etc. So far, so good. It is amazing to make modifications at the office desktop or home laptop and just magicially have them appear at the other location. It's like I'm working on the same machine. Save a detail to the library, for example, and it is at the other location, too. I was a little concerned that the User Library would take a long time to sync due to its size, but it only takes a few minutes. I don't know how Dropbox does it, but I'm a happy guy. Of course, if my entire practice gets corrupted files, I'll be singing a different tune, but there are backups of backups, so I'm not anticipating a major catastrophe.

I should point out that Dropbox is not deleting files that are over 30 days old. It is just deleting the older versions of files that were CHANGED more than 30 days ago. So even if your archives are in Dropbox, they probably will still be there in mulitiple versions.

Re: "too many files." One of the Park brothers suggested (on the old forum) turning on Chief's file locking so that Dropbox wouldn't have access to the file until it was closed.

Well, if you have to explain the joke...

This seems a little unclear since it is most likely that your User Library is in My Documents, in the Chief Architect Premier X6 Data folder.

Well, if you are using 2X treads, then you have to kind of fill in the gap unless the steps have a riser height of less than 5.5", otherwise you don't pass the sphere test. So you need SOMETHING on your riser, but I would be afraid of using a partially closed riser. Seems like it would be a good way to get a toe caught in there during a fall. If the stairs have a total height of less than 30", then you can use open risers, of course.

Scott, Just FYI, unless the stairs are going to be 30" or less in height, open risers are no longer permitted. Check the Code.

I am considering moving my X6 Data folder (with my toolbars, User Library, etc.) and my plan files exclusively to Dropbox, so I keep everything on my desktop and laptop sync'd. I have a little concern that my User Library, which is now over 1.3GB, is going to be VERY slow to sync, and that I may run into corruption of plan files if I am not accessing and saving them locally and independently of the cloud, since I tend to save every few steps. (Habit from earlier versions of Chief.) Anyone experience problems with any of this?