HumbleChief
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Posts posted by HumbleChief
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The reason I have posted 4 or 5 times is because I've been through the ringer with Chief and just recently really understood the importance of Defaults.
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I believe that you shouldn't just start drawing walls and roofs and learn as you go. Layersets, annosets, proper default setups, etc., etc. should be part of your thoughts on a plan right from the start if you are going to do a professional job. I look at it the same as a college course that teaches you all the proper basic setup and techniques before you do a full job.
I agree 100% with this philosophy of learning Chief. Learn Defaults, Layers and Anno Sets, then start drawing.
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take a house - any house
preferably your own or a family or friends that you have constant access to
and model it - completely
by the time you are done you will have a very good understanding of how Chief works
learning "features" in a void - doesn't work for me
Lew
Yes, by all means model an existing house but DON'T start without understanding Defaults, Layers, and Annotation Sets.
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Then learn about Annotation Sets. Absolutely key to using Chief effectively.
Here's one from the great Scott Hall
ANNO SETS FOR DUMMIES PART 1 -
Next Learn about Layers - they rule your every move as you design for different disciplines in Chief.
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Here's a great knowledge base tutorial on defaults. LEARN THIS FIRST, it will help with every part of your plans as you proceed.
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One problem that you will face is that most tutorials all assume you have a basic understanding of how Chief works and that the default settings are already set-up. Absolutely not so an Sherry's advice is key that you understand these concepts before you even start drawing. I found the video below that will help you with defaults. This is imperative before you start drawing. It's from an older version but you should be able to find the relevant info in the newest versions.
I'll see if I can find some more that are most relevant for a beginner.
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To me, GUI should be fixed before adding more features....otherwise you will make work harder down the road. CA needs to be revamped into a modern app.
Agreed and said as much in an earlier reply to Doug. A sleek modern and easy to use GUI will have many unanticipated benefits down the road. Pretty pictures might sell the software today. I don't envy the decision makers at CA
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I think Cabinets are easier to improve.
I think accusing the Chief software engineers of picking the low hanging fruit is not entirely off base. They've said many times how certain changes are 'difficult' or expensive.
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...but 1 in 20 clients (maybe) do I have to put forth this type of interior concept....
In my business it's 19 or 20 out of 20. Only making the point that different businesses need different features etc.
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Here is the problem with CA - you guys are getting too wrapped up with minutia that translates into a pretty picture....and not spending enough time on what matters most.
Virtually nothing you guys do in cabinets is "real"....in that all you are doing is making a client concept that can be sent over to the cabinet guys and then the process starts again when they design working drawings based on the concepts. Seriously, unless some of you (can't be many) are making your own cabinets onsite, many of the features related to cabinets can't be as important as streamlining the GUI or other important issues.
These videos CA puts out are nice, but 1 in 20 clients (maybe) do I have to put forth this type of interior concept....and even then they aren't actually asking for it. CA, you guys creating a product that specializes in something that blows the socks off of would-be CAD buyers, but in truth isn't actually needed most the time in the practice of architecture or home design. What CA is getting really good at is more interior design in nature.
Oddly, what CA specializing in would probably have more use in commercial work where this type of interior design/detail is packaged with the architecture.
Good points Johnny and I agree to a point but remember 'what matters most' is what matters most to the individual user. There is no simple "this is what you should be working on because that's what I think you should working on." Too many users too many methods and client bases to generalize so broadly.
For certain business models there's a lot of room for pretty pictures when selling a job in these days of HGTV etc. I have a contractor that I do a lot of work for and we spend a lot of time selling our kitchen and bath designs. These tools help us immensely in selling our jobs. I was NOT a fan of the pretty pictures in Chief for many years and wondered why anyone would want such features. Now those features are working overtime for me and my clients and I've grown to appreciate them. But that's just me and my business model.
If someone does very little actual kitchen/bath design then why bother but for those who it has proven to be pretty valuable.
To perhaps make your point we also never, and I mean never, use our design to build kitchens from. It always, and I mean always goes to the cabinet guy to do final Layouts and measurements but the tools still really help to sell the job, again within my narrow business model.
Is that the market Chief is targeting? If so then bravo, if not and they are trying to capture or retain a different market with users such as yourself then they could seriously be missing the mark.
I personally would love to see the changes you've been suggesting but there seems to be a different direction Chief is going in. Doesn't thrill me but like I said have been surprised how the new tools like cabinet stuff has really helped.
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Maybe Google Flashing Details - hundreds of sites and hundreds of pictures.
Oops, actually 41,800,000 results.
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Simple answer is no. The greatest tragedy is that I'm slowly becoming unemployable because my ACAD/Revit skills are degrading at an incredible rate. Plus I'm 50 years old. No firm is going to hire an old Chief user.
If I needed help I would hire a 50 year young Chief user in half a heartbeat.
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I noticed some other things that may or may not be a problem. Here is one. Notice the horizontal blue line and how the walls along it are not aligned.
Eric those walls were lined up! I used a cad line to line them up. I don't know what happened?
Bob, I wouldn't use a CAD line to align walls. It can work but sometimes even a little off will create some nasty results.
