HumbleChief

Maybe you are right Richard but for me I have NEVER used a more confusing floor structure interface than Chief's. Not only confusing but down right backwards and wrong when setting defaults and expecting them to behave as such. I've used the program for 20 years and still fight the illogic that goes in to setting floor/ceiling heights. Does that make me stupid? Maybe, and I don't doubt that my intellect can be suspect but there are so many things that simply make no sense (to me). The saddest part to me is that Chief has absolutely no desire (proven by the complete lack of interface changes and/or improvements) to create an easy to understand graphical interface for floor and ceiling heights/levels/stories/floors that even us morons can understand. I am fairly certain that the skill set to create a user friendly interface simply doesn't exist within the company and there seems to be no desire to either hire or teach that skill, again proven out by the years and years with no real changes. Please prove me wrong Chief, but the proof is in the pudding and this pudding is still very ,very confusing even though there might a slight improvement as you've illustrated.

Also remember that growing has its own risks and growing too fast can be fatal for your reputation. Can you find good help? I mean good help - we couldn't. Can you handle a LOT of work that an advertising campaign might bring in? It's each individual's call but growing slowly and organically (meaning growing within your client base, your true skill sets, word of mouth referrals instead of advertising) can create a slow growing, steady business that can survive the down times (which will come) as well as the good times.

I wonder how many busy Chief user here advertise heavily to stay busy. I don't and am very busy but I'm a one (sometimes 2) man shop. Anyone else had luck with advertising?

...other than find bad clients. Word of mouth is always the best but it does depend on your business model. We have businesses around here that advertise heavily, burn through lots of clients with a fair amount of unhappy clients - I've talked to them - but they are busy. If that's what you are looking for then you need a marketing plan that actually works and shows results. We chased google listings and all the other forms of marketing and all we got was crappy clients. All of our word of mouth clients were staller and remain clients to this day. Yup. But again depends on the business model you've chosen for your company.

I'd upgrade the hard drive set up - maybe the 1TB M.2 PCIe x4 SSD otherwise it looks pretty good.

Glad to help and glad you found some use from the videos. There are a LOT of helpful people here ready to lend a hand and one of the best forums for such things that I have been a member of.

Seems to be working now after a couple weird checks of that dbx - thanks Perry

Weird, I opened it and saw what I posted above, with the check box checked. Then I opened the dbx some other magical manner from another magical layout and it was not checked. I checked the box in that magical layout and now it seems to be working....Weird. REALLY appreciate the help!!!

Darn, Thought that was going to be it...

Cool and thanks for the response. I wasn't having the issue a while ago so perhaps the new update doesn't remember the printer choice? I'll live with it for now as calling tech or filing a report is a PIA and since no one else is experiencing it I'll have to write it off as user error or computer magic.

I call usually when I can confirm it's a universal problem and/or that it's not user error. I set it to print to Chief's PDF, print to PDF, close. I come back and it's set to my desk top printer. Change back to print to Chief PDF, print, close, rinse and repeat. Doesn't remember the Chief PDF printer. Just a bit annoying but not a show stopper. Did you notice our versions were not the same or was there a typo in there?

Thanks P

Complete print cycle to PDF. Not that big a deal to changes the settings each and every time but I thought it remembered the setting from a previous print. Maybe it's a setting I'm missing?

I guess I can assume that my computer is the only one that will not remember the previous printing setting like it used to? Nice to be unique...

Nice Mark....

Thanks Joe, learn a lot every time I do those vids...

Great point above...and this can be created with a curve bottom chord as well with a curved ceiling plane. All of the member sizes can be specified here:

Right you are and wrong I are about the lighting...wonder what's going on in the plan - oh yeah the plan....

There are additional lights but unless a light was added using the 3D>Lighting>Add Lights Chief's default light will remain. It could also be very bright for various reasons as other settings might have been changed. Adding a light using the 3D>Add lights command is a very simple test. Without a plan difficult to guess at all the options though. EDITED above

Anyone else experiencing this? Thanks

I think Perry is right and even though it looks like you've already 'added lights' you need to go to 3D>lighting> 'add lights' and add one from there. You can lower the lumens and get it out of the way but I could not find a way to turn off that light by any other means. Are there other options to turn off that light?

Yeah, thanks and am aware of those tips but was trying to keep the vid a reasonable length and usually run in to those foibles only when recording a video. Kind of a Murphy's law sort of thing when recording. I've changed the dims a thousand times in a thousand elevation views and, again because I was recording, I get to look like a bonehead. The hope is that the general method gets illustrated and any user errors aren't enough to detract from that general illustration. Thanks again for the feedback and like you suggested hopefully it will help others trying the same technique. Second take, I did NOT know about the double click the parallel tool - nice - and thank you...

One easy trick to remember is when you cut a simple cross section you can draw almost anything you want on to that section. Fills, slabs, colors, etc. Save the camera and all the 'drawings' will be saved with it. An remember you may not be seeing things because that layer may not be turned on in that section view.

Another custom truss created using the same tools. The reason for posting this is to show what's possible in Chief for the new users who really doubt the entire paradigm. Once you get used to Chief's tools they work pretty well....

Here's a couple long vids showing another option. Apologies to the Chief Experts....