AvoyeDesign

I remember a while back some discussion around this font being a proprietary font that is subject to the licensing agreement that comes with Chief. This came up because users here were circulating the font to other users who did not have the newer version of Cheif that it was first packaged with. I could be wrong on this, but if not, they probably have a good reason to lock that font to Chief only for Mac users, perhaps something they can't do on PC.

I have had this problem as well. It is annoying, but it actually taught me the value of unblocking all text blocks when placed in the plan. To many blocks in the plan weighs it down significantly. I would prefer though if we could add text to library without blocking it.

I've never had an owner bring me their own design. They've given me sketches and ideas, but it takes a lot of work on my part for it to become a design, which makes it my design. I've never sold rights back to a client, but I absolutely will not use the same design anywhere near their property.

And to comment on your quote of my suggestion, repeat several times for the same cad block when you realize you missed something.

Some things I've learned over the years: Every time I take a design in a significant new direction, I create my own "archive" folder in the client's project folder and do a "save as" of the previous version. Then I carry on with the new design idea using the active file. If it doesn't pan out, I save it, close it, and move it to the archive folder and go back to the last iteration. It is easier to keep track of this then to go into chief's autosaves. For remodels and additions: I begin by creating a full as-built model in chief. I don't half ass this part either; I make sure it has everything that is of interest to the design and eventual drawings, including windows, doors and features that will appear on as-built elevations, even in areas that aren't going to change. I save this file with the description "as-built." I then do a save-as with this file and rename it with the descriotion "proposed." Now I am free to fly away with all the changes. It can take an hour or two to set all this up before I even start designing a remodel, not to mention the time on site, but it saves me headache in the long run. I always run separate "as built" and "proposed" files for every remodel. If needed, I will convert the "as built" plan to cad lines and import it into the "proposed" plan file to show demolished walls, etc. Organization: I have created a number of tools to help me work, and they all started as simple Excel spreadsheets that I've added to and have made more complex over the years. I use a project worksheet template that I copy and save-as for each new project. It has about 4 tabs of code and bylaw review information, a tab for notes, a tab for my timesheet, an analytics tab that tracks productivity, and the most powerful tab, the checklists. This tab has ~150 lines of items to check over as I do various drawings in a set. That sounds like a lot, but it is organized very efficiently for the work flow that I prefer, and follows in a logical order to prevent reduncancy and errors. It ensures that my drawings are consistant from project to project, and helps me to attack a project small pieces at a time, instead of being overwhelmed by it. I use another template spreadsheet for each project to manage assemblies. Before I copy and save-as, I add new assemblies that I need, so that they are available for the next project. After it is saved for a specific project, I remove those I don't need. Another tool I have is a project scheduler. It pulls data from all my active projects, right off their spreadsheets, and puts up a sort of dashboard of my workload. When projects are complete, I remove them from this tool and add them to a metrics spreadsheet. I track all my time for specific stages of a project, and sort projects by size. This allows me to see how efficient I am, and gives me a powerful data set to estimate future projects. After many years of using Chief, I find that I don't make significant mistakes or have to spend a lot of time fixing things. When I do, it is usually a very marginal amount of time for each project. So unless I find myself putting in an hour or more at one time fixing a mistake, I don't turn off the clock. I am human, and I bill for my time, mistakes or not. I spoke with a designer a few weeks back that was putting in twice the number of hours into the average project than me, and probably spent 35% or more on average fixing mistakes. He would only bill for the time he determined he was not fixing his mistakes, and would end up making on an hourly basis only about 65% of what I make. Something that took me a while to value, is to really pay attention to how much time you are wasting on errors, and find ways to fix them permanently. Learn better methods, adjust your habits, create workarounds, add things to library that you find yourself creating from scratch every time. Pay attention to where you waste time. Another thing that is very important is to manage your energy. The human brain has a limited time each day to be able to focus on work that is highly creative or requires a lot of problem solving. Once you surpass that capacity, productivity will take a sharp nose dive. This designer was working 8-12 hour days producing plans, was making much less than me, and was spending significant time fixing errors. I work no more than 3-5 hours per day in front of Chief. Then I allow for 1 client meeting, and about 30 minutes of business administration. It is a very short work day indeed, but I find I get more done than if I strap myself in for a gruelling 8+ hour day, and I'm prone to far fewer errors. Also important is to take regular breaks. Get up from your chair (i use a standing desk) stretch, go for a short walk, and only work in 30-45 minute segments. Well, that kinda went beyond the scope of Chief, but just figured I'd share some of what keeps me from going insane.

