ValleyGuy

LiDar does a pretty good job of measuring the window openings as well as the position from the floor and ceiling. If you click on the window, look for the information icon below it to open up the window specifications and you can see the sizes there. Wall thickness adjustment has become part of my workflow. Default wall thickness is 4-1/2", so adjusting the exterior walls right off the hop then seeking out the thicker interior walls comes next. I believe LiDar looks at surfaces and the wall thickness comes from the app. LiDar can't determine exterior wall thickness either. I just did a double framed exterior wall house and the app just uses the default 4.5" thickness... not at all what the exterior dimensions were. I like the screen real estate of the iPad and not sure that I would like using it on the smaller iPhone screen, as well as not having the pencil pro to work with. The laser needs to be compatible with the app. My Bosch is blue tooth, but not compatible with the app. This is what Chief has in the knowledge base... I'm not sure if there is maybe a thread from other users that found compatible units.

You will most likely need to put two breaks in the RH roof and make the eve have a gutter that runs back toward the front door wall - most likely terminating under the gutter above the front door.

No no the As-Built came up with all different numbers. The CA plan was basically all for show; show the customer that a new garage would fit on the lot, and to make a 3D render to show the final design. Nothing on the interior was in play for the addition, so I didn't actually take any interior measurements beyond checking a couple in the big open room. I didn't draft any interior walls in X18 but the short little one separating the entry near the demo part (and it doesn't change either). The exterior dimensions, soffit height and roof pitch were really all that I needed to model and align the new addition properly. Taking quick measurements from the outside corners to the window centres will suffice on this one, I'm not putting any existing window measurements in the drawings. Looking back in the app, I do see that window sizes appear pretty much all within +/- 1" or so of comparison windows. I have no idea what the actual sizes are for comparison. Quick and dirty with very little accuracy was all that was needed..... and the app handled it with ease lol.... I had a house plan, design time with the customer and the site visit was all wrapped up under and hour and a half. On a side note, I have since acquired the original house plans and may ask to take further measurements to do an actual comparison to see about accuracy at a later time. Original plans vs physically built vs CA As-Built scan. I'll let you know if I can get back in to laser a few walls.

Great timing, I am working on an addition and using it right now. I am still fine tuning my logistics, but here is a quick run down of how well it works and how accurate it is: - The Scan, this works very well to get the base floor plan. Hard to scan stuffed closets and little bumps in the wall are usually made into straight walls. Different ceiling heights aren't registered very well. There are all of the regular things that LiDar doesn't pick up, soffits, posts, beams,... and the CA app does not include anything other than walls (like cabinets, furniture, etc), - these are a manual added in item, in the CA app- it would be a text note. - Fenestration Options, The As-Built app is to be operated on a hand held device so there is only so much one can expect as far as styles of doors and windows. The fenestrations are in very accurate positions as they are measured by the LiDar, but you will not be able to chose casements vs double hung vs fixed, or patio door vs full glass vs 1/2 glass doors... nor will the floor plan show double or triple windows and how they are divided up - only a single opening. - Accuracy, As there are varying degrees of accuracy needed, there isn't a yes or no answer here. Both the CA app and the LiDar have their limitations. Most walls and fenestrations are within a couple of inches, some are exact. I'm not sure how exact the lumber and the carpenters that shape it are in your area, but the LiDar and the CA app assume that walls, windows, and doors are plumb, level, and all rooms are built square. Now the good stuff: - CA has done a good job working out a bunch of wrinkles from the original launch. The app works pretty well now. - You are able to manually adjust the position as well as draw in additional walls, windows and doors. Plus adjust their sizes. - Labels and text is available - 3D views are minimal but is nice for the customer wow factor after only 5 mins of effort to scan The As-Built app makes a really good floor plan that is very accurate to a standard that is usually acceptable for most things. I usually use the LiDar measurements for a starting floor plan and combine the CA As-Built app with an iPad native Free Form app (already on my iPad) as well as an inexpensive app called Morpholio Trace. The latter two help with the details that are not easily implemented on the As-Built app. The CA app isn't a magic pill that just does everything with a push of a button but it has helped me to move from paper to digital. I also don't use the app to dump into X18 to automatically built, but rather to supply the basis of which I refer to when I draft - like a plan swiped off the web, but has all the measurements. I still use a laser and tape to measure the tight tolerance areas as well as the exterior dimensions. In my opinion, I think that the As-Built app is a great addition and a wonderful tool to have in the tool box. It will only be so strong and I'm ok with that. There are other tools that do different things and combined they provide me with an acceptable product in the end. I don't believe that there will be anything soon that will replace the physical measuring of every "important" item that we might need, so for now, I am a fan of the As-Built app and supporting cast on my iPad. Here is a shot of my as-built plan and then the addition/demo plan. I have a bunch of sheets with additional info and customer-time doodles all in there too, I just turned off those sheets.

