HumbleChief

Way to go Chris. Nice job.

Better Dennis, I never have the patience to adjust all the RT stuff. It sure pays off when you do.

Yeah I know Chris - just ribbing you and I certainly wouldn't upgrade a computer till I was ready. anyway 5 passes 1:41 Don't have all the texture either.

That looks much better but 27 minutes? You could buy a new computer for the time it would save you.

7 passes 1:28. Not great but you should be getting better results than what you're showing. BTW I brightened it up using the Image Properties Slider

Nice work Robert - love this forum.

Val, I'm no ACAD expert but I tried to open the file in Draftsight (an ACAD clone) and I got nothing. Same when importing into Chief - nothing I can see. No white lines, no nothing. There are settings and line weights in ACAD that can alter behaviors but I'm not familiar with them. Can you view the file in any other program?

Yeah been there, done that myself. Don't mean to challenge your reasons just really curious to see what I can learn.

To me it matters why so I can perhaps learn something new and understand a little more about how/why others work the way they do and to improve my work flow when possible.

Same here Perry, still curious how/why others work the way they do.

Rob, I'm curious as to why you wouldn't just create a simple detail and refer to it in your Con Docs? Would take a few minutes at most. Do you need the framing view for a presentation perhaps? Genuinely curious about the thought process because I struggle with the 2 methods (perfect framing model versus quick CAD detail) many times.

This thread has been a really great read. Thanks for the thought and ideas from everyone - very insightful.

Webbed floor trusses are part of Chief's basic tool kit, just set the floor joist depth to the depth of the truss you want, but I couldn't find a way to pitch them for a roof structure. That would be a good question for the forum. Do a google search for dropped ceilings https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=suspended%20ceiling%20chief%20architect quite a few articles, and there's a training video too #311 show one method. "In CA all cleanup efforts are lost when changing to a revised section" For me this was the hardest transition - working with 'live' sections. Once the model is built correctly (this is by far the most difficult part of Chief) the 'live' sections change with each change to the plan, no revisions are lost you just move annotation if needed and the sections can include any CAD detail you choose.

Yeah need more clarification. In the field or in Chief? In the field they are supported by any number of custom made brackets. In chief I would re-create those brackets by taking an elevation shot of the side of the cabinet. Draw your shape, edit and place in position. You could also create a symbol in Chief then import that, place in position.

I see I am venturing dangerously close to defending Chief as a software program but believe me when I say i would have echoed everyone's sentiments about Chiefs limited CAD tools and limited focus a few years ago. I couldn't build a proper model to save my life (still have troubles as this forum is well aware) and was stuck with Chief's 2D CAD tools for a lot of revisions and hand work. Tedious doesn't even come close to describe the pain. Now I understand Chief and the reason the program exists it is much easier to deal with. A cursory glance will leave any ACAD user frustrated to say the least. A dedicated couple years and it's second nature and very good indeed for small residential and light commercial.

Yes Perry but look at the ConDoc pages. Would you have any trouble reproducing those pages in kind? Didn't think so. And no one would be waiting around for you nor would the ACAD guy fly by you as you struggled with Chief's inefficient CAD tools.

The details shown are quite easy to duplicate in Chief and the changing sections are right in Chief's wheelhouse. Easy to change and modify if you understand Chief's way of doing things and that's by far the key, IMO, to this whole discussion. You say everything except for the floor plans are ACAD? Does that mean that all the sections are drawn in ACAD - by hand? No one who understands Chief would even consider that - way, way, too much work and changes must be a nightmare. Chief cuts usable sections from a properly built model (heavy emphasis on 'properly') in seconds. Annotated in minutes. Change the model the section changes, adjust accordingly, sections changed. So, so easy. Anyone who is proficient with Chief would have absolutely no problem recreating the pages you show and not fall behind a proficient user in ACAD either, might even be faster in Chief.. But, and it's a big but, you have to understand how Chief works. If not then it seems cumbersome and inefficient. If so then creating thousands of details and changing/modifying sections is a genuine no brainer - again if you understand how Chief works. One issue is that Chief's focus is very narrow. I've done commercial plans and plumbing isometrics and the first plan I did with my assistant ACAD user he was looking for an ACAD tool and of course I had to ask him what he wanted to do and said, "Really, it's that easy? It's better than ACAD." Granted this was for only one tool but there's a thousand Eureka moments waiting in Chief when you discover how the tools work, which I believe was Jim's point above. And even though Chief is residential focused it's not bad for small commercial either.

