HumbleChief

Yeah I'm set up pretty close to how you've described it, I think it's just a semantic thing between As-built plans and Proposed plans. My as-builts rend to be pretty bare bones, and can't remember when I ever included a section in my as-builts. But different strokes and very much appreciate all the comments and feedback.

I do it very similar to Scott. I try to have a complete As-built plan complete, before I even start the new addition plan. That way if the client changes their mind about which side of the house the addition is built or if they decide on a 2nd floor, then I can start over with the existing plan. The accuracy of the model is very important to me, to get it right, saves time later on.

Agreed of course that the as-built should be complete and accurate, but do you have "SITE PLAN,  ROOF PLAN,  ELEVATIONS,  FLOOR PLANS,  ROOF FRAMING,  FLOOR FRAMING,  FOUNDATION AND 6 SECTIONS" done as part of your as-built? Genuinely curious and would like to learn others' approaches..

I find that all I usually need for my as-builts are the floor plan, elevations, and foundation plan, all accurate and complete of course, before I 'save as' for the new addition. Every plan varies and I'm currently doing an interior loft addition that shouldn't even need elevations for the as-builts.

Plan check and complete plans is another question and that's completed and presented in probably a similar method between all us Southern California gentlemen.

Yeah, migrating the data isn't really a problem.

I've got old hard drives scattered around going

back for years and I have every combination of

patch cables necessary to hook any one of them

up to a USB port so I can just copy my data to

an external drive and then copy it back to my

new drive. It's the operating systems that I am

worried about. I'm pretty sure the dual boot

setup messes with the Master Boot Record

and I was wondering if the data migration utility

has the capability to transfer the MBR to the

new drive? As I initially said, I was just hoping

that maybe someone had been down this road

already and could vouch for the process. Guess

I will have to cogitate on this one a while longer.

I cloned my boot drive with the Win 7 OS no problem. Cloning the MBR is part of the process if you select that to be cloned. If all the info for both OS's is in the MBR then it should work.

Also there shouldn't be much risk in trying as I assume you have a functioning hard drive with an intact MBR. Just clone everything to your new SSD and try booting from the SSD. If it doesn't work for some reason just boot back the to the functioning hard drive and try plan B.

Thanks Perry, Thanks Andy

I take my little Dell Inspiron lap-top with me to the measure and set it up so as I measure each room or the exterior I build the walls in Chief at the same time.

 

This causes more time to be spent at the house but shortens the over-all time I spend creating the model and lessens the number of errors.

 

Andy.

Andy,

I find I average 1 - 1 1/2 hour for an as built measure. I have an old laptop and was considering doing the complete drawing on site but it seemed like it might take too much time in the clients house. How much time do you think it takes you to draw the entire plan on a laptop with Chief?

I'm always finding some error that makes me nuts when I get my notes back to the office and can almost always resolve them but more than once I've had to do another site visit to confirm a stray measurement. Doing it on a lap top would/could/should eliminate those errors.

I use an "ECHO" pen that records everything including any voices and talking that goes on while measuring. Everything you draw goes to your computer along with the voice recording. All you need to do is point your curser to any part of your drawing and the exact voice comments of exactly that timeline will play for you. I also record every minute of the consult, you'll be surprised how many times that saved my a**, when someone says "They didn't say that". They are at Livescribe.com

I remember you mentioning this before Perry but am having a hard time visualizing exactly how it's used. Do you have a pad of paper that you're drawing your rough sketch for the as built? With notes spoken and written as you sketch the house? "Everything goes to your computer" In what form? Do you have a computer there while measuring? Do you download/upload the ECHO pen data later at the office? What form is the ECHO data?

I watched a few videos of the pen but can't quite make the connection to as built field drawing. Appreciate any clarification.

We're just using different words and terms for different things. I was answering your 'as built' question not a question of what needs to be included for plan check.

Of course one can't design an addition without a site plan, floor framing, roof plan, sections etc. but one could do an as built without a site plan etc. etc. My as-builts are pretty much bare min. to get me to my (saved as) proposed set.

We're just using different terms and probably just follow a different path to the same end goal.

Awesome Scott,

New stuff is always exciting. Run some Ray Trace comparisons from your old machine and maybe post a plan with RT times so we can bench mark.

What was your system cost, if you don't mind?

Scott, no real way to compare our methods. My as-builts only include the bare minimums that will get me to the proposed plan sets. I've never really timed my method but it's not nearly as complex as yours. Six sections? More power to you. Never had a need for six sections on any remodel I've ever done.

Don't do floor/roof framing and seldom include a roof plan for the as-built either. Never found a need. Those all go in to the proposed plan set.

I also don't include the site plan and consider that part of the working drawings. Don't include any road or sidewalks either unless it helps with initial concepts.

Not much help.

I had Samsung's data migration fail for unknown reasons and also used Macrium Reflect to clone my first 256GB SSD then my second 500GB SSD. Went perfect each time BUT I didn't try and migrate/clone a dual boot system - that might get interesting.

Larry,

 

Have you looked into the app "Redstick Cad"? It eliminates all the problems you mentioned.

 

Room Planner needs variable wall thickness.

 

Jon

...but creates one more problem - no direct export to Chief. It looks like Red Stick will create DXF or PDF files but then what? CAD to walls? Trace over the PDF? Still not really saving time for my purposes.

For a whole house as built I typically use a tape to measure the exterior walls first then move inside. With a rough hand drawn sketch of interior walls I use a laser to measure all interior walls. Don't even think about using a tape in the house.

Windows are measured for size and location and any other relevant info is measured and jotted down. Recreating the as-built back at the office is pretty quick but laborious none the less.

I've learned there are no short cuts and problems with measurements not matching up arise on EVERY as built. I have learned to adjust and most of my work is not within 1/4" as I like to keep my sanity but I understand others' need to have such exact measurements.

