HumbleChief

Thanks Graham

Curious about which you prefer. I used Live Views in the earlier releases and had some problems and have never returned. I now use plot lines with shadows, no color, sun set to follow camera. How about you?

If there is no vertical surface like a wall Chief will create the p solid at the plane of the Camera itself - look there first.

Alan's advice is good but i'm still trying to figure that out after 15 years of using Chief. I can find them more easily now that I have learned where to look but it still frustrates me. If you create a p solid in elevation it will usually be created up against the nearest vertical surface, or at the camera itself if Chief can't figure out where it should go. Then it needs to be located in plan view to sit in its proper location. I've had p solids created that were simply impossible to find with my meager brain and skill set so I draw them over - a lot. Really think this needs some work for future releases.

Thanks Graham, are you still happy with One Drive?

Question for the 'One Drive' users. Does it allow sending a link to a file that can be opened by someone who does not have One Drive similar to DropBox? When files are too large I send DropBox links to clients and they can open them even without a DropBox account, does One Drive work the same? Or it it necessary to have One Drive account to open links? I'm asking because I think I am paying 9.99 a month for a TB of storage in Dropbox without any Office apps and the Office 365 offer seems pretty compelling. Thanks

Good question - curious too.

True that.

Had GREAT success with DRIVE until it stopped synching automatically. I would have to go t the app menu and 'start' DRIVE to get it to synch. It was a known problem on the forums etc. Still use it with a builder/client but don't depend on it any more.

Yeah I understand Joe, just baffled by it. Thanks again for your help! I'm off to bed.

Got the short one to work the other showed an evaluation error. Tried Eric's dbx. but still wouldn't evaluate. Really Chief why did you bother with this? And set your users up for failure? Still curious.

Sometimes I just feel stupid when I use Chief Architect, no other way to put it.

I don't doubt your analysis is correct Joe. I use macros so seldom that I don't seem to need them but when I do I think your package would be worth many times the amount you charge. I'm posting a video showing my ineptness even with the simple macro solutions you gave me.

I knew you'd have some useful help Joe and I appreciate it greatly but why should I need anyone's help for such a simple task? What do you think they were thinking when they included this 'feature'? Did you ever talk to Dermot about such things? It's just so bizarre to me. Do you have a theory? And thanks again.

EXACTLY what you get out of the box. Just really strange thinking.

...and make it unusable out of the box? Seriously. Why? Can anyone answer that question? Chief? SEVEN decimal places? Seriously? Who made that decision? And why isn't there a clear, easy to understand article on how to round to various, actually usable, decimal places? Truly stumped here. I don't use macros much but need them occasionally for specific projects and tonight I was using them to show the area of Poly Lines for a site plan and add the %area% macro and it resolves to SEVEN decimal places. So, so frustrating. So I scour the forums and the internet to find a clue and of course Joe has some very helpful information that is unfortunately unfathomable to the every day user. So I've wasted an hour trying to figure out how to get a simple poly line label to resolve to 0 decimal places - with absolutely no help from Chief help files or on line articles. So what was the reason to include this 'feature' when it is completely unusable without re-writing the macro? Anyone? EDIT: And why seven decimal places? Genuinely curious. Why not 12? 15? Or a usable 2 and let the macro guys get to 7 if need be but where in Chief, anywhere, for any reason would you need seven decimal place accuracy? Just a really strange mind set that I simply don't understand.

Not the same problem Bryce but similar reliability issues with Drive. I have Win 7.

I'm also thinking about changing my Drive accounts to DropBox as well. Drive doesn't seem to update/synch reliably and many times I have to 'start' Drive to get it to update/synch - it's PIA.

DropBox keeps a copy of your files on your computer AND in the cloud and also allows files to be synched with multiple computers. In this way one can have copies of all files on a main computer in a DropBox folder and up to date, synched copies on other computers, and files backed up to the Cloud. I personally have 3 other computers that have all my Chief files synched to their hard drives and Drop Box back up in their cloud. In theory 4 copies of every file at all times. OneDrive behaves in almost the exact same fashion and can't see why there would be a conflict with Google Drive. Been tempted by OneDrive and Office 365 but just dont need them at this point and DropBox seems like a great way to store back up files. Oh, BTW I have Carbonite as well. Please correct me if I'm wrong but I think that the files on your computer(s)' physical drive live in your computer's DropBox Folder and in the cloud, so if DropBox goes nuts you still have your files on your hard drive(s). I did read where people lost data because of a problem with DropBox because they didn't synch certain files that were only in the cloud but it's rare and any valuable files you are not synching to your hard drive you are setting up for data loss.

Thanks Michael, I was thinking real life. Must be a snow load thing perhaps? Here a simple 2 x 6 over frame usually does the trick.

Curious, has anyone ever built, or ever seen, an overbuilt roof built with trusses? We always just frame on top of the old framing using a CalFil method that I don't think Chief will build but is easy to detail.

Nice Justin, Never thought of using a road. What rendering engine did you use?

Michael, I don't doubt your analysis is correct but so what? And I really don't mean that in a negative way. It might be difficult, but so what? It's all difficult isn't it? So what? I don't want any parts of Revit that I've seen but having the ability to have more that one plan version in a single plan file would be awesome IMO. Is it too hard? Maybe, but given the incentive it might be doable but I'd leave that up the Chief programmers to figure it out instead of deciding it can't be done for whatever reason I think might be relevant.

...we could even use Anno Sets as they now exist with the exception of walls occupying the same space in different versions. Is that the only limitation within Chief's current paradigm? I'm going to move this to the suggestion forum, even though it's not a new idea, maybe it's time to revisit it.

To me there are many reasons not to use Revit and price is not one of them. I watched a video of a simple house being created by a Revit expert that took at least twice as long as the same thing would have taken in Chief with cabinetry that looked like it was created by a child. Way too complex and almost no library of cabinets/fixture etc. Some nice features but nothing compelling enough to switch, again without cost as a factor. Having said that there's no reason Chief has to be anything like Revit and no reason they can't implement their own version of 'phases' and make it easier to use and understand. After all it's only a series of layers turned on and off for each 'phase'. We currently have the ability to do everything that Revit's phases does except place walls from different phases in the same location(s). An overarching 'Versions' system that contained each set of plans with a master Layer control for each 'version' would be sweet IMO. Each 'version' could be named and categorized and held within a single plan file. Click on a different version and every thing changes to that version. I wonder how many of Chief's users would welcome such a feature? I would use it all day every day but what's the cost benefit within Chief business model? There's no reason to implement such a major change without a lot of customer requests for such a feature and how would such a feature effect overall sales? I would welcome a feature like this with open arms and he!! yes, steal every good feature from every competitor out there until Chief becomes even more powerful and useful.