If you find you need walls to line up exactly across an opening drag a single wall across the opening and then break it to create the opening. Guaranteed to line up then.
Or use Chiefs wall align snaps that will also get them aligned.
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I don't have a qualification that allows me to make a comment about the complexity of writing code or even if 'live updates' would be to much demand on the average computers used by CA users.
But I would think that even a mediocre software engineer would have the skills required to writ a script activated by an icon that would run on layouts and update on demand. Live updates is only the language used to explain the problem. What is required is 'auto update'. Preferably with a choice to run automatically when a layout is opened and if it takes to long to run that cycle each time layouts are opened then let the user activated (manual) update. No new features here. No re- writing the program just enhance the current process of open, close and save the elevation.
If CA allowed this to be a ruby script it would already be done by someone.
This is core functionality and speaks directly to productivity.
Ed,
I'm no software engineer either but the 2 or 3 actions needed to update each elevation, which now includes nothing more than opening the elevation, closing and hitting the Yes button for each view, should be very easy to implement in a simple script.
It's always more complex than I think but I think I see your point and agree that it's probably not as complex as I presented in a post above. If it really is that easy then not having that feature now is a real shame.
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Scouring the videos for signs of exciting new buttons to push for architects I see none.
Looks like x7 is the year of the kitchen designer.
See you next year.....
If I were a developer at CA I would be VERY, VERY curious about what this customer is looking for. Curious enough to contact them personally and see what, as an architect, they are looking for then implement something that gets them closer to becoming or retaining them as a customer.
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To me the ease of which all tasks can be accomplished should take top priority. It forms the very basis and foundation of the program and will have a cascading, beneficial effect on all other features. If that looks like a modeless interface then so be it, but if it looks like a better idea that your team comes up with then even better. So to me ease of use is priority one.
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look at you tube link on facebook site the five -12 videos show the new x7 interface going someway towards improving speed/ accessability. wall layers dbx,object eyedropper etc
Here's the link
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In Vectorworks I just select a line or other cad item (click) go to the ever present attributes tool (upper left in Johnny's screen shot) and select line type, weight, arrows, colour, fill, hatch, etc.. If you are doing a bunch of the same lines, rectangles, polygons, etc. you just change the attribute selections with nothing selected and then draw as many cad items as you want with these attributes. After, you just return all the attributes to the class (layer in Chief) defaults and continue drawing. Opening the selected item data box and scrolling to do these changes is tremendously time consuming.
I think we get so used to doing things one way we forget there's a brave new world out there. I would LOVE the ability to select a line and have all the attributes right there for the changing instead of diving into dbx after tab after dbx.
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CA doesn't even allow changing line thickness/color without entering into a dialog box and tabbing to another section of the dialog box to then enter the data. If that isn't archaic I don't know what is.
True this.
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That room divider pony wall is a good trick. Never occurred to me.
Agreed - nice trick Eric.
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I fought this forever as well. Move to front works most of the time.
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Not saying any of the suggestions are bad or that they are or are not important. Heck I would like to see everything in this thread and everything in the suggestion forum implemented tomorrow. AND the contributions from the users in this forum, suggestions and otherwise, have helped me immensely but business realities will always supersede my need for a new feature.
One of those business realities is customer acquisition and customer retention. A new customer will not walk away because the elevations don't update. New customers come from aggressive pricing and a feature set that caters to a large sub set of the architectural and design community. I'd say very nice job in this regard to Chief. On the other hand an old customer might walk if the elevations are not live, and that fine line of features has to be measured against the possibility that an old customer will walk, especially with Chief's SSA business model.
I'm not leaving because elevations are not live. Would LOVE to see it but I'm not leaving if they stay the way they are. I bet most are not leaving with elevations the way they are so from a business prospective why put in thousands of man hours to change them when your existing customer base will not shrink and your new user base will most likely even grow because of the current features? Makes no business sense.
Every software company also comes up against another hard reality - making great software. Once software gets to a certain stage why upgrade? I'm using some REALLY old programs because they work just fine - will never upgrade - ever, (unless forced by an OS upgrade etc.)
That's why IMO Adobe and others are going to a subscription plan for their software? Does anyone really need PhotoShop version LCXIIV when the current version will paint the night sky in any color you choose? No need to upgrade anymore. Can't build a business plan on such uncertain revenues. Subscription plans offer a means to forecast future revenues, upgrades do not.
Will Chief get there too? It already is subscription software but when will I/users no longer really need SSA? Or even to upgrade at all? From a business perspective these are very difficult decisions and I think CA has been stellar, no wait I KNOW CA has been stellar. How do I know? Because they are still here, in a very tough business they are still here, and that gets much much respect from me and I'll be happy with my 'dead' elevations until something changes.
Help! A-Z Resources For A Beginner?
in General Q & A
Posted
Don't confuse defaults with templates, they are 2 different things. Defaults need to be set up for each new house configuration and shouldn't necessarily be good from house to house. Templates of course are designed to fit houses that have the same basic configuration.
So first thing is to set up the default floors, room heights, roof pitch, foundation type etc. If you can use a template from a previous plan (which include that plan's defaults), fine, but even then you need to check defaults first thing before you even start drawing the first wall.