I keep trying to like the digital input systems like room planner but I tend to be very pragmatic about my technology purchases.

Measuring a square kitchen hardly needs an iPad or the cloud and you should have that done with a scratch pad and laser in 15 minutes max. and that's if you have to stop and sharpen your pencil. Take a quick video of the kitchen with your phone for reference and you're out.

The thing I like least about an app like room planner, especially for a whole house as built, is that I write down copious notes and register intricacies of each measure and I can't imagine getting back to the office and not having that paper trail for my notes etc. Or what happens when you have an odd shaped room? Do you load a couple of 'square' rooms? Or a room with a notch? How do they all go together? Second floor?

I think the future is with cloud apps and I see the need to market such tools but if you want to sell something like room planner to a professional remodeler I shouldn't think that a square kitchen should get too many of us excited enough to buy an iPad when a scratch pad of paper and a laser is still very efficient and fast if you know what you're doing.

Show us. please, a demonstration of a whole house as built measure using room planner. Til then I'll remain skeptical of its professional usefulness on any thing other than a square kitchen.

Hi Bob,

Do you need the 'look' of a cabinet going around a protruding pipe chase? Or an actual cabinet with cut sheet type exacting spec's?

Personally, I would probably never spend much more than $300 on a video card. It's just not worth it to me.

Looking at that chart $300 will get a GTX780 or a GTX970, both plenty fast for Chief. And I don't believe that Chief utilizes SLI either so dual cards won't benefit you either.

There's a temptation, when the budget allows, to get more, bigger and faster no matter how the software application uses that technology. How the software uses that technology is the key.

Perhaps there's a Chief model large enough that requires (4) GTX Titan X's run in dual SLI but I don't think the money spent would be justified, in Chief.

On the other hand merely possessing the biggest and fastest of anything can be, in and of itself, quite a noble (albeit pricey) goal.

Doug,

Is the FirePro and issue with the MS OS and CA or the card in general? From a price standpoint the 8100 is far less money than the Quadro4000. Both are rated well for CAD and our kind of rendering while the other Nvidia cards seam to shine mainly with gamers. I want a kick but Workstation.

The single most important consideration with any hardware purchase is to know your software. According to the Chief tech guys Chief will utilize a gaming card better than a CAD card like the Quadro4000 - save your money - and remember 'rendering' is a term Chief uses for its 3D views which can be rotated etc. That function will utilize the video card. Also remember what Doug just posted "My read on the Titan vs the 980 is why spend all the extra money for marginally better performance."

Ray Tracing which in Chief terms will take the 'rendered' view and trace the light rays if you will, uses 100% CPU so the world's fastest video card won't help with Ray Tracing. The world's fastest video card won't help 'rendering' in Chief beyond a certain point either so get a really good video card and spend your savings elsewhere.

VERY helpful Doug, Thanks for clarifying.

Correct, I don't want to re-create the callouts. 

Maybe you don't have to.

http://www.screencast.com/t/HMonPy6aEE

Larry - The link below shows benchmarks for a number of dual CPU configuration. There are other benchmark pages for single CPU. Comparing may provide a general idea as to the potential performance gains.

 

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/multi_cpu.html

 

They also have benchmarks for other components such as vid cards, memory, etc.

 

Graham

Thanks Graham, Didn't know they had a dual CPU bench mark chart

Price per benchmark tends to favor the 2620, IMHO.

Sure does IMHO.

Doug,

 

What is your thought on the "EVGA GeForce GTX Titan X 12GB Video Card" vs. say the GeForce GTX980 4GB? Will Chief take advantage of the 12GB? or the ASUS Z10PE-D8 WS SSI EEB Server Motherboard Dual Intel Socket 2011-3 with a AMD FirePro W8100 8GB Video Card

 

Thanks.

 

I have a 780 and I see no appreciable slow downs with any rendering movement full shadows etc. I'm not sure I would spend much extra for the extra muscle that's designed to run the world's fastest games. Chief is pretty demanding but there's that diminishing returns thing again.

Guess I am still struggling with the "almost double the price on the 2630 over the 2620 for 2 additional cores. Logic would dictate go for the two cheaper units now and have 12 cores and hyper-threading (24 cores) for about the same price as 8 (16).. I could always upgrade the CPU's later when the price drop in a year or so. I am virtually dead-in-the-water and two commercial project waiting to be completed.

Now this would be a great question for the tech guys at CA, and probably one that's very difficult to answer.

"With almost identical throughput (10,472 - 2630 8 core and 10,047 - 2620 6 core) what effect, how much of a speed increase, will the additional cores of the 2630 have on CA Ray Tracing speed?" I would really like to know.

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

Graham,

 

I saw the Tom's link, thank you. One thing I can't seem to find are recent (2015) comparison.

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

It's not like haven't taken any stance. CA has clearly stated that gaming cards tend to work better than CAD cards for rendering. More/faster cores are better for RT's. But within those stances are subtleties that have to be recognized or you'll spend a lot of money for very little or no performance gain.

I told my guy I wanted RT power and told him what that meant for my software - all CPU, all the time. He chose a fast set of processors to serve that purpose. If someone wants to do fast RT'ing it will still require all CPU all the time and faster more cores is better according to CA.

It will work - but it won't be easy. The OP has placed his call-outs in Layout; and I suspect each of the details you see on his picture are individual layout boxes. Using your method will require a lot of re-sending and re-creating call-outs.

Yeah I see that. Wonder what he ends up doing?

Dan, the difficulty with this method is that you have to position the view you want just right - on my system stuff in the center of the "current view" prints out to the far right, so I have to re-size the program window and futz around a whole bunch - it's a complete pain.

Couldn't agree more. It is indeed a complete pain.