Designer1

Im looking at the standing seem metal in chiefs X11 and I think they erased the good standing seam textures. This isnt even a standing seem metal anyway it has deep grooves in it. Any ideas where the real standing seam metal went?

I finished dowloading all the available X11 libraries from the 3d library. At this point it appears when you upload the newest update some libraries duplicate while others, like viking just replace. Im leery about just deleting everything and replacing it as I dont want to miss out on library content I might want...like someone mentioned the certainteed library in X10 is better then X11. My question is how do we know what libraries will duplicate vs replace until we upload it and then its too late to evaluate which library content you want to keep. This is more work trying to figure this all out given I have so many old libraries, then designing an entire house.

Otis, do whats right for you not what any else has to say about upgrades. For myself I upgrade every two years, as I dont want to spend that much yearly on software upgrades. Some people might want to spend that and thats great but for me I like to give it some time between upgrades. Also you might look at options at the end of the year when they have sales going on, that might help you make an easier decision on what will work best for you.

Also, does anyone have any recommendations on the best way to install the X11 libraries? I heard that some of the items in previous migrated libraries might be not in the new libraries, yet if you upload lets say another Dal Tile library for example how will you know which is the old vs new library? Geesh, we really need a library manager in Chief to handle this stuff.

So we don't have to do anything other then click "update libraries" for chiefs main libraries correct? So the manual updating of the catalogues is only for bonus and manufacturer libraries? I just want to make sure Im fully understanding this library set up, now that its take me umpteen years to finally realize it! What is the best way to back up user libraries? Do I export that into the same back up libraries that I do for bonus and manufacturer? I just want to make sure I do that for my user library because there is no other place for me to go download my user library should it get deleted or messed up.

So Ive had Chief since version 9 or so, not X9 old school 9. So this entire 12 plus years, my understanding is whenever I got a new upgrade I just migrated Chiefs libraries forward and added new ones. Well as time went on I wanted to delete my old versions and only keep one old version and two newer versions on the computer. I called tech support the other day because I noticed that I didnt really have all the libraries backed up as I just kept bringing them forward to each new version and adding that new versions library. I always clicked on the update libraries button to keep my libraries updated and Chief always said 'your libraries are up to date', so I felt great. Well to find out Chief doesnt update the libaries to current you have to delete the old and install new. So I have libraries 'up to date' for the libraries that were on there but many were from years past. I thought all along that 'your libraries are up to date' meant they are updated to the latest version. EEK! So come to find out Ive got old school libraries Ive been working with for who knows how long. Sure Ive got a lot of new ones (as Im a self admitted symbol hoarder and have all the libraries available) but a lot of them must be ancient and I didnt know it. So now Ive got to go one by one in the 3d library and download each one fresh and do a new install to the library. I was hoping this wasnt the case but looks like this is going to take awhile to accomplish. I wish Chief had a library manager that told users youve got X amount of outdated libraries from version X whatever that need to be updated and you dont have X amount of libraries available in the 3d library just to keep you up on what you have or dont have. I thought Id just pass on this info to other Chiefers as this was new news to me. I hope everyone else already knew this so no one else has to do the long process of updating libraries like I will be doing in the next few days. Also, to find out some of the older libraries may have items that have been updated and are no longer available in the new library. So its sort of like finding a needle in the haystack trying to figure out if I want to keep any items that might be useful from past libraries. Ahh what a book I just wrote.

I heard back from tech support. They recommended I go into X11 data and rename template folder "templateOLD". Once I did that and shut down chief and restarted I had the siding correct itself. I guess chief recreates a brand new fresh templates folder and it has the correct images.

Thanks Chopsaw. I guess I was dreaming of that feature.

Thanks Glenn. The closest example of what Im talking about is from Chiefs website the dalton remodel features a gazebo with posts that have support beams off to the side. Im familiar with the actual newels and balusters changing but Im referring to the way the top of the main post meets the beam. I thought there were different ways the supports stem off the sides to also meet the beam like straight posts, curved posts, spindle type additions. I know we have those in the millwork library and can apply them manually I just thought I remember you could add this in the dbx. Thats why I was saying was I dreaming of this feature?

Mick, so what steps we would take to get the siding corrected to be the right texture? Is there something that needs to be deleted because it was migrated from X10 or?

