HumbleChief

Thanks Steve, I think that was exactly the issue. Hopefully I can remember for the future. Thanks again!! JUST saw your video and want to thank you again for your help, again exactly the problem, and solution...

That works OK but, of course, turns off auto foundation build. Not the end of the world but will keep in mind for sure. Thank you for your help Michael!!

Again your help and generosity does not go unappreciated but I think I've got a little better grip now... I just opened a new plan and everything seemed to go OK with a min. stem wall height of 19 1/2" for and 18" stem wall. Then I changed the framing for the joists with 'lock floor top' checked and it messed with the stem wall something terrible. With lock floor bottom checked it behaved much better. Always wondered what that setting for locking floor top/bottom was for but it is quite effective...

Count me as one of the bonehead 'everyones' I THINK I get that now. The best approach being to set the stem wall height in the defaults? I'll play a bit.

Couldn't find number 1) but I think using a default for floor '0' as the stem wall height plus 1 1/2" for the sill plate should at least me a chance to get it right...

I've posted before that I never type lol unless I'm actually laughing out loud.... LOL and thanks again for your help!!

Will do...plan is basic box so not much trickery but will check the defaults.

Glenn, You are always very helpful and your help is also always very much appreciated but your explanation is just beyond my comprehension and understanding. Maybe I really don't want understand because what you just explains points out, to me, just how overly complex and down right stupid the settings are in that dbx, How about a f^&king stem wall height setting? Instead of a room that raises when a floor is not present on the ceiling height because the foundation needs a floor that is lower than the footing that is set by the relative ceiling height which no longer sits on footing which in turn is set by the depth of the stem wall height relative to the slab which really isn't there but could be if you want a floor under the footing that is based on the relative height of the stem wall unless you want a floor under your crawl space. Why not just give us a stem wall height and be done with it? Or let the software engineer's design the GUI which is always a bad idea, but at least they understand it...

I always figure it out but what's that number in the build foundation dbx set as minimum stem wall height? Why is it there? What does it represent? What is the 'minimum' stem wall height? Why not just simply the stem wall height? Why am I so dense?

I can get the stem wall to be 18" tall if I add the sill plate (WTF?) to get 19 1/2" and the room dbx shows 18" from the bottom of the joists to a spot that looks like it must be 1 1/2" above the floor? ...as the ceiling height? Where is that spot 1 1/2" above the 'floor of the basement? What does it represent?

Thanks Chop...what about setting in the build foundation dbx? What's with the 5"? Where does that come from and why can't I just simply set the stem wall height in that dbx? My floor shows the floor at -25 5/8"? Wonder why? Do you ignore the build foundation dbx and set stuff in the room dbx?

Oh yeah then there's this dbx. Shouldn't there be a stem wall height of 18" in this dbx somewhere? The stem wall is 19 3/8" ? Just cannot grasp the paradigm.....

Can not understand the relationship between what I type in the data fields and what appears in the actual stem wall height. In this plan there's an additional (or lessor) 5 inches and I have no idea how one would know this information. Is it right in front of me? And why can't I simply type in a stem wall height? Thanks very much and apologies for the frustration. stem wall plan.plan

What did your call to tech support yield?

Want to thank you again for the effort Graham, it will help in the future when choosing a new system...

...and spend LOTS of money on the fastest video card gaining very little to no performance? Which is your point above I believe, but how do we NOT buy the fastest video card we can afford? At what point does the speed of the card simply not matter to Chief's overall performance? Is a 1080 good enough and any upgrade from that simply will have no performance effect? 1070? 1060? How can we possibly know, as our models begins to slow down, which it will as it gets larger, if we have enough video card? Better upgrade. Whoops no performance gain, throw more money, no performance gain. Sigh... The GPU data you posted might be the most important piece of the puzzle but still very confusing when it come time to spend more video card money on performance that just may not materialize.

Very nice write up Graham. On some level I knew that the 3D rebuild was the slow down culprit but only anecdotally as my ability to perform any kind of meaningful testing is pretty much zero. Surprised at how little lifting the GPU is doing and I think it is a current trend to off load some CPU operations to the GPU since they are so capable these days and I wonder of that's a programming train that Chief is currently not on board with? My assumption could also be incorrect. I have a model that I'm no longer working on that took 3 - 5 seconds to rebuild each change to a roof plane. I upgraded the GPU and both CPU's and saw absolutely no change in performance. I guess you see what I mean by anecdotally, and not sure there's a point here but it was then that I decided not throw money at Chief's slow performance, at least on my machine. Still a bit surprised at the performance via CPU versus GPU but very valuable information and appreciate your post.

I'm a very long time Chief user and have seen much more bizarre behavior than that. Someone will understand the behavior, I, after about 20 years of Chief, simply never will. Sometimes the solution is as you've experienced, just keep thrashing until it comes around but that dialog box has kicked my a$$ for many, many years... Glad you got it figured out..

Not sure why I find these (OP) posts so easy to ignore since I don't want to add any helpful advice and others feel compelled to respond....Oh wait...I guess I too was compelled to respond, oh well

Really Joe? You wouldn't want to retrieve a corrupted file? Sorry if it seemed like I might have suggested such a stupid thing. I'm not suggesting you get a back up program and if you're happy with DropBox alone then so be it. Like I said I only needed a backup twice, and I, of course, did not retrieve a corrupted file, and it was good for me, if it's not good for then don't use a backup program.. Only a suggestion for the OP and others who might be contemplating such a strategy.

Unless you imagine a corrupted Chief file that you simply CANNOT get open, tech support cannot open it, DropBox can't retrieve it, it is simply trashed for whatever reason. Super rare with Chief but then what? Rebuild the file from scratch? Not the worst option, and only costs hours of your valuable time, but a back up program simply restores the file and you're on your way. I wouldn't suggest someone not use what they are comfortable with but it only takes one corrupted file before the cheap and easy back up options start to look pretty good.

No doubt DropBox is great for accessing files from a variety of sources but am curious, do you use a dedicated back up program as well as DropBox? Or just DropBox?

Didn't know this about DropBox...and of course too late to recover a lost folder, which would drive me crazy, but a nice feature none the less. https://help.dropbox.com/security/recover-deleted-files-folders How to recover deleted files in Dropbox Restoring a deleted file or folder Sign in to dropbox.com. Click Files in the left sidebar. Click Deleted files in the left sidebar. Locate the deleted file or folder you want to recover, and click on the name. Click Restore. You can restore files that you had edit access to. Files that you have view-only access to are visible on the Deleted files page, but you can't restore them. If you have a Dropbox Basic (free) or Plus account, you can recover any file or folder deleted in the last 30 days. If you have a Dropbox Professional or Business account, you have 120 days to recover deleted files.