Interesting perspective Robert. Not sure what I would do if I ran a large firm and had to make the software call. Not the easiest of decisions. Another approach might be to get a copy, with the 30 day money back guarantee and use it for a month. See if it fits. Very interested in your decision.

I had an assistant who came from an ACAD world and he had a very difficult time learning Chief's way of doing things. The paradigm is just so different. Not better or worse but very different. It's my personal belief that certain brains get one paradigm over the other as a natural function of that individual's tendency toward a more visual or more literal interpretation of design parameters. For me I lean toward the Sketch Up way of creating, maybe more visual, and Chief can make me nuts at times but nothing near as crazy making as ACAD - again for me and how I learn and create. Even though I might like Sketch Up's way of doing things it is not useful for residential design in my office but Chief is and ACAD simply does not fit my way of thinking. All this is to get around to saying how easy it is to learn Chief and unlearn ACAD - it depends. But one thing I noticed while teaching my assistant was how happy he was when he discovered that Chief was actually better than ACAD at many things relating to residential design. It took a while to learn which direction to approach Chief from but once he got the hang of it he could produce some pretty fine drawings pretty quickly. One more thing, if you do decide to jump, Chief is all about building the 'model' correctly and that's where the skill (and frustration) come in. There's no short cuts and you must pay your dues to get those skills down. Once you do, and you understand the paradigm that is Chief, you're off to the races but plan on being humbled and plan on spending some time here asking for help. That last part about asking for help here on the forum, I think, you will find to be the best 'feature' in all of Chief's tool box.

..sorry Mick but probably didn't make myself that clear in that there really isn't any issue here anymore. Power supply was bad - replaced power supply - all good in computer land, but thanks so much for the info and advice, I won't forget it if something goes wrong again..

Thanks Mick, I don't have any paper work on the PS but may try your advice as it's only a year old, at most. I hadn't heard of aligning the SSD and I did indeed clone from my HDD but it looks like it's aligned anyway according to the pdf you linked to. Thanks for taking the time to offer the advice.

You might want to modify your OP to let the posters know it's the floor tile you're looking for - or at least it appears that it's the floor tile you're looking for. Good luck.

In the Chief 3D Download Library go to >Materials and Surfaces>and download the 'Tile' library. It has a tile pattern very similar to what you are looking for.

Thanks Perry, I think SSD's only take about 2-3 watts to operate, versus 5 - 6 for a regular HDD, but maybe adding one more thing to my 750 watt PS was all it could take? And sometimes they draw off of different PS 'rails' and that can have an effect but anything beyond that is above my pay grade. Will never know but it seems stable for now - nothing worse than a system that goes rogue.

I know not everyone reads every post but I posted recently about having some problems with my SSD drive here; https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/index.php?/topic/2712-question-about-archived-files/?hl=drive#entry22099 ..and in the hopes of saving someone else the pain I THINK I have the problem figured out. While using the computer with my SSD drive hooked up I got a few BSOD's (Blue Screens of Death) and corrupted files and all kinds of mayhem. Eventually I couldn't boot to the SSD. It would just hang at the Windows Welcome screen, or just go black. I figured the boot record of the SSD was corrupted and it was not going to work at all. I re-set my other 1tb drive as the boot drive and I could still get to the files from the SSD (at least the ones that weren't corrupted) and transfer them to the 1tb drive and I was back in business. (Carbonite SAVED my a$$ by the way). I still couldn't boot to the SSD, but I could read files, a little mysterious but very cool. The other morning I woke up to turn on my computer and - nuthin'. No lights, no noise - no nuthin'. So I'm thinking power supply. One of the dead easiest fixes and one of the hardest problems to diagnose because they go out slowly and just mess with your head. If they go out completely then that can be the greatest news - just go by another and install it. I ended up with a 1050 watt Corsair Professional ($199 at Fry's) and everything sprang back to life but i didn't want to messed with what I thought was a messed up SSD drive so I left it unhooked until today when I had a little time to play around. The PS is a modular one so I took a dedicated SATA power supply from the PS directly to the SSD and tried booting from the SSD just to see what might happen. It booted up fine. Like nothing happened. It's only been running for a half an hour but it seems OK for now. Thing is it's very very hard to tell if the PS is going bad and I was lucky to find it completely dead and the problem is not always related to what you think it is. Anyway hope that helps someone else with computer problems