Steve_Nyhof

Going back to the original poster @Michael_Gia was wanting to bring attention to. I have been messing with the Project Manager for a number of weeks now and I am liking it a lot. However, it seems there could be a better backup system that makes storing and sharing files easier. Please check it out and let me know you thoughts...

@KacyRSC Rene is correct on only dealing with a plan file if you want, but I am also working with the Project Manager and really like it a lot. However, the very thing you are looking to do is what I am trying to bring attention to... Check it out and support this and/or offer some ideas.

Check this post out and reply to get some momentum... It is actually very nice, but needs this backup system...

The one thing I just found out is that if you have a folder added to a Project, that folder remains with the Exported Project. When you import that Project later into the PM, it already has the same folder applied. That is very nice!

Reach out to support, but I ran into something similar and they helped me delete some residual files that once deleted and the software removed, reboot and start fresh.

Now that X17 is out, I want to bring this topic up to a larger audience. Sorry it is a bit lengthy, but read it through carefully as this is very important if you want a more common way to backup your Projects. If you want to see a video where I go over this click the link below... https://my-plan.stevenyhofdesigns.com/v/Hid8hQZgCivkhlZPBQft I would like to preface this post by stating that I love Chief, and use it every day to make a living. Even with its shortcomings and having to create work-arounds to do things, it is still an increasable piece of software. We lose sight of this now and then when we get caught up in something that is failing or frustrating to figure out. I believe the current Project Manager and backup system falls short of what we need as users to operate within this new X17 management system effectively. I also want to encourage you, the reader of this post, if you are an avid user of Chief and want to see it improve, then do not be silent on this topic. Share your thoughts and ask some questions. I do not claim I fully understand how all the moving parts work, and what I am proposing may not be the solution. But I am hoping that this post will generate some conversation that convinces Chief to take a closer look at what we now have and what is missing that will change how we interact with the new Project Browser that manages our Projects. PM = Project Manager or the Project Browser CP = .caproj - The extension used on Exported Projects HD = Hard Drive or Local Disk CS - Cloud Service or Online Backup Software BS - Chiefs built in Backup System I want to share what I understand about the PM to this point... Autosaving the Projects: As you are working within the PM and saving your work, the .plan and .layout files (I believe other file types) are also being saved to your HD. Therefore, your work is being saved to disk, but it is not backed up to a CS. Chiefs Backup System: Built into the new X17 PM is a new BS. This backup system, backs up your entire system, your toolbars, hotkeys, user library, etc. and the PM Projects. Each time the BS is run, typically in the evening and currently with Chief software running, it produces a .zip file with a date and name stored in a default system folder or a folder of your choice. Based on my approximate 20 projects, I am exporting close to 5GBs with this one zip file. The backup file contains your Projects that you can access by opening the file. If you want to make sure you are backing up your work to a CS you need to select the root folder of these ever growing BS files. If you are like me, I want to make sure that my work is backed up on a CS each night in case of HD failure in any way. It does not take extensive math skills to know how quickly you will be increasing your storage both on your HD and with the CS as your projects grow. This to me in unsustainable nor practical. To say it differently, I do not need to backup my user library everyday. I have it manually exported to my HD where it is backed up by my CS. My CS checks my library files to see if anything changed (a new export) and backs it up if changed. I want to add that there is a number of backups that you can set (called Retention) before the system will remove the oldest backups. So it is not as though the storage will continue to grow, but with a retention, it also means that the Projects that have been saved in this backup file, that you may want to access later, will in time be deleted from your HD. Personal Side Note: I am using the PM for only the work I am working on to keep my projects manageable. Meaning, at the moment, I am Exporting my projects manually that are being worked on and completed so they are backed up to my HD and CS. I delete the Projects from the PM that I no longer am working on. This helps keep the file size of the BS file lower. But this is the very reason I am bringing this subject up. The current BS is not a solution for a daily backup system. .caproj file type and Exporting Projects: The .caproj (CP) file is a renamed .zip file extension. It is a zipped file that contains all your project files, your .plan, .layout, and other file types you use within the project, within the PM. I have opted to manually Export my project(s) as stated above that I work on each day to my HD so that my CS can backup these files. The CP is a self contained file that also includes your assets. (See below). Because it is a single file, it can be treaded like any software file. Like your .plan and .layout is now treaded, saved to your HD and backed up and shared with your colleagues over your CS. The Exported Project file with the extension of .caproj is in my mind the new Chief file type. This does not mean that you cannot export a single .plan or .layout, you can and for various reasons you will. But I am bringing attention to a shortcoming in the PM that I want Chief to consider. Assets: Assets are now very intuitive in X17. I am bringing this up only so that others may expound on this topic within this topic. Proposed "Project Backup" System: The BS has a lot of power in being able to transfer an entire Chief eco system containing your toolbars, hotkeys, libraires, projects, etc.. I am not suggesting that this be replaced as I also know that it is a part of a Chief cloud backup and sharing system still being developed. The BS is also very cool as I in one step backed up from my Desktop everything, and Restored it to my Laptop - BOOM! Now both systems are exactly the same. But would I do it again? Not if I am making changes to projects on both computers? Nor am I interested in running a large backup just to work on a project on another computer. I would need to be on top of this each time I sat down by the next computer. Thus the reason for this post. What I am proposing is an additional backup system for Projects themselves to a specified local folder on your HD. These Project Files, because they are a self contained file type (.caproj) can be treaded SIMILAR to a typical SAVED file, like .plan. A backup of these Project files would be a copy of the files that are currently in the PM and saved within the Chief software. That is why I say this would be SIMILAR to a SAVED file. In X16, a .plan file would be opened and saved to your HD in a specific folder. Saving this .plan file while working in Chief, is in fact, overwriting the .plan file saved on your HD. With each save the .plan is updated with the new data. In X17, the PM is storing your plans in a format called, Projects, and saved to your HD within the control of the Chief software. Meaning, in this current state, the file you are working on within the PM is not currently accessible in a folder that you control. Only through the BS can you gain access through a ZIP file, and to your Projects. If you are sophisticated in a higher understanding of backup software you might be able to automatically dig into this ZIP file and extract your projects. Or do it manually. But that again is not practical, nor typical file organization. WHY are we being asked to give up our very common control over our work? The simple answer is that Chief has built a system that is designed to prevent the breaking of links and assets. This is a good thing as the current X16 backup plan is still often missing assets or has broken links between the .plan and .layout. All previous version of Chief has had this problem and caused a lot of headache for Chief and its users. If you are wondering why this big change in X17, this is why? But it has come with a side effect I am trying to bring attention to. The "Project Backup" system would be an additional backup system with Chief that can run each night (preferably without Chief software being open), saving our projects to our HD so that our CS can backup these Projects to be stored and/or shared with a team. There are some details about the options of this backup I have not sorted out, but I think the backup needs to OVERWRITE the previous backed up Projects so that they are always current, or the latest data, just like a saved file OVERWRITES itself on our HD so it has the current and latest data. Just as a .plan saved file is shared now with another computer, it is a copy of the .plan file still on disk. Therefore, just like a saved file, an Exported Project file (.caproj) is made a copy that can be shared, and therefore must also overwrite the original after it is worked on, so that the original again contains the latest data. We are responsible for this process as we have been. Through a process of backing up each evening our Project files, we can be confident that our work is saved, backed up locally and within our CS, and available to be accessed and shared as we have done for years. NOTE: If the project is now saved to disk and backed up to our CS, we can then also DELETE it from the PM. We do not need to store our completed Projects within the PM if we chose and want to make the PM more manageable. But this Project Backup system needs to operate so that this can be an automated process that we can be confident is saving our work each day to our HD, so that our CS can also run each day. As you have read, there are some moving parts here that need to be understood to operate in a team environment or even a single user that jumps between computers. Syncing: A brief note on syncing. I use a CS called IDrive. It can do versioning so I can always go back to a previously saved file if I need to access something within an older drawing. But I also use Google Drive and Syncing because when I move between my desktop and laptop, I can download this project file to the computer I am working on and Import it into the PM, make my changes, and then Export it back to the main folder I took it from, which then again syncs the file, overwriting that the original file so that it is now current with the latest data. Please share your thoughts and questions

