Hatrak

That I am.

Every time I come on this forum I find the format has changed changed. Takes a little bit to figure out. Anyway, got a problem that has me totally puzzled. I have a plan that I have had to change to satisfy my client. It has three decks that changed in size. No problem. I changed those a week ago. Yesterday I changed the size, shape and location of the post footings to satisfy the contractor, eliminating the original ones on the plans. I saved the new changes and checked my layout to make sure the changes were transferred to the appropriate page. They were. Now I am placing roof trusses and each time I make a change on the plan, all my prior changes on the deck footings revert back to the pre-change style and location. Anyone have an idea as to what is going on?

That was one of the options I had thot of if I could find a solution to the problem. However, problem is solved. Thanks anyway.

Thanks all. Appreciate all the input. I can go take may nap now.

I have downloaded both Cutepdf Writer and pdf995. Both seem to work the same. Neither has a 24x36 paper selection. But both have either 22x36 and 24x48. I am assuming the 22x36 simply chops the paper height 2" but does not affect the image.

Ant suggestions of a good pdf software? Anyone?

I think I know the problem. Going to have to download a different pdf software. Before I installed a new hard drive I used pdf995. I can't use Chief 's pdf printer as that is not available for X5. Being that I am retired (sort of), haven't seen the advantage of upgrading considering the cost.

I not sure what you mean by the 'Chief' pdf printer. Didn't know there was such a utility. Whatever, I need to send the pdf to the truss company so they can print it on their plotter. I am using Microsoft PDF.

It has been a long while since I have been on this forum. Looks a lot different. Printing an 11x17 layout to PDF no problem. Try to print to PDF 24x36 different story. Everything looks fine on screen, but PDF will only print image at 8 1/2 x 11 no matter the paper size. Anyone know why? I need to send truss specs to the truss company and it needs to be at 24x36 for their plotter.

We will find out how things work out this week. Thanks for all the input, guys.

My son in law is the one doing this and that is his plan. Thanks Mick.

We are going to try a dual-boot (think that's the term) with the old hard drive with Vista. Chief worked fine with Vista before but booting up just took way too long....and a few other problems. If that does not work, will probably load Win 7. The laptop is working great now so really want to make Chief work. Thanks for the info.

Yup. Its pretty much what I suspected. The fault is in the video card. Apparently this card does not work correctly in Win 10, for what ever reason (it is 10 yrs old). And because it is integrated it doesn't leave me with much of an option. I suppose I can remove Win 10 and install Win 7 and see if that works. Kind of a hassle tho. Thanks for the info.

Never been a problem before. Been using it for 10 yrs and always worked fine. Just wondering if there is something in the setting with Chief, but am drawing a blank. My whole purpose was to try to upgrade this laptop rather than buying a new one. It upgraded just fine. This is the only problem I've encountered.

Eric; Drivers up to date. NVIDIA GeForce Go7600. Has always worked fine in the past with no problems. Sufficient for need.

Here's the skinny: Installed a solid circuit hard drive in my Vista laptop, loaded Win 10 and increased the Ram. Works fantastic now. Loaded Chief X5 (I am retired so see no need to spend $2400 to upgrade nor another $1300 or more for a new laptop). No problem. Loaded fine and boots up fast. Works just great except for one thing. It will not render in 3D. I get a copy of the plan page but no 3D render. Split screen show the 3D page as a blank (after it blinks a few times). I've loaded and reloaded too many time to count, tried "troubleshooting" and "compatible" mode. But no change. Noting wrong with the graphics card or anything else. A wee bit frustrated. Don't really want to call tech support as I will get charged for the time. Anyone have the answer???

If I were to have upgraded every year it would have cost me as much as if were to upgrade at this point, about $2400. I suspect that in December Chief will have a special again and may consider. But on the other hand, by then I will have probably liquidated all my assets and will be on my 50' boat in the Caribbean relaxing in the sun.

I did consider updating in December when there was a special for $17xx. But missed it. Not too sure the expense for me is worth it being that I am retired and only do a limited number of design projects a year and so far X5 is seemingly adequate. I am sure there will be another special pricing again at the end of the year and will maybe consider it again then. Actually this is the first time I need to do an addition remodel with a gambrel roof.

Well Duh! I should have known. Foolish me. Thanks Eric.

Am I missing something? Can't seem to find anything on building a gambrel roof except in an old X1 manual and that doesn't work at all. I can build it manually by splitting each roof section and changing all the specifications and manually connecting them. Takes a lot of time but would seem there must be a better way. I am working on a house that has a four sided gambrel roof structure. Thoughts, anyone?

Mick: Turns out the install was pretty simple, that is after trying the normal route. Download the X5 install file. Right click on it and then click on "Troubleshoot compatibility". When completed click on"Test the program". When the Setup Wizard appears click on"Next". It should install from there. At least it did for me. Hoping now I can install all the additional library files i have saved.

Just spent 50 minutes with tech support and after a few tries X5 is now downloaded on the new laptop. However, as was stated to me, because Windows 10 does not support X5 there is no guarantee that X5 will continue to work w/o future problems. So for now it works but may have to dual boot with Windows 7 in the future.

Mick: My PC has Windows 10 with Chief installed but it was already installed before upgraded from Windows 7 to 10. It is my new laptop that is giving me the problems. David: Tried 3 times to install X5 and one time each X3 and X4. Always get the same error message after almost entirely installed. Yesterday a sale rep at Chief that told me X5 is not compatible with Windows 10. Good to know others have been successful. I will try again today. Thanks.

Well, this is all new. I haven't been on Chief Talk in 75 yrs. It all looks so different. Anyway, purchased a new laptop and attempted to install Chief. It didn't work. Got an error message and could not install. Because I am retired, well sort of, I have seen no reason to spend the money to upgrade from X5. It would be nice but not necessary. I still do some design and layout work but not enough to warrant the added cost. I was told by a sales rep at Chief that X5 will not install on Windows 10. However, and a big one at that, I have X5 installed on my PC which is Windows 10. Anybody have similar experience and or, better yet, a solution? So far the only solution I see is to spend the $2400 (like that is what I am going to do!) to upgrade Chief or struggle thru with my slow 10 yr old laptop. Would appreciate any comments. David Hedrick (ret)

Don't think that would work, Larry. Because it extends the main roof, it has to be the same pitch. What's a bit misleading, is that in both the article mentioned above, as well as what is shown in the X1 reference manual I have, only three examples are shown, while excluding the extended one. I just natually thot that was the only automatically way it could be done, so just glossed over the "extension" mention. Silly me!