HumbleChief

Newell, In plan view go to your Roof Plan Set, make sure Roofs, Ridge Caps is displayed and 'unlocked'. Select that stray ridge cap and delete.

Like I posted, not getting it - at all. Shouldn't I be able to go back and find the latest saved version using Auto Save every 2 minutes? I found an older file without the 1 hour's work and that was all I found. Seems like it's worked perfectly before but maybe user error? Chief was open for perhaps 30 minutes as I did something else. Came back worked for 5 minutes and Windows crashed. Felt good because of the settings but only an older version of the file was there to open and the work was gone. So auto save didn't save? May never know. I opened the Layout and not the plan file - did that make the difference? Chief asked me if I wanted to use a more current version of the Layout file but not the plan file? Oh well, re-did the work but am now hitting cntrl s every few minutes which I remember wasn't needed as the auto save/archive was so dependable. Just feels bad not knowing if my work is backed up or not.

My computer crashed and I lost a bit of work and am once again confused by the archive feature in Chief. I've posted my current settings and am wondering, again, how Chief deals with its Archived files. I've got Auto Save set to every 2 minutes and Auto Archive Files set to 'Previous Save' but am not sure what that means because I lost about an hour's worth of work on a custom section and can't seem to figure out how to save an Archive that doesn't lose that hour's work. Does previous Save mean it will only Archive the saved version? Meaning I have to hit Cntrl 'S' every couple minutes to make sure it's archiving that last saved version? Where does the auto save every 2 minutes end up? Not getting it.

Fair enough...but that argument will have to be taken up with someone else.

Apologies for not being clearer. I intended to imply that Chief needs specific ideas about what to change i.e. stairs in order to get things right for the users or else they are lost as to how they can improve Chief the best way possible. I'll edit that original post as well as it seems to have been taken the wrong way.

I think one of the assumptions is that some needed improvements are "apparent to everyone including the brain trust at CA" when in fact they simply aren't. And as Joe mentioned in a previous post without some specific details for needed improvements Chief is really lost as to how can't know exactly how to improve the current features to meet the user's needs. EDIT: It appears that the original post got taken the wrong way and what I meant to imply was that Chief might be lost if we the users don't help with specific suggestions about specific features. For example with stairs it won't help much with a suggestion like, "We need better stairs." Chief can't do anything with that input. They need to hear about specifics like, "Please return the handrails to specific point etc. etc."

Yeah prioritizing over 4,000 requests would be a handful for sure.

As I remember there was no real organized ranking method, and as would be easy to imagine, there were 10 people with 10 very different desires and feature requests which ran the entire gamut of Chief's abilities. The fruits of those meetings would, I think, be very hard to pin point as to a specific feature that came to life but it had to help the developers if they were willing to listen and execute those ideas. I think it's also important to remember that there was quite a 'large voice' concerning stair changes and X8 implemented a lot of those changes, apparently not enough for many users, so perhaps another 'large voice' on the suggestion forum might be helpful again?

There was a 10 person user group appointed just before the X8 update and that group met in Idaho with the entire company staff to go over specific wants and needs in the program. Not sure if that group will meet again this year or not. I was a part of that group and could not have been more impressed with the people involved at Chief. As far as making changes recommended by the group I'd say it's impossible to say what kind of impact the user group had on actual development plans as those plans are set so far in advance that any changes will come slowly if at all. I would imagine that no matter how hard any group clamored for any specific change there are business considerations that will override those requests if necessary, and rightfully so. I think they had 4000+ items on the want list at that time and I'm sure the list has grown from there. I'd even venture to say that X10's feature set is pretty well nailed down now to allow for full development of those features before the next upgrade so maybe X10 will include a few more sea changes but I would not bet on it.

Yeah, Chief as well as other software developers have to choose where they put their development dollars. Chief chose i.e. cabinet details, which some will never really utilize, over some basic functionality as you've pointed out i.e: suspended ceilings, stair details, and hatch origins. It's a crap shoot and we all benefit in some small way even if we don't get the exact features we want.

