VisualDandD

Was not directed at you in any way. Just a general statement. You are always reaching out to help others figure out how to make chief draw something. I was just pointing out the obvious that just because one can draw something, does not mean it will "work" in the real world. I have spent almost 2 decades building. More than designing actually....so I tend to look at design from a different perspective. And as I am sure you have seen, we get many different levels of experience here on the forum. Even some that have no experience and buy chief thinking that if it draws it, then it must work. So like you, I was just trying to "help" from a different perspective. Much respect as always.

Really?.... There are many different types of people with various degrees of experience on here. Some have zero and just bought a program. I would hope to prevent people from making mistakes which will cost time and money to fix. I dont know of any engineer who would pass a structure like that. If they would, I would probably find another if they just had 2 center studs being the only supports in what should be a balloon wall. The aesthetic suggestions were just that....a suggestion. If he is happy with the design as presented but was offering a suggestion on how I felt it could be improved with little or no additional cost, and a better structure. I think NOT saying something is doing more a disservice.

That is a terrible design structurally and I dare say from and aesthetic as well as functional aspect, it could be better as well. You do need the load bearing ridge but with only two full length bearing members in that wall, it will be shaky as hell. If you HAD to accomplish this, I would be thinking a steel post MIN and bringing that wall up to a 2x6 at min. Your engineer might also consider one continuous built up header across the entire span to give the wall lateral support. This comes to the second part. I dont get the 2 operable slider thing. I never like that. I would do a single 4 panel unit with the two center panels operable. In the south standard header height is 83", so I would leave room for an 11 1/4 lvl above door (to take the load bearing ridge. I would have 4 2x6 studs between the slider and fixed unit running plate to roof line. (possibly a PSL col if necessary). To keep from having to break the vertical member, us a simpson HH6's for the lvl. You can then use a simpson HUC on the opposite side to catch the fixed window header. The HUC is a concealed tab and wont interfere with the HH6 which has an overlap on side of hanger to give you more lateral stability you will need for the center header holding the roof point load from the load bearing ridge. All in all, this change should be about the same money or less. (fixed units are cheap as heck, and the swap from two separate doors to one single unit should be very close). If raise the fixed windows up to match the other windows you have in the room, you wont need to temper them and that will be decent savings as well. In my opinion, a much nicer structural design with a better livability and better views. Just a thought and rough sketch attached.

Yes, this is an issue with chief. It would be nice to fix, but as another has said, I create a very small offset in the roof (gable side) to allow the eve to form.

I do WC w/ line for all the client drawings. I am pretty well versed in ray trace as well as using outside rendering products which I have used and produced some very good quality work....but, I cant see going photorealistic as being worth it. It takes 10 times longer (or more) to really get a good photorealistic render and I feel the the watercolor does just as good a job. Sometimes I think it is better as you dont get distracted by minor things that are not really important to the design. Just my observation.

In chief I find that bump maps are suitable for most things. What is nice about bumps is you can adjust right from the DBX to suit intensity. With 'normal' you have to do all your tweaking outside chief. Generating a normal map from a 2d picture takes some software and even then it is 'faking it'. There are a few programs out there. Crazy Bump is one of the best know and people regard as easiest to use if you enough to justify the cost. I use an online converter which gives good results and is free. It can be a pain to extract the texture file you are looking for to modify. Chief has them all compressed. EG, here were 7 different normals I made trying to find the right texture for this brick. In the end, the bump map looked just as good and took one shot. Normal 6 was the best for me. You can take almost any of those normal maps and use as a bump map and adjust right from the dbx the intensity and get good results.

Cant agree more. Especially when doing a lot of manual roof editing. This is a method I use a lot. I use poly line subtraction. One thing some might not be aware of is that it works on many things. (roof planes included). Expanding on this method, if I am adding interest to a roof, and want elevation offsets for example. I can do a polyline sub to break the roof into separate planes for example. Powerful tool. But still would be nice to say select a segment and delete all breaks between the next two selected points. Here is a vid of PLS

I still wish you could place a door header at proper height (83"), and not get a piece of molding applied to the bottom. "Standard" headers are 83" for 6-8 doors and the only way around this is the make the door taller and then use custom labels. Wish there was a definition for "door threshold" in the dbx so something this simple could me done right.

Wow! Really nice stuff. Chiefs brick is really lacking. These are SUPER nice. They also lend VERY well to bumpmaps. Just a quick example attached. Nicest brick by far that I have seen to use. Thank you!!!

