John_Charles

yes I get both system slow downs and tabs hanging.... and I've already played around with virtual memory.... I'm actually not using Chrome at the moment as it got pretty bad at taking resources and we've found Firefox better over the last year or so... ha ha... yes have had MANY conversations with the wife (as has my son) and we've pointed out the realities of having so many tabs going, but in fairness to her, we SO OFTEN find (as builders) a product has come in as defective/damaged/missing components from transport and the supplier is out of stock/wants the damaged product returned/ we have to find someone local to repair it and she has to overcome supply chain issues to locate an alternative / other brand complete re-selection that hopefully matches set outs (usually doesn't) whilst reviewing specs, availability, dimensions, transport, etc or doesn't.... in this process book marking and saving tabs takes a back seat to being tenacious and finding a solution to yet another supply chain issue (but that's another story... ) and that's without her opening tab after tab of property either in the MLS or the Trulia's (resource vacuum) of the world either for sale or being sold (as we buy and sell our own projects)....so yes... I get her approach.... I agree, motherboard swap is the key and it's led me down the replacement rabbit hole.... I've actually installed CPU-Z on each machine to get the complete specs on each machine so have found the mainboard model numbers, looked them up and found the hardware limits for the boards are actually 32Gb eg HP Rother -Memory upgrade information Dual channel (1 DIMM per channel) memory architecture Two DDR4 UDIMM (288-pin) sockets Supports PC4-21300 (DDR4-2666) Supports 8 GB and 16 GB DDR4 UDIMMs Supports up to 4 GB on 32-bit systems note: 32-bit systems cannot address a full 4.0 GB of memory. Supports up to 32 GB (unbuffered) with two 16 GB DIMMs on 64-bit computers note: Maximum memory shown reflects the capability of the hardware and can be limited further in the operating system. So apparently I'm SOL on the RAM upgrade unless the MB comes out... I saw on a an old thread someone had said they buy their computers from a particular website and I both have no idea on reputable (configurable) brands other than the big ones or where to go next in finding and building a system.... I'd be interested in something like your main laptop but as a tower....

thanks RR... yes, we are on Win 11... and as I said above we've already tried tab suspenders etc. It's interesting that browsers are using more and more ram to serve a web page... this page alone with my posts and yours takes 200+ Mb of Ram, and my wife likes to have LOTS open (just how she works)... some Amazon ones take 400+Mb on their own. We've tried Edge, Firefox and Chrome and found that Chrome is the biggest resource hog when we are browsing although that also depends a lot on what extensions are active and what the specific task is... I know it goes in stages every few years and we generally switch around looking for a light weight browser from time to time... That said, my wife (despite discussions) just prefers to work with multiple tabs open as she multi tasks a lot so I don't see much option to do anything other than increase RAM or find a way to resource memory better than I'm already doing. RE the video card, I figured if I'm going to have to spend $1k plus on a card, as well as finding a solution to the RAM I might as well buy another one and be good to go for another few years... although I haven't looked into a SSD for a HP motherboard (great suggestion as I did it to an old mac years ago and hadn't thought of it for the HP's)... and that may be the issue for the lag as I have Chief located on my C: drive (which is almost full) and my work files in dropbox which is on a partitioned (D:) drive

