HumbleChief

My computer decided to crash and I went to open an archived file and it's corrupted (first time I've seen that in CA) so I lost an hour's work but I have a question about archives. I have my preferences set to auto-save every 2 minutes and I'm wondering where those files go? And why do I have only 1 archived file if the file is being saved every 2 minutes? Does the program only save 1 archived file each day? Even though file are auto-saved every 2 minutes? Is there a setting to increase the number of auto saved files saved each day? I'm biting the bullet n this one but would like to know if there's a setting I can use that will increase my chances of retrieving unsaved work. And of course the great advice of hitting cntrl 'S' which I'll include to save someone else the typing.

....rules even better

Just a quick follow up and hoping it will help others. I can't point to a single thing that has sped up noticeably but there is a general 'snapiness' to almost everything I never noticed before. Not night and day differences but noticeable. Like everyone here my brain goes so much faster than the computer will allow but that snapiness is a refreshing change and I'm sure it's due to the SSD drive. Thanks again for all the info regarding same and it's something I would highly recommend even if your machine is already pretty fast like mine was.

Re-cloned the SSD. (Forgot to clone the boot sector but wouldn't want to admit that out loud). It now boots to the SSD and seems faster in limited regards but need to test more. One thing I noticed was the Windows desktop icons fill in and populate pretty much instantly now but haven't noticed any other great speed improvements - yet. Thanks for the help BTW.

Re-cloning now I'll see if that does the trick.

Size doesn't matter - in this case - I don't even have 200GB of data so it must be user error.

I've got something set up wrong. My windows experience score is still 5.9, dragged down by HD performance. The BIOS is seeing the SSD in the proper 6 Gb/sec SATA slot but it won't boot to the SSD when I disconnect the other drives so maybe the cloning didn't work? I couldn't get Samsung's Data migration too to work, kept failing clone so I used Macrium Reflect. Probably messed up the cloning process.

I just installed a 256 GB Samsung 850 Pro SSD and just got it up and running this morning. Rapid mode enabled and I have noticed almost no increase in performance in any operation. Perhaps I'm missing a setting or my system was already fast - don't know, but really wasn't worth the bother or money for the non-existent performance gain. Maybe the numbers are better somewhere but real world differences? Can't find them. Just a heads up.

Define that room as 'open below' ad see if that does the trick.

If you build each stair from the bottom up in their proper location just click between the stairs, while still in the stair tool, and a landing will be created automagically between each stair.

Thanks for the suggestion. Forgot Chief had a tudor arch. Oh well I didn't need that half hour anyway.

Even more importantly I have created my symbol and it looks like crap. Here's the 2 plans that are creating the mess. Want to inset the window and cut the stucco around the window symbol. Any help greatly appreciated. WINDOW SYMBOL 1.plan WINDOW FLOOR PLAN 1.plan

That's a Chief Symbol I created using their new animated 3D symbol device. Took me 2 years to get it to tell the correct time more than twice a day. Or was it a 'gadget' I added from Win 7 - can't remember.

I think I know what's happening. I created the shape in a CAD detail not in a plan - doh - that should work.

I want to create a custom symbol and use it as a window but when I shape the window in 2d CAD (see attached) I don't get the option to create a slab or molding polyline, only an option to create a spline. Is this shape simply not going to happen? Options?

...except that the symbol was imported from Sketch up . Is there a texture aspect ratio in an SU model?

If you follow Chief's tutorial above (Lew alluded to same technique) keep the frame for the pass through and size/offset the frame to act as a tile wrap. Draw a material region on the wall for your tile then with the eye dropper add your tile texture as needed.

Using a pass through Window http://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-01255/ But I guess you'd d still need to wrap the opening with tile if it's in a shower?

Make sure all your walls are connected.

Windows OS as in signature and I have numerous problems with PDF's as well as I'm also dealing with the same mandatory Title 24 pages. Slow, Slow, Slow, to redraw. Painfully slow. Files are huge as you've noted and I can't print to my printer without converting the entire Layout file to PDF. If I forget to convert to PDF I get random blank areas or other printing anomalies on the imported PDF pages. PDF usage in Chief is BY FAR the most painful part of Layout and printing for me in Chief. HATE working with PDF's in Chief. I talked to tech support about the printing problem and they said it was actually a printer memory problem. Not enough memory to keep up with modern PDF file sizes. They didn't sound like they were working on any fixes but I wasn't talking to the engineers so who know. The benefits of being able to import PDF's outweigh the down sides but man I wish there was some improvement in the PDF area. BTW I've posted numerous times about PDF problems but there didn't seem to be much agreement on there being problems beyond my desk so I dropped it.

Thanks Perry (I assume you mean 600 GB) I appreciate the reply and info. I have to say I feel a bit inadequate having used only 160 GB these many years but since that's the case I should be able to fit everything on a 256 gig (maybe 512 to be safe) with no problem and use my 1TB drive for back-up as well as the cloud service I use (Carbonite). Again, thanks for the post.

Thanks for the reply Perry re: your SSD. I was wondering if you could share how much space you've used on your 1TB drive?

I was curious about those with SSD's. I'm just now checking the disk usage on my current 1 TB disk that has everything on it - OS, programs, data files. pics - everything and I've used only 160GB. This after a couple years of usage meaning at least to me I'll never need a 1TB disk for anything in the near future. I've also read that a good strategy for an SSD is to put the OS and programs on it and data files on another disk. I'm thinking that means anything over 256 GB SSD would be overkill - for me and my usage at least. Anyone follow a similar strategy? OS and programs on SSD and files on another disk? And if so why would you need a 512 or 1 TB SSD? Am I that stingy in my disk usage? Are you all using that much more disk space than I? Thanks for any insight.

Thanks for that great write up Steve. Very clear and informative. Didn't know there would be relationship between a faster GPU and better performance during RT's - makes sense just didn't connect the two. I've been tempted by an SSD card but my system is pretty fast overall. As you see in my specs it's a pretty capable system but still nothing mind blowing about the speed. I had an older i7 and this is probably twice as fast but even twice as fast is not really 'fast' to me. When the models get large even 2 Xeon processors slow down. Raytracing speed is all about the lights and set-up (and CPU of course) as Perry suggests. Trying doing a search and see if there's some setting changes that will help quicken your RT's unless you like a lot of lights in which case you will wait. I almost never use lights and brighten the spaces with the light editor in the RT window.

Icon and preferences setting do the same thing. You could post the plan but there may be very few users who can open with X3 to check the problem, but you could post the plan. Sorry I can't be of any more help