Alaskan_Son

I don't know why you couldn't just copy to a thumb drive and move to new rig.

Ya, I don't think that has anything to do with it either. I operated for a long time with both my rigs without any issues until recent upgrades/updates.

Railing seems to work fine for me...at least with regard to the problem you are describing.

Yup. Without a plan or picture...

They say a picture is worth a thousand words...I say a plan is worth a thousand pictures.

Cool. Glad to hear it!!

I've never really studied this much until now. It looks like you are more or less correct though. The i7 offers more in the way of technologically advanced features, however its not necessarily newer tech. I stand corrected. I would still probably go for a newer model and the i7 if your budget allows. More and more software is requiring and/or utilizing more and more of the advanced features (multi core, hyper threading, and other techie jargon.) All that being said, my desktop is an i5 going on 6 years old. I just recently installed an SSD to replace the HD and my machine seems to be running better than ever with no signs of slowing down.

I would strongly recommend you get into the habit of attaching the plan or at least screenshots. It alleviates a lot of guesswork and usually gets you an accurate answer pretty stinkin' quickly.

I think you and I must be imagining 2 different things Perry. I'm envisioning a 2 story box with one room being completely open top to bottom (18-20' ceiling). If you simply make one room on the first floor with an 18 or 20' ceiling height, the walls will only draw on the first floor. If you build 2 stacked rooms and make one Open Below, the walls draw on both floors. Not saying one way is wrong or right, just that it depends on what you want to see.

I've been getting quite a few "Serious Errors" since upgrading to Windows 10 and/or X8 as well, although I'm not sure they've ever resulted in a crash.

...unless you want the walls displayed on both floors in plan view.

I don't deny there's a problem and I know Chief already acknowledged it although I thought it had been fixed. Anyway, out of curiosity, is there a particular reason you feel the need to block those?

CJ or Joe could be right with the alignment issues, but I just double checked to verify, and I can very easily recreate the issue...still hasn't been fixed Like I said though, simply clicking Rebuild 3D fixes it in those instances. Here are 3 quick examples. And for the record, simply clicking undo and then redo seems to have the same effect as Rebuild 3D...

Attach the plan for a better answer, but I've found this can often times be an odd bug within Chief. I've reported the issue in the past. Usually all I have to do is click "Rebuild 3D" and the problem fixes itself. If I remember correctly its almost always a problem where wall cabinets and full height cabinets meet each other.

Yep, or what Perry said. It really depends on what you're trying to do and how you want things displayed.

Tom, not sure exactly what you're talking about without seeing it, but from the sounds of it, what you need to do is build the second floor stacked right on top of the first and make the room type for the upper section "Open Below".

Which version of Chief are you using?

I just got back to the office and had a quick chance to take a look at your plan. Problem is that you have different room definitions for those foundation rooms. The numbers I have indicated (taken from the garage area) are both zero for your main structure... That zero stem wall height is essentially resulting in no wall to display. In the attached picture you should be able to see what I'm talking about. The top of slab and top of walls are at the same height. You can see "z-fighting" in some places where the top of wall and top of slab on the main structure are occupying the same space. Not sure exactly what your goal is, but if you just change the stem wall height to 1/16" the wall will show up.

It might not be. I don't know. I was just sharing my logic. i7 is just newer technology so it stands to reason that it will last a little longer.

I would just use polyline solids for the gussets (drawn in elevation view), and I would start by creating a CAD Detail From View, drawing polylines in that CAD detail, and then Cut and Paste Hold Position back into elevation before converting to a polyline solid. Starting with the CAD detail will give you some line work to start with and a lot more usable snapping properties. This thread might be of some use to you... https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/index.php?/topic/7867-using-cad-detail-from-view-as-a-drawing-tool/ There are a few videos in there with the basic idea.

If it's a more complicated truss design you're after... I would just draw it with polyline solids. You can even start with regular polylines and then use the Convert Polyline tool to convert them to polyline solids.

Joey is right... "...the others are going to chastise you..." You should really attach the plan. There are just too many variables.

You'll get a much quicker answer if you attach the plan. If you don't, you may ever get an answer because it depends so much on how you actually drew the plan.

I think this is about right. Performance isn't all that different. The bigger issue in my mind is newer technology vs. older technology. I think the i5 processor will start having compatibility issues sooner and will become obsolete sooner. This has been my driving factor when purchasing new computers as of late.

Okay, I thought we were talking about 2 different things. Under Build>Wall there is a tool called Hatch Wall which is what I thought you were talking about. What it sounds like you did was assign a FILL with a hatched pattern to your wall's MAIN LAYER (through the Wall Type Definitions dbx). FWIW, the 3 main layers involved are... Walls, Normal - This is the layer that your walls are put onto by default. If the layer is turned off, your walls will not display at all. If ONLY this layer (of the 3) is turned on, it will essentially draw 2 lines, the interior and exterior surface of the full thickness of your wall. Walls, Layers - This is the layer that will essentially draw your additional wall layers (drywall, sheathing, siding, etc.). Walls, Main Layer Only - If this layer is turned on, it will draw only the main layer of your wall. If you select the wall, you will see the entire thickness highlighted, but only the main layer will draw.