HamlinBC

Rich, Keep us posted on this... I'm looking at getting one too, to replace my Quadro 2000, just as a test to help troubleshoot some things.

Might have something to do with the fact that the main layer of that wall type is 0"... Not sure though...is there any reason why you wouldn't just make the wall 1 layer only at 4 1/2" thick?

Draw an 8' doorway and suppress the interior casing. Then copy and paste+hold, and change one of the doorways to a hinged glass door. Change the height of the glass door to 7' tall. In plan view, you'll never notice a difference.

Is there a similar molding in a different catalog that you could use instead?... Something with a smaller face count?... Either that, or you could draw the molding profile and add it to the library?...or am I missing something?

Thanks, Doug. It's pretty awesome that you guys are taking the time to help us out on this... We're having our IT people look into the network side, and like I said above we're even considering getting gaming cards (for the hardware side). One thing is for sure, we're not afraid to throw some money at our technology to get things running smoothly. We know it's a vital part of our business to have things operating as they should. We'll post updates for all, once we get some results.

Thanks, Bill. Yeah, I handle a lot of the easier IT tasks. I'm basically a power user. I know enough to get me in trouble. I prefer hardware over networking, but I'm learning... Our IT people are going to look into the network side of it, and see if there's something amiss...I'll keep everyone posted.

Hmmm...ok. We don't have any issues with any of our other programs, but if you insist...

I just had it lock up again... I clicked file>open, was navigating to the correct folder, and it just locked up randomly. Hard to post a plan or picture...

I still use Thea (when I have free time)... I haven't learned Chief's rendering software mostly because I haven't LOVED the results produced. Granted, they look waaaay better then they used to. I use Chief for drawing houses, and getting decent looking 3D NPR (non-photorealistic) shots. When I want something photorealistic, I export and use a software that specializes in that. Typically my workflow is export a .3ds file from Chief. Import into Sketchup, and make any necessary tweaks to textures, lighting, sun, etc... Then from there, there's a Thea exporter you can buy, and it converts everything from Sketchup to the proper file for Thea to read. Once imported into Thea, then I fine tune textures, lighting, sun, etc... and create my final image. If you want a "free" version of Thea, the same people that made that also started off with a program called Kerkythea. I used that before Thea came out, and it works very well. Not as intuitive as Thea, but still a great renderer. Then there's V-Ray, Mental Ray, Maxwell, some people here use Lumion, on-and-on-and-on... You just have to do a little research and find out how "in depth" you want to get.

Bill, I'm very familiar with building computers, I've built all of my own computers at home. I was more or less hoping to use what I have existing on my work computer. I'll have to dig and see what size PS it has... I think the one I got at home is a Rosewill 1000w. I wanted something I wouldn't have to buy new for a looooong time. It's worked great so far. The reason we've always used Quadros is because way back in the single digit versions of Chief we asked them what would be recommended, and that's what they told us. We have been reluctant to switch...I don't know why...just have been. Back on track though...I personally had one random lockup last Friday when I just clicked on the "File" button. I don't even remember what I was doing.

Thanks Bill... If we decide to move towards gaming video cards, I'll have to research a good middle of the road card to put into our PC's that don't do heavy drafting. At home I have a 580 Ti, and it seems pretty nice. Maybe something like that will work for them... My only concern is the size and power required to run the 780 Ti...it's a beast...in all aspects.

Also, we're contemplating getting a GTX 780 Ti to try out. We've been Quadro users since way back in version...I don't know...single digits. The plus side is...if we don't like it, I'll just buy it for my own personal computer

Thanks Dan...I will have to update the video card drivers for all users and see if that helps. Also, just for clarity, we're all running Windows 7.

Doug, Thanks for helping look into this matter for us. The weird thing is that X5 didn't have a single glitch...now with X6, we have these problems. This is the main reason why I haven't diagnosed our system (or asked our IT company to)...

We're all running 64-bit versions of Chief... It was just a basic garage, but here's the plan. Or do you have someone you'd rather have me email it to? Z.zip

The saga continues... A user just sent me the attached picture. He had it lock up while trying to export a .dwg to send to truss quotes. When he closes Chief, and reopens the same plan, and does the same operation, it works fine.

The other weird thing is that it's completely and totally random in every way. Users, computers, times, plans, what's being done in the program, etc... I know that makes it hard to troubleshoot, but I don't know what else to say. It's just kind of what's happening. I will say that with the newest update I've had fewer lockups, but I'm still getting random reports from users. I'll keep you posted with what's going on...

Doug, The thing that is the most "alarming" is that we didn't have a single issue with X5. In fact, it ran the best out of any of the Chief's to date (my opinion). As soon as we installed X6, we started having lockup issues... That's the only reason why I don't think it's our end...but I've been wrong before...once

And this is an email I received this morning from a user: I don't know if he's installed the latest update or not...

Ok...I have a post in to Tech. Support, and Leanne is patiently dealing with me. I'm just curious if anyone else has been having totally random lockups with X6. By totally random I mean it happens on all of the computers at our store (mine is the most current with a 3.4ghz i7, 32gb of RAM, and nVidia Quadro 2000). Not all of the stations are this supped up, but they all meet or exceed the minimum system requirements. Also, it happens at completely random times. If you go to print, it'll lockup, if you go to open a new plan, it'll lockup, if you are working and want to draw a wall or window or door or CAD, it'll lockup. It's not on every plan, and it's not all the time. Sometimes I'll be working on a plan, and it works great!...I'll go to open it the next day to print or make changes, and it locks up. Leanne suggests that it might be due to the fact that we're working off servers...but we've been working off servers for as long as I've been here (7 years). It's very hard, and problematic for 10 users (8 project managers and 2 drafters) to copy a file down to the local harddrive, make changes and re-copy it back to the server. Is anyone else having issues?...