Hello It's time for a new desktop computer for both myself and my wife as we work what we have pretty hard and I'm seeking suggestions. As I've seen other posters ask what is needed for the computer to do, I've detailed that below. Bit of quick background on what we have... I have an HP Omen i7 9700 3.00 Ghz running 32Gb DDR4 and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX1660 Ti 6Gb... (it's about 4 yrs old). My wife has an HP i5 9400 2.900Ghz running 24Gb DDR4 (about 3 years old). We both have two Asus 27" VP278QG monitors (one with HDMI cable and the other with VGA cable due to outputs). As we are both developers, builders and designers, we tend to have a LOT of browser tabs open during work (my wife can have 300+ tabs open quite easily) and some of the web sites she frequents when we are either buying/selling our projects and then specifying the fixtures and fittings are RAM hungry. We've tried a number of solutions re resource management of RAM such as tab closers/suspenders but some websites alone with only 1 or 2 tabs open consume up to 1Gb of Ram, and then when she uses several hundred it gets SLOOOOOWWWW. My use of browsers is less frequent and I've gotten by with minimizing but do tend to go down a rabbit hole when looking for a specific product to achieve what I want on a build, and when I do so Chief gets slow or I have to completely walk away for a ray trace.... I'm finding as I have large (full house) Chief Files there is often about a 1-2 second lag on clicking something and it opening/changing. That said, as we mostly do our own projects I am not doing as many drawing projects as others here who do it full time as I'm then off actually doing the build. I looked into upgrading our Ram on both machines with my wife being a mutli tasker (and she prefers switching between multiple windows of browsers each with anything up to 50 tabs each) and although both the i5 and i7 support up to 128Gb of Ram, the motherboards in both of our computers only support 32Gb... so we are already maxed out.... Which brings me to my question... I have tended to buy a pre built unit from a reputable store and brand with a focus on the specs I need but as I have found out, they generally don't give you the ability to later upgrade RAM and video card to your specific needs or as eg Chief Architect gets hungrier several years and versions later. I looked online at some no-name (to me) brands available from Amazon then went down the rabbit hole of numerous bad reviews on this brand failing vs that brand last time and in the end just plumped for the HP. Problem is, the HP is reliable but unless I go down the replacing motherboard route for each computer, we are at our limit on daily usage. Not as much a problem for me if I stay away from ray tracing but really an issue for my wife. If I stay with a brand from eg a Best Buy it gets up to the $4-5K mark real quick so I'd like to get the best bang for my buck... So, can anyone suggest a reputable web site or brand that I can configure high RAM (thinking in the range of 64Gb at least) and video cards with motherboards that allow future expansion? My budget is typically up to $4k for my machine as its' the CA workhorse and up to $2.5K for my wife but ideally I'd like it less than that if possible (don't we all?) Thanks.....

Hey Rene Thank you very much for taking the time to respond.... From the image here you can see there are multiple cabinets and this is only one section hence why I was looking for universal solutions rather than reset defaults.... Looks like I'll have to spend the time to tweak it manually The fillets I mentioned are shown with red arrows.... (and if you look closely you will see I manually made the top one with slots to allow for ventilation for the integrated fridge)... Thanks for the doors layers tip! All of the cabinetmakers I've dealt with over the years show knobs and pulls in plan views (inc in other markets with metric) so I'm trying to figure out how... RE the plumbing, I've tried to give set out dimensions on plans, etc yet the cabinetmakers all allow for a pony wall..... trying to get around them delivering this.... Thanks....

Hi All I've designed the basic cabinetry layouts for an entire house we are redeveloping that my wife (the make it 'work' how she wants it quality controller ) has now gone through and altered, and there are specific items that I want to update throughout the plan. One of the items we have to address seems to be because the cabinetmakers cannot get their heads around the negative detail we wanted between the upper drawers/doors and the countertops.... and they draw their own construction plans completely ignoring it.... so I either have to give up and we do it as a note and site variation with the countertop installers or find a way to include greater detail in the drawings ie do 'production' style drawings.... (which we've done previously in other software)... So, I'm trying to provide greater detail on my existing cabinetry drawings without having to edit each and every item, (as a lot of them are not dynamic) to give to our cabinetmakers... The style of cabinetry is European ie full face cover of drawer fronts and doors with small separations and I'm on X14. Can anyone suggest the best way to; universally (eg between a base cabinet that has either drawers and doors or another with just drawers) changing and /or deleting the horizontal and vertical separation universally changing the default drawer heights eg for 3 drawer base cabinet having a smaller top and equal bottom drawers vs a drawer with a door below? showing doors open in plan view in anything besides a dotted outline showing cabinet pulls in plan view showing and placing fillets between the top of cabinets and ceiling/sides in elevations where eg door handles need to be allowed for instead of using a re-profiled flat crown molding recessed/side panel modified universally label individual sections of an eg base cabinet with 3 drawers in elevation with a label to each drawer how to locate /show waste and water locations and mounting details when we are not building a pony wall for a deep and long island bench with base cabinets to front and rear (under counter).... we run into so many issues between the plumbers 'and how they always do it' and what we are trying to achieve eg not use the entire under sink space for plumbing spaghetti and subsequent massive cut outs in the back of cabinetry I've looked into using style pallets and in truth I've never done any so would need to find a video or tutorial on how to create one (I've watched how the preloaded one are applied) and my efforts at changing defaults because of the varying types have been unsuccessful... Any advice is much appreciated... Thank you!!