Again, I will make my point about questioning are these increasing levels of security actually increasing software sales as Chief. Heck, people who want to steal software are going to steal it. I just did a search for "Chief Architect torrent" and it took all of 30 seconds to find several cracked version of X9 , along with many for previous versions. The funny thing is in the notes, it says " There are also full libraries for download etc. How much time and effort going into software security is worth it? Why not like many other softwares, just license to a machine with no internet required? Does this extra step really mean that a guy who is going to illegally download a Chief crack, is now going to buy the software? I dont think so. Chances are....his will still work just fine. It is when these security features start causing issues for regular users, (while not really preventing software theft), that they dont make a lot of sense. Seems a lot like the TSA checkpoints. As loyal paying users, we are the 80 year old grandmas getting full body searches, while the guys stealing the software are still walking right through security. Just my take, but at some point the additional verification are pointless as they are still not stopping people from stealing it. Invest those resources into some better construction doc tools and sales WILL go up. In my opinion the people who are stealing chief would not buy it anyway....so stop trying to fight that battle especially when the attempt makes dificulities for paying users. Just my take.

Yep....that was definitely it. Been struggling with it for sometime. Never put 2 and 2 together! It just does not make any sense. On the plus side, it is like having a new computer. Spending today tweaking my fresh install. I probably would not have to done it but I am past that point, so I might as well make the best of it. With Win10, it is actually pretty easy. It has a "refresh" function where it reloads the OS but leaves all your files intact. I used a separate data drive and for years, when I install anything, I save the install file to a folder in there. Makes reloading simple. Just ticking off the list.

Subb'd for later reading. Thanks for the help Mick

Nope....nothing in chief tied to any other drives (other than C). That was weird to me too! Yea....who would have guess this..... The crazy stupid thing is how long I have been living with this! Again, I appreciate your guys help. Just the suggestions kept me going down the trail to figure it out. X10 here I come. Next on the spring cleaning is a brand new annoset/layerset that I have had in mind. My SAM goes back 3 years!!!! About time I did a good template ;D

Ok guys. I figured it out. NEVER in 1,000,000 years. I have been dealing with this for so long, and what a stupid thing was causing it. So, I did a clean windows install, no programs added in just Chief and NO difference. Very frustrated, I leaned back in my chair contemplating my next move. I noticed my DVD drive flashing. I opened it to find an old backup disk I had tried to read, but remember it did not read right, so I forgot about it. (had some old files non chief related). I have no idea how long it has been in there, but the scratches on the DVD made it unreadable. Just for the heck of it, I pulled it out. Launched Chief and WHAMMO, in about 1/2sec the library pops right up! I shut it down and tested it again. BOOM! Fast as lightning. One more time to confirm....and third time, still comes up in a flash. Seems the unreadable DVD disk was interfering with the program at certain times. Weird only on those libraries and only at certain times. I am glad I finally got to the bottom of this, as I have been living with it for waaaay too long. Cant believe it was something that stupid!!! Thanks all for the help. Your encouragement, kept me on the track to get it solved. Just figured I would share and mark as "solved" in case of the weird chance it every happens to someone else. Now I get the fun job of putting all the software back on ;). Guess it is time to make the leap to X10 as well. The only good thing is with a new install, everything will be nice and snappy, I'll take the time to set it all up good! Cant wait to dive into new features of x10. Have not figured out the new saved plan views. Seems annosets have been re prioritized.

Biting bullet and reinstalling windows. Will be a pia since I will have to reinstall all software, but it would be less time then I have spent this far. Only downside is I don't have my x9 product key saved. It's no longer in digital locker. I have a copy of install file, just not key. Weird they remove x9 when x10 is not official yet. Oh well, I can text on x10 and see if the new windows install changes anything. I can call Mon and get my x9 key. I'll update if it works. Going to install everything one by one. Chief being first and see if I have conflicts....

Yep. Also experiencing in a "fresh" install of X10. This is what is making me finally start trouble shooting. I thought I probably just had some junk in my library it did not like. But that is not the case. Since I just made the jump to X10Beta last night, I chose to do a clean install and not carry over my library. When I had same issues, I realized something is not right. I am leaning towards GPU related (even though I dont see any spikes) because if I hide "selection" pane, it does not have to show the items in library. You can navigate all around and no slow down. As soon as you try to see them, that totally grinds to a halt. I am thinking it is happening in other large cat items such as Architectural as well. In the resource monitor, chief descriptions changes to "not responding", but if I wait long enough, it goes back to norm and shows cat.

