PLANSAHEAD

Chief 8 is great, I have found it to be the most seamless migration ever and the CAD tools are so much better. Legacy plans also open well for me. However I have noticed a significant lag time opening 8, sometimes as long as two minutes. Has anyone else experienced this? Thanks.

Thanks for the reply Michael, I am just still pretty amazed, its a ten year old doing this. Many people use chief to sell their jobs; I do. The modeling looks fairly accurate to me, certainly enough to impress a couple looking to build a house. I see that the Barcelona furniture is as complete if not more so than CA. The selection of items is endless. She can put active programming on the TV in her living room. Believe me I do not want it to be so easy, but it is. The average customer could certainly use this to get themselves out of the gate so to speak and quite frankly I wouldn't blame them. Is the average person going to create a set of compliant drawings with this? No, but it still impacts our profession when they say, " Oh how long to draw a set of house plans, my kid does it in a half hour". You needn't convince me that is ridiculous, but I am thankful that I have an established client base and plenty of work because it will not be long before these apps do the structural work, the code checks, the wall bracing etc. I don't think the sky is falling, really around here, the design time IS the easy part, as regulatory approvals, winding thru Land Use departments and meeting time is about 75 % of my workload. But I do like the features that these simple apps have while it takes Chief (me anyway) hours to create a quality walk thru as good as this in a model that has already been created. It may be simple but its catchy, "fluff' maybe even, but its a tool to possibly sell a job, win the approval of a neighborhood group or just simply enjoy the 'experience' of one of your creations. Check these out. https://youtu.be/CsifgEM3G1Y https://youtu.be/e0t2zrQTR9Y

Here is the link to the park with water moving and people walking. The video quality is not that great but consider this is me sitting in my car pointing my cell phone camera at her phones screen to record it, its pretty good. https://youtu.be/wXOpyJDamhI

Hi all, Tony here a long time user and big fan of Chief,I've made a living using the software for over 20 years. But a lot of things have changed, one of them being that I see now, even my ten year old daughter can design houses on her cell phone. I am alarmed. I see features in a free application that surpass Chief Architect by leaps. Now I know that this silly app will not do the real grunt work that design professionals need to do to produce a full set of construction drawings, but it may be only a matter of time and in the meantime there are things that Sims Free does that Chief cant even come close to. People walking, dogs running, disco balls reflection all interactively as she moves around her 'model'. Easily. She creates parks with people arm in arm ballroom dancing, water flowing in the stream, a pet pushing its way out of a door, never mind a person coming outside to have a look around their back yard or up at the roofscape. We still have the same twenty Images of people that we had twenty years ago. Yes I know its possible to make your own images, I do, but we are talking about a TEN year old that with a free application that creates videos that rival and go beyond mine. The features are a bit cartoonish, the styles a little dated, but it seems to me that in the right hands, those can be updated and Voila, a product that at least on the surface is in some ways better than the software that I use. The bar has been raised; I for one have alwys used the 3d rendering features of Chief and would love to show some one walking out a door, or looking at the sunset from their shoreline home. Would really use it. What are the general thoughts on this people? Are we behind? Or are they just catching up?If you follow the link ,I have put up a sample of one of her houses. Notice how fluid the transitions are, how effortlessly she moves around the pace, how the walls and roofs are invisible with a on the fly w/ the push of an on screen button. Its great.Hey at the very least, I think I could put her to work ! Check out a few of my videos as well, all projects begun in Chief Architect. https://youtu.be/IiZnUXa2Vjg Tony Thompson Plans Ahead LLC Branford

RECENTLY I HAVE BEEN USING PDFS IN MY LAYOUTS ACCOMPANYING MY PLANS. WHILE IN THE LAYOUT OUT THOUGH I HAVE BEEN NOTICING, AFTER ABOUT 3 FILES OR PDFS, IT BEGINS TO LAG AND BECOME VERY DIFFICULT TO USE. IS THERE ANY WAY OF MAKING ALL THE FILES IN THE LAYOUT A LOWER DPI OR LOWER RESOLUTION? BUT WHEN THE TIME COMES OF PRINTING I CAN BRING THEM BACK TO REGULAR DPI OR RESOLUTION?