Hi I have a couple of wet areas that are quite large so want to step the foundation down to allow for the screed and adjust the fall/slope. I have usually taken the path of letting the engineer detail what is needed but would like to know the best way to achieve this in the foundation plan that I send to him... I have tried lowering the floor level in the bathrooms concerned but a cross section looks hideous.... Can anyone point me to a video or tutorial that shows the best way? Thanks

I'd just create a cricket to the edge of the roof line (similar to what Alchemyjim has shown) then a valley pan so that it overflows down the roof. Keeps it concealed and works like any other valley.....

Why don't you just add an insulation layer underneath your sheathing in the wall definition you are using?

It depends a bit on the door system you are using as I've used a couple of different types.... For eg full height floor to ceiling doors I usually place a cabinet partition where the external surface is, work out my hardware clearance and then either draw my cabinets without doors to the inner dimensions (then draw doors manually) or fiddle with a negative value on the reveal to have them showing doors...

A simple way would be just build a half wall in the material/height/width you need and then just put a pass through to create a cut out. Then create the panel blades as a 3D solid, locate 1 and then multiple copy them in the dimensions you want. Here is a rough up that only took a couple of minutes with the file attached.... Boundary Wall.plan

I did a fence not unlike that although my columns were more detailed and my rails were made up of various thicknesses and materials.... I created a column in Sketchup, imported it and placed them at the panel width locations I wanted, then did the same with the rail panels. By creating them in Sketchup I was able to manipulate them in CA as I wanted. It meant I had to create the gate etc but just took a bit of fiddling around..... I've done the same with creating 3D solids by again creating it in sections and then placing/sizing as I wanted.... I'm sure others here have a better way....

Aaaahh.... you're right..... that's a really basic error on my part.... thanks for that.... (note to self, don't post queries when drawing late at night)

I've renewed my SSA as it was clear there was little choice.... that said, I'm part way through reviewing Softplan at present, as although it has similarities (even down to the different view modes eg clay), it has a couple of things that in my opinion CA is just crying out for. CAVEAT - I'm not an expert like some of you here so whilst I am sure there is a workaround for each thing I mention below, so far I'm seeing a drawing and detail bias in SP as opposed to what I see CA doing, which appears to be a rendering and appearance bias. Some examples are; SP has the ability to really edit elevations and sections. You can choose between Model mode or Annotation mode. This means you can actually edit (from what I am experimenting with at present) the model itself while viewing a section. The sections show far more detail and you aren't drawing CAD lines to get a measurement to snap to an item. For me, sections are a major weakness of CA. Little items such as SP automatically mulls windows or doors placed near each other with auto beam updates etc. The SP preloaded library is massive, easier to view and has preloaded styles to select from... eg cabinet bases - you can choose from a 3 drawer base to a single drawer with doors as you insert a base. With a few extra clicks you have the cabinetry configured as you lay it out rather than individually going back and designing it afterwards. Same thing applies with simple things such as building feature columns from a large selection of pre loaded items that have the ability to be manipulated in all sorts of ways, as opposed to us creating 3D solids ourselves or importing a sketchup model. Has an interesting approach to the room specification, in that it allows you to pre load your styles, colors, materials and details on a room by room basis at any time though the design process. This means 1 click auto loads your preferences for base boards, wall trim or whatever you want in that room. As you do that it automatically populates your electrical for you to refine later in your electrical layout. Framing, beams and truss manipulation appears to be superior from what I can see so far. Overall, the interface of CA is far superior IMO, the SP is weaker in its' PBR and documentation manipulation and whether it is because I'm familiar with CA and it's quirks means I'm biased still towards CA, it's still my preference..... BUT.... I really wish CA would take a long hard look at some of these things as it appears to me SP is not far from catching and then overhauling CA.... Just my 0.2c....

Hi All I'm just roughing out a basic layout on some cabinetry before I get into the detail, and while I'm doing the design I have the camera view going at the same time as an elevation..... I've just noticed the elevation shows the cabinet partitions stopping at the bottom of a central make up cabinet whilst the camera view shows it as I specified it (ie height above floor etc).. Can anyone tell me why this is the case? (X14).... Both are live at the same time.... Thanks

I'm totally ok with up and down votes, but with VISIBILITY of who it is.... The anonymity allows some ridiculous down votes.... I mean WHAT is wrong with the 1st post on this thread that someone does a down vote?

