HumbleChief

Only partly true Alan. Chief certainly doesn't need a fast graphics card as you can attest, but a Chief user might, as a very fast graphics card pays off huge benefits in speed when the models get very large/complex. My 780 performs great until the model gets really large and complex then it sweats a bit with shadows etc. I want a very fast gaming card even though I don't play games. You're free to choose the video card that works for you but it may not be the best advice for others who may need more power from their graphics card as Chief models get larger in size.

Hey Perry, Maybe hold off on your new computer as NVidia just announced some new Graphics cards.

The general rule for buying computer hardware remains the same. Buy as much hardware as you can afford. The fastest processor, the fastest Graphics card will without a doubt pay dividends in speed with Chief Architect. With that said what do you hope accomplish with Chief? Occasional small models? Small business? Large models? Large business? No matter what your business model the processor is generally not something that is easy to swap out (not hard, but not ideal) but the graphics card and memory can be changed out a bit easier so if you have definite budget concerns buy the fastest i7 you can afford as they generally have more cores than an i5 and maybe a lesser Graphics card and memory that you can upgrade later.

Thanks for the replies. The builder in question has ordered thousands of windows with very few mistakes and was taken by surprise by the confusion. I wasn't there so I don't know what transpired but he probably ordered it correctly in his mind but found out that the window manufacturer/rep had a different version. Either way it doesn't sound like much has changed when ordering windows. I'll ask him again and find out what happened.

Like it.

Yeah my builder hadn't heard of it either and explained the situation when I asked him about the (2) 26" x 40" windows in the back of his truck.

One of the builders I design for has run into a recent change in window industry spec's and wondered if anyone else has experienced this. The change is a move toward sizing in inches instead of feet. Example a 4040 window is now being referred to as a 48" x 48" window; a 2040 as a 24" x 48" etc. He ordered a 2640 and got a 26" x 40" window. Anyone else seen this? Is it new? I've always spec'd my windows in feet 4040, 2040 etc. and my schedules were always in those same feet as well. I'm now using inches in my schedules as well as ft. but wondered if this a new trend or different for every manufacturer?

Great work Bob, must feel really good.

Nice work Todd. I did a video that might help others.

Un-check Hide Terrain Intersected By Building - or check it - can't remember.

Post the plan Todd, I'll see what I can do.

A lot of that functionality is already built in and if you need to do any manual work use floor beams/joists to frame then your material list should be more accurate. Check some of Chief's framing training videos, I think you're missing a couple of tools that will do some of what you want.

That's the way I know Chief's behavior as well. Would be awesome to be able to define each floor's framing on a room by room basis but I'm not sure I come up against that situation very often. Still, I'd like the flexibility.

I didn't think about the elevations.

Whoa that's exciting. Please share the spec's when you can.

Hey Perry, Do you think that a really fast video card is important for ConDocs? 2D? I'm asking because I was going to upgrade my vid card but only for faster rendering not thinking it would help with 2D Con Docs. Thanks

Interesting point of view Ian and it seems you have found something that works for you and your business. I, on the other hand, would probably find that system under powered for my needs. It seems it would be fine for smaller models but larger models would slow down a bit with the on-board graphics card versus an "a special purpose, "Gaming" graphics card" which I find far from an ego boost and a must for rendering (not RayTracing) larger Chief models. I haven't tried the system you're describing but before others choose the same, first understand your business and the size and complexity of your Chief models. If you have time to wait for RayTraces, and rendering large models is not in your business model, then perhaps the system you've described will work fine. For me it looks under powered but like I wrote I haven't tried it so hard to say with any certainty. Either way it's an option I hadn't considered so very much appreciate your posting.

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Very slow here too with a pretty fast set-up. Must be the number of walls and I would also find that unbearable to work on but would not have suspected a model with simply a lot of walls would be so slow. Let us know what you decide to speed it up.

jtcapa1, I'm curious (insert your name here) which mini-laptop are you using? Thanks

Randy, Change your roof pitch defaults by either double clicking the roof icon or g into your defaults and change it there.

Yeah kinda just like that, though none of the operations are inherently hard IMO, just hard to learn.

I wonder if the strength of Chief's smart objects isn't also its greatest weakness?

Always enjoy your challenges Johnny and the responses as I learn a lot from them. The ability to lasso points in a shape, then move those lassoed points, is the defacto standard in many, many applications. It would be something I would expect in almost every CAD environment and I think the expectation that Chief would behave the same is not unwarranted, but, and it's a big but, Chief works differently and if someone wants to become proficient in using Chief that someone needs to learn how Chief works instead of bemoaning the fact that it doesn't work like it 'should'. Chief is singularly the most unintuitive program I've ever used and this is a perfect example even although IMO there's nothing really 'intuitive' about learning any new software program function. Having said that I've learned most all the tools and am very comfortable using Chief's different set of tools but the learning curve is tough when expecting Chief to follow a standard of some kind that really doesn't exist.

Love those articles Richard, really help clarify things.