@Renerabbitt do you think that AI would be able to work with CA along side of us in certain capacities, rather than draw the whole plan for us? I'm thinking that if it understands and excels at drawing, maybe we use AI only within CA's limitations. If my customer wanted to change the foundation from a frost wall to a full basement for example. Do you think that we could currently inject AI prompts to work out only that portion for us mid project?

I just draw the arrow, high lite it, grab the head with a RH click and hold to bend it around, then let go.

... if the clock is recording, the counter is adding it up. You can double check as the actual log time stamps right to the second.

I have a work around, but just wanted to know if the wall data portion of the boxes are adjustable on their own for a wall schedule. Here is my current work around.

This sounds like a pretty useful tool, thank you. I'm doubtful that it's used here, but I'll check it out.

Ahhh, I see. You are right, that isn’t on the CA app and is needed to be handled at the site or an alternative solution found. I am capturing for a just in case. This particular Reno involves all but three rooms, and the main part of the house is 100 + years old, so trying to centre things is sometimes difficult when some rooms have rough cut studs covered by lath and plaster plus 16” drywall plus regular sheets of drywall - and some have wood boards under the drywall, and others just have regular dimensional studs with drywall. Heck, most of the doors have the jamb and the door stop made from the same piece of wood with the door made to fit, so even some of the doors are ‘averaged’ lol. I’m kind of in a market that needs to take measurements on a house by house basis and I’m pretty sure that there isn’t a mathematical algorithm in any app that would make this hodgepodge interior match the exterior dimensions. I would probably do a combination because taking the lidar CA app only takes a few minutes. I’m also a little skeptical of using ‘other peoples’ drawings. I’ve had realtor’s plans that were created from the original house blue prints…. to which the house wasn’t built to. I would overlay both the realtor’s plan and the CA lidar scan in the Morpholio Trace app for a comparison, then take the laser measurements for the critical areas - the CA plan would be have the non-crucial area measurements. I’m pretty certain that I couldn’t just rely on ‘Not Measuring’ the critical areas, so I’m comfortable accepting the additional time it takes.

Yes I have a 13” iPad, I find hand held devices are like desktop monitors in having more screen real estate - the better. There always seen to be menus, keyboards, headers, etc eating up the working area. I wouldn’t think that using just a phone would too useful nor enjoyable as they really don’t have any working screen area. Just capturing the lidar scan also doesn’t complete the task, and in my opinion is really the only part in the CA app a phone would accomplish efficiently. I understand the supporting Apple feeling, and it is a personal thing that each of us need to find our own comfort level. Finding an iPad that had the lidar camera may be a better option than having a phone with lidar to pass along to the non-lidar iPad. As far as a back up; the logistics involved may be a solution. The Ca app allows the original lidar scan (with all its measurements) to make copies. Use a copy to adjust walls, add doors, resizes windows, etc before the screen shot into the MT app. Doodle all the lazar measurements here while maintaining an ‘original scan’ in the CA app should you want to measure from the original again later at the office.

I have stopped adjusting walls in the CA As-Built as well due to this issue, and the fact that sometimes the walls come in all wonky (especially in super stuffed closets that can't be measured properly). This sounds exactly like what I am doing with a CA As-Built screen shot dumped into the Morpholio Trace app. I actually like drawing from scratch in Chief (desktop) using the gathered site info rather than using CAD to walls. So the two apps tag teaming the task at hand have been working well for me.

I kind of look at the price of these things as fairly inexpensive, if you look at from the perspective of buying tools in any of the trades that build what we design. This $6,000 tool has a resale value of at least $2,000 in 5 years, so $4,000 / 60 months = about $66 / month. With the exchange on the dollar, that's about 1/2 tank of gas in my CAR here in Canada! I miss my truck but I don't miss it's thirst for fuel to drag all that concrete equipment around.

