madcowscarnival

Chopsaw, I rebooted the computer twice before my posts just to make sure. Hopefully its not a hardware error. Also updated my sig so you could see this machines specs. My work machine is about the best I can build with Win7. Glennw, The first issue was solved, but not sure why it happened. 2nd issue, that suggested setting is what I was looking for, thanks. Third issue is difficult to describe. When in layout, say I go to place text, edit my text and get out of that dialog box. When I'm finished, the cursor stays active with the "text" command, ready to place an additional box. Usually, at this point I'd hit escape a couple of times to cancel out of the text command, and any previous command, to get back to the point where the cursor will simply select objects for editing. The issue is when I hit escape a couple of times, it does not return the cursor to a default state, i.e. it remains ready to place additional text boxes. I have to manually select the "pointer" function on the toolbar to get the cursor back to an object select state. I think I'm going to chalk this up to hardware/memory issues as well as my primary machine performs as I "expect" it to during the described operations. Thanks for the help folks.Hopefully I can milk this machine along for a while. I realize its specs are far below the minimum for Chief, it just happens to function with it. Primarily I'm using this machine for old ACad and spreadsheets, which is pretty easy on it.

Several strange things happened with Chief today. I'm going to go over all of them, though several are already solved. 1. On opening chief, the only thing on the screen, even with a file open, is the 'File Menu'. No toolbars, shortcuts, etc. I've never used any custom toolbars. Fix was reset through default preferences. This led to... 2. After toolbar reset, everything was back and in the places I recognize. However, when starting a leader (for instance), picking a point brings up an array of grayed polar lines that I can move along. I've never had this function appear before, and don't need it. Also similar occurrence when moving a polyline edge, it brings up a grayed-out segmented line with stops at 1". I don't even know how to describe these issues to google to determine how to turn them off. 3. This is the problematic one. I opened a previous layout to resave and use with new file. Edit my Sheet '0' no problem. Go to sheet 1, where I like to place a text box in the title block for a sheet label. I sent the open plan to layout, no issues. However, I can not select the send item to bring up edit handles or pan function. My text box function is still active. Pressing escape did not go back to a default no function, text box still active. I did eventually figure out that I could manually select the pointer icon and go back to selecting normally but do not recall this ever having been the case before. Coming from AutoCad (old command line style) my finger is always poised at the ESC key and it always seemed pressing it would take me back through commands to default "nothing". The above described actions, does it sound like a computer error (primarily #1). This computer is older, running an insufficient graphics card, but until tonight, had functioned completely normally, just a little slower than my work machine. I'll appreciate any replies but may not see them until tomorrow later afternoon. Thanks folks.

Looks like a font issue, I don't know the specific solution, but my workaround would be to try and print or save as an image file, PNG or otherwise, then import that file into Chief. My issue a while back (not related to Chief) was a PDF would demonstrate correctly on screen, but printed with all the heading text in wingdings. Never corrected the issue, made the original designer print hard copies for me.

Kamingk, I had your same type of reservations when I first started posting on this forum, primarily as my plans are basic and more focused on structural information than the high-level finished plans you see by other users. It seems everyone here is very professional in their forum interactions. People who produce simple plans aren't going to take advanced plans and try to reproduce, people with advanced plans already know how to produce amazing data with Chief. Very often there is data/settings/events that are so much simpler to open the plan and quickly check rather than try to explain the process. I think you should give it a shot, the answers you receive will no doubt solve the problem. If it is a complex solution, you may even get a video made and posted back, a truly amazing and free resource with some of the most proficient minds using ChiefArchitect. EDIT: If you decide to post the plan, close out CA first, then upload.

That's it. Just to temper some expectations though: you already have a very fast machine, the m.2 drive is about 6X faster than a SATA SSD (3500 MB/s R/W to 530 MB/s), but in "real world" terms you probably won't notice it quite as much. Also, Carmel Hill, that will be a top shelf machine for years to come. I'd bump to 32GB RAM if your budget allows.

Yes, exactly that.* * - enthusiastic caveat here: you will have to clone your boot drive, but the software from Samsung is very straightforward.

