DianneDSC

I ordered from Dell when they had a promo on Alienware. Also received some Dell rewards that went towards a new TV. Very pleased with our purchases.

If your railing is round make sure horizon lines is checked in preferences, render, general options. I had a similar problem with round columns and this fixed it.

If there is another exterior door to a deck or patio it can be the 36" egress door. Then the entry door can be smaller than 36" such as a double 30".

Thanks Joe and Johnny. This works great!

My first laptop years ago (Dell Inspiron) was sort of a pretty good computer at the time but compared to today's cell phones and all sorts of other devices and ncomputers, it is minuscule. Still use it once in awhile for other things but not Chief. I think 12 is the last version I put on it and have a dongle for it. Some day I would like to get one similar to your pick ... probably not too soon though. Hope you have fun with it.

Technology changes so fast doesn't it? I had thought about going a step down in processor and video card to save a few $ but figure going this configuration maybe will be happy for longer. Better specs available but didn't really want to spend more so feel this is a good choice for me. Actually have 2 ordered...one for me and one for the designer that works for me.

I think that computer will be more than enough

Solid choice. Congrats on the purchase.

Thanks!

Order has been placed and will arrive later this month. Excited! We've been needing new laptops for awhile and these should last us several years. The XPS 17 I have now has served me well for 5+ years. It was top of the line at the time.

If you ever intend to add some extra software in the near future, especially some that takes up some space, you might consider a bigger SSD. I started with a 128 GB SSD on my desktop and fairly quickly outgrew that one and now have a 250 GB SSD. I think I would opt for a 512 GB SSD vs the 256 GB if it didn't kick the price up too much. Keep in mind that the published value (GB's) isn't the same as what you can actually put on an SSD (or HD) ... it is always less.

The 512 adds a few hundred. Other than Chief and Bluebeam, not much additional software. We're using cloud based accounting and crm. Thanks for the feedback.

Dianne --

I don't know if you plan to use your laptop for client presentations ... but, something I learned the hard way after I purchased a gaming laptop, is that they can be incredibly heavy. Especially the transformer. Also, the cord on the one I purchased (not the Alien - it was a Sager) is very short and continually falls out. So, it made it difficult to find suitable outlets (when I was at a client's) that would reach. I then ended up carrying an orange, heavy duty, colossal extension cord as well. Felt like I needed a moving van just to transport everything. lol

I ended up buying a lightweight laptop (MSI) that works perfectly for me. I now use the Sager to watch TV, although the sound is not great -- on either one. I take my MSI everywhere. I especially love the long, lightweight cord.

Just wanted to share about the portability issue.

The XPS I have now is heavy but transport it when needed with a rolling laptop bag. I checked out the AW17 R3 at Best Buy today. Different specs though. It's heavy but impressive. I've placed my order from Dell,so excited!

Thanks all for the input.

Good specs, reasonable price. My laptop has a NVIDIA 965 and is quite good.

 

DJP

Thank you David. This will be a good upgrade from what I'm using now.

Set the sheet display to on and move the sheet to where your floor plan is located. Depending on the size of your plan you may need to adjust the sheet size and printing scale in the sheet setup.

Try doing a save-as without the layout being open. We have been having similar issues as well and this seemed to clear up any layout confusion.

 

Start with the main plan that you want referenced in the layout, such as "proposed", and have this linked to the layout. After your as-built drawings are complete in this plan, do a save-as and name "as-built" - do this with the layout closed. This way you are always working in the proposed plan file, which is linked to the layout file.

Is the background in Autocad black? If so change it to white.

We've updated one of our 2 laptops to this driver yesterday. Cleaned all nvidia stuff off then did custom install with only the video driver selected. So far so good.

Well, like other ideas, this worked for a day. This morning the card / driver is not working properly. There are no problems with X8 on our identical laptop that driver 362.00 was never updated. 

The latest test we have tried is this: delete and remove all Nvidia items. Then clean install of the recently released nvidia driver 364.72 but using custom install. Only check the video driver. Unless you're a gamer the other stuff is not needed. I've said this before....so far so good. I'll post an update tomorrow as well.

 

Well, like other ideas, this worked for a day. This morning the card / driver is not working properly. There are no problems with X8 on our identical laptop that driver 362.00 was never updated. 

We've updated one of our 2 laptops to this driver yesterday. Cleaned all nvidia stuff off then did custom install with only the video driver selected. So far so good.

The latest test we have tried is this: delete and remove all Nvidia items. Then clean install of the recently released nvidia driver 364.72 but using custom install. Only check the video driver. Unless you're a gamer the other stuff is not needed. I've said this before....so far so good. I'll post an update tomorrow as well.

Just roll-back the driver. It is unlikely that there is anything in the new driver that would be of benefit anyways. Most of these updates are for special game related functions. You can always read the release notes to confirm.

 

Graham

We've tried that but it seems updating to 364.47 / 51 did something damaging to the video card or changed a setting.

Follow up to the possible fix to Nvidia driver issues by disabling the Virtual Audio Devise through windows device manager. This worked only temporarily with the newest Nvidia video driver 364.51 . So we did a clean removal and installed 362.00 and disabled audio device. This worked....for only a couple of days. Back to 3d issues with Chief.

These problems are only on one of our laptops, which both are identical except on one the Nvidia driver was never updated to 364.47 or 364.51. The laptop that was not updated with the bad drivers is not having any issues.

 

To the OP, I was hoping I had found a solution to your issues as well as ours. The idea regarding the audio device came from the GeForce forums.

Yes to disabling the nvidia audio driver in the Windows device manager.

What driver do you have installed? Our laptops have a GeForce 555m card. If you have driver 362.00 keep it. If you have a newer driver try disabling Nvidia audio drivers through device manager. This worked, so far, with issues on our laptop that has graphics driver 364.51. Just implemented this earlier today so hope it stays fixed. Also hopes this helps you.

I updated my NVidia to the 364.47 on the 7th and everything was fine.  Then I did a Chief update the yesterday...still fine.  Started my computer up today and when I open up any 3D view, chief crashes.  I removed the NVidia update to the previous version and updated to the 364.51 version, both crashing when I open a 3D view.  

I'll do save as for different versions of a project. I was referring to modifications to my template plan and layout files.