TheKitchenAbode

Here's a recent discussion with Intel VP William Holt indicating efficiency will be a major focus. http://www.pc-specs.com/news/19345/intel-vp-calls-effective-end-to-moores-law-with-focus-on-efficiency-over-performance Graham

Larry - They already have a quantum computer at MIT, this technology is being worked on by a number of companies and institutions. They make Big Blue look like a snail. I believe it was IBM that just announced a hybrid Photon processor, this is where photons are being used to replace traditional electron based circuits. http://www.colorado.edu/news/releases/2015/12/23/breakthrough-light-based-microprocessor-chip-could-lead-more-powerful-computers​ http://www.dwavesys.com/quantum-computing With this kind of technology a holo-deck could be here sooner than we think. Todays VR with headsets might not have very long before it becomes obsolete. Graham

Larry, if you look at the "top end" 4th, 5th and now 6th generation I7 consumer desktop CPU's from intel there is not really a huge performance difference. Yes there are improvements but it's not like the 6th gen's are two or three times faster than the 4th or 5th gens. Next leap will be in hybrid photon architecture and then quantum. When the latter arrives we will all be out of a job! VR is certainly going to push things along, more so in the GPU arena, same goes for 4K and higher resolution monitors. Hopefully this will be more successful than 3D TV. The reality is that the "desktop" CPU market is in decline and has been for a number of years. The new growth markets are the likes of mobile devices (phones, tablets, watches fanless notebooks), smart autonomous cars, appliances and the likes. Most of these applications don't really require more processing power as such, they need to be highly energy efficient, self cooling and small. This is also trending into the server market where energy costs are a data centers greatest cost when coupled with their cooling costs. Graham Graham

Possibly more relevant is that companies such as Intel have recently indicated that they will be focusing their efforts on making their processors more efficient versus faster. Seems that the changing market towards mobile computing is driving this. The impression I get is that they feel the current consumer market does not really need significantly faster processors and that their current technology is reaching it's limits concerning raw speed. It's likely that in the next few years the only option if one needs significantly more horsepower will be a dual Xeon configuration. Graham

Interesting, but they also indicate that these new chips currently cost 10 times that of their current top of the line consumer GPU. Aimed at high end server market. Graham

The "not responding" means that the program is either tied up processing something or is waiting for something it needs to finish a process. While in this state the program can't execute the next command. To erase a measurement line are you using the delete command or the Undo. Delete should be much faster than an Undo. Thought this recent purchase was a pretty good deal. Had been watching the Dell site for a few months as they are always changing pricing and configurations. All of a sudden a configuration with the overclocked Skylake I7 6700k showed up for $1299 before tax. Did not take the SSD upgrade as they wanted about $450 for it. Although the SSD is a new PCLe NVMe which are significantly faster than other SSD's I was not willing to pay about 35% of the system price for it. Will wait for prices to drop and then get one. The Alienware R3 is really compact and very quiet, about 1/3rd the size of my former Dell workstation. Graham

That will be a tough one. Your jpg pic is square and the plate is round. You will likely need to take your pic and crop it round to eliminate the wood and possibly size it to as close as possible to the plate objects size. Then the stretch to fit should produce a reasonable result. Graham

Sherry - Yes they would be safe in your User Folders. These are independent and unique to your system. Graham

If you downloaded them before they were removed from the Chief Catalog Download site then you will have them on your system and if you migrate your catalogs to X8 they will move over. It's just that they no longer exist in the Chief Catalog Download site. Not sure but I think they might be removed if you initiate an Update all Catalogs from the Library menu. Graham

There is a known issue concerning old OEM recovery partitions preventing Windows 10 from installing. I believe Dell, HP and Lenovo systems have this potential issue. Had this on a ThinkPad. Deleted the old recovery partition and then Windows 10 installed properly. Graham

There have been noted problems with user accounts being corrupted when upgrading to Windows 10. Had this happen on one of my systems. If this happens there can be some weird effects as certain permissions may not be intact. My so,ution was the same as Justins, create a new admin user account and delete the former one. Everything worked fine after this. Graham

Have not looked at the plan but there are times when the fixtures do not properly locate. You can open up the light fixtures DBX and set the ceiling offset or in an elevation view drag the fixture down to the underside of the cabinet. Also, there are two types of fixtures in the catalog, ceiling mount and cabinet mount. Graham

Here are my exterior view results. Everything seems to be behaving correctly. First pic photon mapping off, second pic photon mapping on, 9 pasess for both. Graham

Barrett - on my simple model it makes a difference if the camera is exterior versus interior view. Problem still exists when photon mapping is turned off. Also if you look closely at the cabinets within the darkest band (triple pane overlap) you can see that there is also some type of magnification thing going on. Graham

Glen - if you raytrace with "Use Camera View Settings" checked then the Auto Adjsut Glass Properties has some impact, though very little. If you raytrace with "Use Camera View Settings" unchecked then there is no effect. Graham

No answer but there is definitely a major issue as to how multiple layers of glass are handled. The attached raytrace render has three panes of glass as a room divider. Where things look proper there is no overlap, camera is looking through only one pane. The completely blacked out region is where all three panes overlap. Where there is a 2 pane overlap the main interior is ok but the window is grayed out. As Trump would say "This is a real Mess"​. Anyone have a solution? Graham

Best to put Chief, the OS, programs and main files on the SSD. That way you will get maximum performance. You should also notice an improvement in your catalogs as these are disk based. Graham

Not sure of this has any relationship to the zoom/mouse issues, but since using X8 I have had a number of instances where a camera will all of a sudden drastically change/jump out of position. Seems to happen when switching tabs, have to close the camera view and click the camera again to get the view back. This is on saved cameras, normally if a saved camera view changes and you close the tab it will ask if you wish to save the new position, in the issue described above it does not ask this, it just closes the tab. Have not done a new plan in X8 as of yet, this is on plans that have been upgraded from X7. Graham

There is also a specific floor tool for this. Build, Floor, Floor Material Region. Graham

Thanks David - Just posted this under "Suggestions" Graham

If the invisible wall is just for the purpose of defining the floor material area then get rid of it and just use a material region or a polyline solid as Dennis suggests. Graham

Not aware of any need unless you are in a region where you are frequently without WIFI. If I know this will occur I activate Chief on my laptop before heading out or just tether to my cell phone for internet activation. Graham

Just wondering if the issue is that the wall height is less than the door height plus the header/framing height total. Never done this but if the wall height is only say 84", would Chief still automatically insert a standard 80" door into the wall? Vinnie you mention that the wall will not fill in above the door, maybe it's height needs to be inreased a bit or door height reduced or the framing reduced. Graham

Absolutely Lew, in my opinion SSA is a bargain. Always up-to-date, access to all catalogs, training videos and great tech support. If you are using Chief for business/profesional purposes it only makes sense. Graham

As mentioned there is the wall material region method. I clad the walls and create curbs, sills and the likes with partitions. Tile materials are then applied to these and adjusted accordingly. This method allows me to easily dimension all views and control every element. Partitions also conform to all snap behaviours and can be manipulated in all views. Graham