I am looking at the M5 Ultra as well. For a few main reasons: 1) I currently run 5 displays on my M4 Max Mac Studio and have a sixth that runs on my iPad. I would like to have all 6 run off the new studio on TB5 cables without using a doc. The Ultra will do that comfortably with it's double the channels and additional TB5 ports of the Max model. 2) I did a little research on AI and am not exactly sure how this will effect my business in the next few years, but I would like to prepare for it. One thing that I am playing with currently is rendering. A Mac based app called Draw Things will learn and render locally using the LLM stacks that I choose to use. This is instead of using general web based engines that are maybe not geared specifically toward architecture accuracy. If I want to use Chief at the same time, while using all these displays, bumping up to 96GB of RAM seems to be the sweet spot. Bumping up the memory on the Max puts the cost at almost equal to that of the base Ultra. 3) Additional CPU and GPU cores will help as well. I'm interested in the binned 30/64 base model as I don't think that the additional cost for a few more cores out weighs the added benefits. I bought my current studio reconditioned from Apple and saved about 15%, while still receiving all of the benefits like AppleCare service and support thats included with a new purchase. I am thinking that I'll do the same for the M5 Ultra when some used ones become available - I'm guessing March, April or May next year. Random thoughts: - my M4 Max runs smooth as butter and with Chief's recent improvements, X18 is a lot faster than X17. Just like you, the ultra for me is mostly just for more brute horse power. - I expect the M5 will be faster in many different areas, and just like most tech things, the M5 will probably perform faster than I can. I did start to find myself waiting on my old intel Mac, but I'm pretty certain that the M5 will stay ahead of my abilities to input commands for a few years. - I like the Apple ecosystem, everything just works. Everything just connects and makes things very convenient. I really like that I can just copy and paste between my phone, iPad, and desktop without any other stuff messing up the communication path, just click and there it appears. - I like the fact that my Studio doesn't make any heat or noise, my office doesn't overheat or become noisy. I think the Ultra will handle everything I throw at it with ease. - I really like that my whole desk top computer is smaller than my code book. I take it to almost every customer's home when I do the 3D walk through with them. - I'm ok without the modification freedoms on my Mac (vs a PC). At this point in my life, I'm not yearning to modify my car either.

It is a pretty cool site set up! Changes foundations, adds garages, and changes things all at lightning speeds. I was enquiring because I was brought in on a project that was lead by a high end architectural firm that had given the client a similar (down loaded and stand alone I believe) interactive model. Viewing was controlled by the customer, but no changes were allowed. It was only viewable along the single path, not able to jump from room to room like the Beaver Homes link. What a coincidence that you chose the Alpine home.... I drew plans on this exact home a couple of years ago. Took me three truss companies before I found one that could build the trusses. A-frames are no problem when they are cottage sizes... the one I drew was 38' wide. It's funny because I used to work contractor sales at a local Home Hardware and I called the Beaver Homes design team directly looking for truss specs, the guy told me that they didn't do the engineering on them because nobody had purchased that particular plan yet.

Just wondering if anyone in the Chief community is offering anything at this level or above? And if so, what type of programs are involved? https://vdc.aareas.com/?beaverhomesandcottages#/soleil-du-midi. On the right side top there is a Customize with the Virtual Design Centre, just click on that. This exterior full panoramic view I would think could be done with a custom back ground photo, and possibly the lake (and edge area) could be made easily enough. Having this type of 3D presentation isn't a significant part of my business so I am not very well versed in what it takes to make something like this possible. I do walk through videos, but nothing like this. I am wondering how much effort is required to do something like this?

Room Space Box walls work off of your wall defaults. Just make a super thin room divider wall and put that as your Exterior and Interior wall default. Same tool, just no wall thickness.

Yes, some sort of time stamp like the Time Log Entries would be super nice. I played around with it a bit and I think that for now, I will use 'Code' in the schedule and Rename it to "Revision Date", and before each client session I'll just remember to Edit the Active View and put that day's date into the Code box under the Notes Defaults. At least each note used that day will have a little automated function. An added bonus is I can keep that same revision schedule going when the project file gets copied with each round of revisions. (... and maybe when the revision-happy customer actually sees how many times they made requests to change something, they appreciate the timeline involved and the invoice lol). I'll send a suggestion through too.

Is there a way to NOT have the date column in a schedule become current upon opening up the plan? Example: I reviewed a plan with a customer and they had a few revisions. I use a note schedule to make notes as well as a being a sign off check list before I leave them. The 'Date' column records that day's date and the plan is saved. If I open the plan the following day - the revision note schedule then replaces that date with the current date stamp. If I saw them on August 31st - I want the note schedule to still show Aug 31st not update to todays date in September. I have a work around in that I can screen shot the schedule the same day as the review, then import the picture. But I am curious if there is a way to frieze the date when the note was made?

This is kind of funny, ...and way off topic, but I though that it weirdly appropriate in this "looking for something elusive" thread.... I had a TikTok pop up the other day and I thought that they finally found you......

Framing the both the house and the deck rim boards works fine.... if the box is checked in the Auto Framing Defaults. This also prompts the deck ledger board to frame. However, all of the rim board thickness is still controlled by the Floor Structure default. So if you have two different thicknesses between the house floor rim board and the deck rim boards, be sure to frame one then change the thickness before framing the other. It would be nice if there was a separate deck rim board default section too. Other than the glitch with the Joist Direction Line, and the beam direction issue (both of which Chief is looking into), the deck seems to frame up better than before IMHO.

Are there little sections of attic walls under the slope? They might need to have the frieze board turned on. I normally build all my roofs manually, sorry no help on your side quest.

I can't get the house rim boards to frame either......

When framing a deck I can't seem to get ledger or rim boards to frame at all, nor can I get the beams to build perpendicular to the joists. Is this a bug?