First of all Jon, thanks a great deal for pointing out that video. I actually watched the ENTIRE video and did a test and got it on the first try. Its scary to me how versatile this software is, how unimaginable the abilities of this program can be and even incredible that someone has such fantastic and in depth videos that illustrate its abilities. After watching, I dug deeply into my memory for the 4th grade geometry principles discussed in the video, plugged in some values in my roof dialogue boxes and voilà, and not only is it auto generated but all the roofs are mended and capped !!! I can do any shape, no need for symbols. The mere fact I have time to write this is that I came in very early expecting to wrestle with this and it has saved me so much time; and we know what that means. Thanks again Jon, and CA.

Hi all, I have a project for a local developer for whom I do a lot of work for and I need to mimic a certain roof style that 'adorns' several cupolas on his house. I have attached a picture of the house. I'm pretty versed in Chief, but this one has me stymied. Is there a simple way to replicate this roof shape, and when I mean replicate, I mean I need to use it in several different areas,at different lengths and widths, so I am unsure if a symbol would do it for me. Thanks in advance .

I agree that the icons look like abbreviated versions of the X6 symbol icons, and are much more 'cartoonish'. I put in these comments in Beta and they said something to the effect they will look at it. I do not like them, but have gotten use to them. There are some that look so close to one another that a more delineated and sharper image would be helpful as I zoom around my screen, but the increased functionality of X7 is so worthwhile that I have to congratulate Chief in the latest release, thanks.

Thanks for the reply. I was a Beta tester, but I did not know there was a forum dedicated to that testing phase. I did make a 'report' regarding this however. I too will adjust to the icons, although its kind of silly and also I do find them more difficult to distinguish from one another because of their fuzzy and blocky appearance. I do not have a lot of customers 'looking over my shoulder' while I work, I find the complexity (good) of the software precludes what used to be a routine revision session with clients sitting in. However my software is open and continuously on screen when they come in, and I think it would look more beneficial and valuable to me if the icons did not look like they were from Turbocad 1988. Again, a small point, not worth chastising Chief Architect (?) (formerly ART) over, because the program and upgrades are fantastic. And I loved the '80's..... Tony T

Good morning all. Is it just me or do the toolbar icons look a bit more 'cartoonish' or caricature like in X-7 ? They appear amateurish, like a $9.99 software program, and even a little blurry and not sharp to me. I know its a small point, but it seems like that feature has taken a step backwards instead of forward in looking more like a professional software program, kind of like Pong would look next to GTA or some newer gaming software. I have trouble enough with the size of the icons with my fading eyesight, but they appear bloated and unclear to me now. And like others I am experiencing extending lag time in plan regeneration. On the other hand, kudos to Chief with the latest release(s), I have had no bugs or real issues to speak of, even bringing forward decade old plans.....fantastic stuff ! Anthony Thompson Plans Ahead LLC Branford, Connecticut

Yes Joe, thanks, I see it now. Its a number input relative to the axis. In the 'old days' it was a simple command like 'labels inside' or something. Got it. I think I was looking for that since X-1 since the default settings seem to place the window labels smack in the middle of the Automatic dimension string.

Thanks but I did not see that option in the window schedule DBX after creating and opening a schedule. I do use the window schedule a lot, but think the option for window labels in plan view to appear inside the plan is a default setting somewhere else.

Hello all, I know there is a way to get the window labels to appear inside the floorplan as opposed to showing up on the outside the walls, but can not seem to find it. Did a search to no avail. Please help, tia. Tony T Plans Ahead LLC

Windows OS with V 6 manipulating Pdf's is horrible. Lengthy , laggy and taking six to seven minutes for a standard 24"x36" survey to go to layout. Several more minutes to get to the preview update. If I sniggle the border,another five minutes. I have a high powered XPS, can generally manipulate any images with ease. I just spent one hour trying to print a single sheet for a parking plan. I have been using chief for years, but this is one of the worst issues I can recall, I can not even manipulate a PDF. What gives?

I am trying to get X-6 running on another laptop and have successfully loaded it and use it but I am repeatedly getting this error message Cannot find or open pattern file: C:\ ........ CHIEFARC.PAT ......as seen in the picture. Is this a critical file? I cannot locate it in my other computer and X- 6 works great. Please let me know,thanks. Tony Thompson Plans Ahead LLC