Really haven't explored the pricing models so if you say that Archicad cost the same as Chief for a similar tool set then I'll take your word on same and of course not much of anything is really all THAT expensive and it's all relative. If I can buy a tool that improves production and my ROI is more than $29 - $49 per month then I'd be all over it. I just don't need much more than Chief currently offers - for my business - which is the issue all the features and add-ons etc. always come down to - your business. Funny I had no idea there was even such a thing as Chief's 3D Viewer model storage. Another business relative feature/add-on I've never used, and may never use.

I personally don't want that. I don't want to pay Archicad's ridiculous prices nor do I want to pay for add-ons, simply because my business doesn't demand that kind of detail. I also don't need the custom stair tools that are shown. Chief's tools work fine for me but there may be others who can use the additional tools and are willing to pay or them. I think that would be a great option - for some. Trying to think of a custom add-on I would like for Chief and really can't come up with anything - for my uses - but I'll bet there are others users who could use some custom tools.

Not sure how I would use the block management features as I've never needed them before but re-organizing pages in the project browser will come in handy.

Agreed.

Nice indeed but Chief will never, ever work like that. The fact that what you've shown is an add-on is perhaps most impressive. Chief currently has no way to add-on anything that I'm aware of.

Point well taken. I've watched a couple of those videos and the complexity is staggering. What I haven't seen is how hand rails and other variables are handled. I would imagine the flexibility is superb but the complexity as in all of ArchiCad would literally take me years to understand and to create a stair with handrails that behave the way I want them to could take all my free business time leaving no time for design or creating ConDocs.

Mentioned in the video but not shown - "Draw Order Control" hmmm

I always wondered why that wasn't in the program from the very first version. Been suggested a lot but never reaches priority one. It's not a deal breaker for me and seems so easy to implement and makes the software look amateurish IMO.

Probably very true. I watched a couple of videos but none showed the problems that a user might run into as defined here on the forum re: Chief. Wasn't X8 the update that had the most stair changes just recently? Perhaps that was all the changes intended for a couple more releases?

I was wondering, is there a program out there that does stairs 'right'? I'm going to google a bit to see what I can find. Here's a couple of Archicad options. Looks flexible on the one hand but limited on the other. The ability to trim to walls seems like tool we could use in Chief. And a bunch of Revit Videos https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=stairs+in+revit

Yeah Lew I've seen those few posts but I am just not seeing the same cacophony of those posts worthy of stating "everyone complains" about such things. They just seem like valid, occasional, questions that are raised now and again. I expect we'll see the same thing when X9 is released but I'll reserve judgement for now, download it when it comes on line, and get back to work.

I agree with the internal optimization upgrades. Those invisible improvements can be the biggest productivity boosters of all. I use stairs differently than others as I don't have too many problems with them but any improvement in any portion of the program I am all for.

All good points and I think a strategy of low expectations is the wisest for me personally. I think it's the folks that think that Chief should be a different type of program and do things in ways they never have, nor never intend to do in the future, that may be the most disappointed.

Hey Yusef, That partial message was stuck in my reply box and the only way I could get past it was to post that cryptic message you see. Sorry for the confusion. I'll try and delete it. Deleted, should have done that quicker - again apologies.

Looks like that worked. I don't think anyone is under the impression that the first sneak peek is the complete feature set of X9 and aren't the users entitled to give feedback on features both old and new? ...and 'everyone complains'.. really? Been here over 10 years and have seen most every post and just haven't seen what you're talking about Lew. Even this thread - would you say Chief is catching sh** again from the posts here? Again just not seeing it. And what if X9 turns out to be an upgrade that underwhelms with its new features? Are users supposed to say nice job when it could be so much better? I keep my expectations very low and understand Chief's business model so I am not so disappointed when a new upgrade is released. Personally I'm very, very happy with X8 and I don't expect much in the way of ground breaking new features in X9 but I'll bet, just like every new release, X9 will get a little more refined, a little more polished and will help make our designing jobs just a little bit easier.