That's a good board, I run its little brother. You can literally plug and play an m.2 into the native slot, use Samsungs clone software (with a Samsung drive like evo 970 or so) and have a native m.2 boot drive

And if you're not sure what your MOBO is, and really for anyone else interested in their hardware specs, I'd recommend CPU-Z from CPUid (www.cpuid.com). Lightweight system device reader.

Adam, what MOBO are you running? It surely supports PCIe. There are PCIe to m.2 adapter cards that "can" function as boot drives with nearly the same speed as a native m.2 slot. I put the quotes in there as some OS and MOBO cannot boot through PCIe. However, in my limited reading up on Windows 10, it seems that OS has drivers built-in to permit that type of booting.

OP, that original rig had plenty of specs, I doubt you'll notice a marked difference between the two particularly in Chief. Biggest update you might be able to do (if not in already) is upgrade to m.2 SSD. @Rich_Winsor, I too build my own rigs and keep Win7 primarily to keep using older programs. Just recently built a new one as I was beginning to have mobo or HDD errors. If you're planning on building another one get a board with an m.2 socket. It was difficult getting it going but it is almost ridiculous how quickly AutoCAD, Chief and QB will open.

My apologies, it should read "works just like any other drive, but nothing stored locally..." Windows reads it as a normal drive, 319GB used / 168 free, is actually the capacity of the cloud account.

Thanks, I edited the new screenshot to remove some more info.

Yes, the mapped drive functions just as any other drive, nothing stored locally. For instance, if I open an AutoCad file on my work computer and forget to close out, then try to open the file on my home machine, it will report that it's open on another computer and create a read-only instance of the file. I don't know anything about collaborative use, as I only access the file myself.

@HumbleChief just really quick, can you edit out my attachment on the quote? It may contain mapping info to my OneDrive. Replying to your question shortly

Here's a screen shot of my computer drives. I only log in to the onedrive once after restart or lost internet connection. That ExpanDrive looks handy for other users though, thanks.

@HumbleChief really? I did not know that. Unfortunately it seems, as I'm on Windows 7, its not possible to map dropbox (not able to use "an app"). I do use it manually for sharing files with clients as necessary. Though with large global limits on email, that's the quickest for me.

I feel like a shill always adding unrequested info about microsoft One Drive. But, the biggest advantage for me (working on multiple computers) is it is a mappable drive, so your computer sees it as just another hard drive. I had no issues working off of it, not storing the file on my local drive, but I have pretty good internet as well. There is no need to sync, auto or manual, and you can set up a local hard drive backup from the mapped drive (SyncToy).

I've been previously told to use PNG, which I do with great success. I believe the value of the PNG is scaled graphics which you wouldn't get with a jpg that only has as good of a resolution as it was originally saved or printed to. I have not checked my final file size with it, but operation within the program is much faster.

We not only have all of our hard drive data, but even paper files back to the 70's (Engineering firm). I also have boxes of 3.5" floppys from construction and inspection projects and boxes of ZIP drives. I suppose one day I'll need to clear a bunch out, but there hasn't been a pressing need for space and I do have functional readers for all the data (which is getting really difficult).

Just out of curiosity, is there any particular reason to delete previous versions other than good housekeeping? I've kept all my previous versions and could pull them up and use them, if there was ever a need to.

On a previous post a while back, after someone recommended I just call CA about an update, they wound up shooting me what felt like a very fair price from X6 to X10. I don't precisely recall what it was, but it felt like a mistake on their end. This is basically a hobby program for me as well, but I do want to try to stay current and entry-level proficient.

An additional option that had been given to me in a similar post is use .PNG file type. I believe that PNG offers a better file size to resolution ratio and it barely slows CA down. Especially in details from code where I desire a higher resolution instead of converting a PDF to a higher-res jpg which can become a large file quickly.

Thanks Renerabbit. I figured it was an easy solution, and had tried the "extend downward" but didn't realize the need to change side walls to gable.

This seems to be the same plan as the previous post, but the only way I'm aware of to make CA do this is rotating the baseline angle. I've never seen the join tool do that, only manually.

Renerabbit, slightly off-topic, what auto roof method did you use to extend the slope down on the garage bump-out? I know its easy with manual, but I'm curious about auto settings there.