We like beating dead horses now and then. I don't find this out of the norm for Chief forum discussions... they head south quite often

I have used AI last year a bit trying to get one of my models to have landscaping. I guess that is what is being discussed here. AI has come a long way in a year, but it still fails. One thing I was enjoying was how it would produce fun results for alternatives of the model image and text entered. But I finally walked away because that is all it ever was for me, fun. @robdyck said a lot in his last comment about landscape blocks, doing the work, etc.. I wouldn't trade my years of experience for something or someone else doing my job. I am afraid that the new generation will be depending on AI to produce their work. I guess it can just be another tool, but no thank you, I am enjoying figuring out the design as I move along. I don't mean to show off by showing this (maybe a little), but I feel like I have really challenged myself and accomplished something fun for the client. Is that a fun lake house or what? And I couldn't image drawing it with any other software.

I think some of us, including myself, see the forum at times like an evening, sitting around a camp fire and shooting the bull. Some times we just like talking for talking sake For me, I was big into marketing and pushing all my social networks, until I got tired of speaking to the choir. The only thing I have now is the Chief forum and I have enjoyed being a part of it now for a number of years. I have more fun on it if I envision chatting around a camp fire

Chris can speak for himself, but I am guessing he loves the look, as I do, the AI is producing in general You have to have a new and very nice Mac to pull off rendering in Chief.

Make sure to give it a +1 so Chief knows more and more people want to see something updated. Thank you

Very nice! It is nice to see the process. Thank you for sharing!!

Hi Rene, What AI did you use? I know more and more AI image apps have masking so that would be the thing to use.

Maybe there are some AI apps that may be able to, but 6 months ago I messed with a number of them trying to get them to do landscaping and they often also mess with the house. You might be able to get AI to generate a background image only with some prompts that could work. I was trying to create an image out of Chief and put it into AI to generate landscaping and a background. Add an AI described background to the Chief model and I think that could work. Might have to mess with that.

Very nice. Photoshop is pretty straight forward. I do like the idea of the extended terrain. That is a nice touch to blend in with a distant background. Great work!