Yea...I am not seeing any gpu activity. Nope files installed in default c drive location. On X10, I experimented with moving them to a data drive on my system. (x 10 lets you move it around). It made no difference. Same lag in same areas. This leads me to rule out the hard drive. I just tried this. Same exact way. Open new plan, click on library browser. Now here is something new I tried. It wont do it if I turn off Selection panel. If I turn off "Show/hide selection panel" there is no lag at all. This does not let you preview the whole list of materials visually. This is why I am wondering if it is a graphics issues. When locked up and hourglassing, there are no spikes under any parameters, and none go down when the list finally generates.

Guys, I did a screen cap with both X9 and x10 showing same issue. Thanks again for any ideas!

Thanks guys. It is weird. I am not sure if it is video related or not. But very strange that both X9 and X10 behave the same using their unique libraries. (meaning I did not carry over X9 into the X10 install) I have also isolated HD issues, since in X10 it allows you to move library around. I did this on X10 and no difference. @Mick The vid was my X9 lib. If I click right on the materials folder (where it attempts to shows the "selection panel" it will bog as well as it has to access those slow libraries. I figured out I could navigate down the tree and isolate which ones were slow. I am hoping this will lead to some ideas for a fix, but it is very strange since BOTH versions are doing this with their own libraries. Again, I appreciate all the help.

I just did a fresh install of X10 with NEW core library. Performs same in X9 as X10. (Separate libraries) Here is a screen cap of exactly what it does.

OK, I have figured out something. If I navigate down the directory tree, I was able to isolate what boggs my system down. Specifically under core: "Fabric and wallcoverings" "Flooring" "siding and paneling" Everything else pops right up. Even tile which seems to be as complex as the above.... Does it in both X9 and X10. Any stabs at this one?

ssid is a Corsair Force GS. It is just using stock windows driver. I could update driver, but dont think it is that as see below. (same issue moving lib to another browser) I am working on a fairly fresh install of Win10. Only a few months old since I re-did my install. Cant remember if it was doing it before. I also did not think it was HD as X10 allows you to move library. I moved my X10 to a conventional data drive on my PC. Same result. Almost 1 min to see the materials folder. I also updated my Nvida driver just as a shot in the dark, but that did not do anything. It is only in chief that I see any lags, and only when opening larger library folders. There was one stone cat in the manuf. Coronado stone. It is almost 3/4gb with big textures. It tonally locks up for minutes if I click on it. Something about opening larger libraries.......

Expanding on this idea. There is a truth in life. If people want to steal something, they will. The idea of a software company needing to make their software company needing it to be so secure that it cant be worked around. But who is this stopping? It is only stopping people who would not have bought the software anyway. Sure, they got on a torrent site and got a "free" copy of chief (except library probably wont work). Is this really adding to Chiefs bottom line? I dont think so. I dont think those people would have bought the software anyway. Most people using 'cracked' software just like to collect things I think and get off on getting them for free. Chief is not a bootleg copy of an audio file. It is a professional CAD tool, that takes major investment of time to become proficient with. Are those teenagers in their parents basement really gonna get a bootleg copy and then find a way to populate the library, and then go really use the software? I just dont see it. I have no problem paying for something that I use as much as I do and keep revenue coming in for chief along with improvements. (some I want more than others ). I think Chief may be risking alienating some long time users with some valid points. I am in the camp I would just like to register once on a machine my valid copy. I dont like to work from laptops (at all). I am addicted to my workstation with 3 monitors, a programmed gaming keypad and 2 mouses. I also NEVER want to draw in front of a client. Just the way I use the product. Just a thought. Crooks will be crooks. Its my opinion that making the software harder to crack, does not necessarily generate more customers.

10-4. But I guess I just have to take your word for it in this case. What makes it look bad is when another poster inquires about it, and HIS post is deleted. Again, I still dont have any idea what is going on. Just does not look good. This forum is usually made up of pretty even headed guys (and gals .) I just like to make those judgements on my own. Anyway. Back on topic of no hardware locks. I have debated this internally for sometime. I really dont like the reliance of a server somewhere to have access to my work. BUT i have lived with it as it seems to be the way things go these days. But....as I do in other aspects of my life. "What if"...... What if Chief closes its doors and turns off the lights? Valid question for sure.

10-4. I just installed what you recommended. "Deep" is an understatement! I think I saw too much! Not sure if I am ready to tackle that. My computer knowledge is enough to be dangerous but ends at some old dos command I still remember. I think I will call tech support and see if they have any ideas. Heck, I make a call to them once ever 2 years on avg, so maybe they can help. Thanks!