Am I dreaming this feature? If you were working with exterior railing for a porch, I thought I remember you could select "post to beam" and then have options of different supports to the beam? The only one I could find was under the Rustic columns it appears to be a tree with branches off to the sides as supports. I thought I remember a feature you could choose certain looks for these post supports like cottage, tudor etc and it would change the style the supports off to the side?? If there was no such feature and I was dreaming, then how would I go about this, just applying different corbels off to the sides of the posts? Thanks for any info!

I turned the issue into tech and they are looking into it. They had asked for the plan I was using but told them it was just from a stock default new plan with a 6" siding wall. I went ahead and made the plan and sent it in so it will be interesting to see whats going on with this.

Thanks Tommy and Glenn. Yeah when I went to go in 3d to paint the sills it just colored the entire sill the same color so I guess I have to go into the DBX and change it manually. I just turned some base trim into a symbol for millwork and then used it in the treatments section as a lintel. Id love to see an overhaul on some of the cumbersome dbx's that are getting dated in that you have to use a bunch of work arounds. In the meantime at least were finding some alternatives, Im happy about that!

How weird! No Ive applied nothing to it at all, just hit the new plan button, open 3d with the siding and get the camera on the wall and thats what Im seeing. I noticed that Eric was saying he noticed the same texture as I do too. I wonder why only some chief users are seeing this? I wrote in to tech support to let them know, we'll see what they say. Thanks for taking pictures and telling me your experience with it.

I wanted to check back in to see if anyone has come up with any solutions for interior and exterior thicker walls? I wrote in to tech support and they agree chief doesnt have this worked out but I still wanted to see if anyone has found any good solutions over the last year.

Can you recess the brick sill but not the lintel? I noticed in this picture I took, the recessed window with the white brick sill looks funny with the lintel recessed. The other window with the black brick sill doesnt look good with the sill not recessed but the lintel looks better not recessed. Any ideas?

Rich, how strange is this...how can some of us be seeing the textures misaligned while others are not. The pictures you took appear to be quite a distance compared to the picture I took... if you scroll in closer what does the texture look like?

I did some adjusting and the sill fits to the wall ok. This method of creating the extended part below the sill helps fill in the gap it creates but what about if you want the brick to be a different color then the wall? How do you get each component of the brick sill to be two different textures if I wanted the lower part of the sill to be the white brick like the wall but keep the upper sill black brick?

Yes, I know there are a lot of siding choices in the library, I just wanted to bring this to everyones attention given this is the default texture for X11 Siding 6" wall. Im sure Chief didnt mean to put such a flawed texture on the default wall it just looks funny in 3d.

Steve, I tried creating a stacked molding like you did but the results werent good...hahaha.. what am I missing?

This is a jpeg of the standard default siding exterior wall. Can someone tell me whats wrong with the siding? It appears chief made lines delineating the wood yet the texture isnt fitting correctly to the wood siding? I havent ever seen this before in prior versions. Thanks!

Nice Steve. Im so grateful you brought the gap issues up in your video. In previous chief versions this wasnt an issue. The start and additions to my posts on this thread have been about brick symbol moldings not being accurate and you found the additional problem, thanks for finding these. This makes us all aware of something we might have otherwise not found till much later in the design process. I guess I will just find a brick in the library and try and build a stacked molding like yours thats accurately sized to a real brick sill, so at least I have something to use in the meantime till chief fixes this. Thanks again for all your input with videos and ideas Steve!

Tommy, nice idea I like that. Did you happen to watch Steves video above? In it he shows how chief creates a gap at the bottom of the molding when you use a molding profile and how you have to tweak it a bit to make it look right. Do you have these issues with your moldings?

Wow that building looks great, you did a good job! Was that all done in chief? Do you use chief more for residential or commercial? Im curious to your experience with using it in commercial because the program targets the remodel, single family home type market more then anything else and theres not too many people who have used this for heavy commerical. Great design!

Eric, please dont minimize my concern about the brick sills functions not working. Problem is they use to work and now they dont and need to be fixed. Tommy, yes I see what your saying. My opinion is this use to work and needs to be fixed. To go around and need to paint using brick texture, then rotate the vectorview texture to make it look accurate and change the molding profile shape to fill in the gap chief creates is too much work around. In fact brick sill 3d moldings started changing their behaviors, not for the better in X9. You can read from my very first post on here and see what Im talking about.