Having built in both metric and imperial markets, when I first started working in imperial I just did conversions as a decimal.... ie I'd put in 180mm which became 7.08 inches or on plan 7 1/16th inches.... That lasted all of 2 days on site with my framers looking at me weird......lol....

I'm actually using a couple of LVL's for that and framing everything else off of that. What is kind of bugging me is that I can't figure out a way to actually draw it in this software... I might be wrong (as there may be a way to do this that I don't know yet) but the focus on PBR at the expense of eg framing a dropped down ceiling so I can work with a clean section seems a bit odd....

Thanks Gene. I had a look at that one and it's used soffits. I guess I am going to have to figure out how to do manual framing from scratch....

Here is what I'm building (it's my own project so I know how I'm building it, I just want to draw it better)

I tried that, but it doesn't allow for the recessed face in the upper area....

No Actually I'm not.....

Hello I have a query as to the best approach to create a dropped ceiling within a large room. I have designed a 13' high room that will have the kitchen area within it, and the kitchen ceiling is going to be approx 9' high, with a 6" deep coffer and the face of the dropped ceiling recessed to allow for a light trough to the front. In effect, it's a shaped 4' high box hanging from the ceiling. The quick and dirty way I did it was to create a couple of soffits that formed the outline to get the shape etc of what I wanted and it all works fine. The problems I have, are that when I do a section, the individual soffit outlines are showing and there is no framing to work with. I guess I could edit the soffits and create one complete soffit, or use a series of ceiling planes to create what I want but I want to show framing and ducting etc.... I also tried creating a room within but that messed my overall roof line as it intersects with external walls overhead (so I scrapped that) Can anyone here suggest a better approach or way to generate framing and clean cross sections? Thanks

You know one thing CA could do is make the up/down votes visible as to who made them.... ie If you're gonna down vote someone, be UP FRONT about it and not be able to hide behind an anonymous vote.... as I suspect there are one or two precious people here.............. either that or just eliminate them in favor of reporting a post.....

And sure enough.... there really are some juvenile people in this world....

I understand the logic behind wanting to force regular users into a subscription model.... it's cashflow and a lower barrier for entry for new users.... Adobe did it, Microsoft did it.... I'm not a fan of it though which is why I have the last standalone versions of Office and CS. With CA, you are (with the SSA carrot and update price stick) locked into a choice that I'm not overly comfortable with..... I moved over from AutoSketch and started with buying X9, also bought X11 outright and have upgraded along the way with SSA... Some of the updates are welcome but the whole PBR engine change has also placed people (me anyway) in the position that I need to seriously upgrade my desktop as it doesn't even do the basic renders anymore. 3 Years ago I bought a computer with a GeForce 1660Ti video card that was totally ok with most of the updates until they changed the rendering engine. Now I can't even do a basic render anymore (this image is a simple render using default interior settings after TWO HOURS).... It's such a poor quality that I don't even bother now and I can't do the PBR as my card isn't within min specs... So, I started looking into the cost of the lastest cards (around $1000) a couple of months ago based on the requirements being at least an RTX 3030. I figured then that I may as well upgrade the whole computer which meant around $4k..... but found a few deals around $3k for what I wanted, only to find the minimum specs have stepped up again so soon it's back to the start! It's gone from a 3030 to a 3060 and now a 3080 all within a very short period of time. CA in my opinion needs to figure out if they want to be a twinmotion clone or an architectural software provider. Which goes back to my conundrum.... I was perfectly happy with the software for my needs and using twinmotion IF I needed a higher quality render.... If we are locked into a SSA as the only way to get updates then the CA changes also affect the hardware needed to run it as CA appear to be in a steep rendering development curve that I for one don't really want to be part of. Don't get me wrong, I have no issue updating my desktop as when I do I go at our near top of the specs (I only draw my own projects and a select number of clients so it's not my primary means of earning an income)..... but I'm uneasy at the speed at which the minimum requirements keep changing and it no longer does even a basic render...... My point here is that the pace of (rendering) change at the expense of actual productive requests/features by full time members here is seriously giving me pause for thought..... Thanks