Not to mention a long and labourius process. I spent 3 hours yesterday on a plan, adding callout references and checking, double checking and triple checking all this work. I still found one error on the triple check. Another designer showed me this in Revit Lite the other day, and it is all automatic. I don't particularly care for using 3D glasses to naviage my designs if I need to spend hours on this type of work to ensure accuracy.

I'm not certain, but it may work the same as deck framing, and reference to 0,0 unless you use a framing reference marker though. I've never paid too much attention to planking though.

When I create a drawing sheet of that size, it also appears in the paper size for the Print to PDF. Is your layout sheet set to 24x30? And which version of Chief are you using? I'm not sure which one introduced Print to PDF, so I don't want to assume you are in X9.

Ken is correct, there are no notes for this update available, at least at the time I downloaded. Per Derek's post: "The update version is 19.3.1.8 and includes a simple wording change in the "Help" menu." The word "includes" leads me to believe that wasn't the only thing in the update. Would be nice if that was more clear.

Saw this update today. Was hoping someone from Chief could see this post and advise when the update notes will be released for this update. Curious to know what has changed. Thanks.

Yeah, I'm at 1080p max with my 32" monitor. I am planning to get a 44" or larger TV running at 4K, that will benchmark a lot different I'm sure. Yikes! I gotta start saving pennies.

Here is mine. I don't think this puts the CPU through a rendering task like cinebench does, but I don't think cinebench puts the cpu through a more comprehensive set of tasks like this does. So while your CPU's may be rated 5 times as well as mine on a cinebnech rendering, they are only about 1.5 to 2.5 times on this test.

How does that Xeon 14 core stack up against your i7? I assume you get 14 cores, 28 threads? Xeon is more of a server/workstation CPU if I'm not mistaken? What is your MOBO? I've been curious for a while about building a system around one of those xeon multi core beasts, perhaps even on a dual cpu motherboard.

Wow, that threadripper is ripped! My cinebench CPU score for an i5 is 560. Open GL is 118 on a GTX 1060 6ghz. I wonder if you could get a little more out of that 1080? I think that the scores on the left are from other systems within your range. Although I would guess that you are pretty high up there. Out of curiosity, if you don't mind me asking what did you pay for your system?

A faster way to compare systems though would be with cinebench.

To do a proper benchmark, I think you should save the camera you used with all it's settings, and upload the plan here. We should all be using the same camera with the exact same settings, same raytrace setup, etc. A slightly different angle of the camera can change what chief has to render, and different raytrace settings, well, I think that goes without saying.

Good Point. Chief usually likes to terminate the truss tail with a single node. I think what the poster has going on is some weird geometry where the top chord is generated through based on the nodes.

Selecting "energy heel" might fix this, but sometimes it doesn't But if you want the bottom cord to extend past the wall this won't help.

I usually draw a retaining wall on the foundation level and a railing above it on the first floor level. Set the railing to follow terrain. But I usually do this around exterior stairwells where there are rooms defined on both floors, with the upper room being open below. So not sure how this would work with a retaining wall that does not define a room.

I would say that this is probably the best practice, and adjusting your attic walls should be avoided.

This is good to know. I could have saved much time for other projects by avoiding polyline roads. Sometimes though, a driveway does not have parallel or concentric edges. That is where things get fun.

Can you post the plan? Better to have someone look at it.

Well, I went back and had a second look, and it was not what I thought it was. I went into the wrong folder and used an old set of labels that I had not fixed form the X4 to X9 upgrade. My bad.

I store a lot of plan labels in my user library so I can drop them into the plan instead of having to create them new each time. A typical label would read "Floor Plan" on the top line and "Scale: 1/4"=1' on the bottom line. Standard stuff. I've never found a way to add a stand alone text object to the library, so the technique I use is to group select the single object and make it a cad block. A problem I encountered when upgrading from X4 to X9 was that apparently some formatting changed and the text became too big for the width of the block it was grouped into, causing many of my labels to show text wrap. I would then have to place them, select and unblock them, and even at times open the DBX and set the width to automatic. A real pain. Instead, I went through all of them one by one and re-blocked them so they didn't show a text wrap. Problem solved. ....until the update the other day. A bunch of them are screwed up again. SMH. Anybody else see this behavior?

I would suggest building a relationship with builders in your area, who can give you the best advice on how they price their wall assemblies. Also look into the building codes and learn a lot about local practices. For any given application in my region, there can be many various solutions to meet code requirements for structure, sound control, fire separation, insulation, moisture/vapor/air barriers and seismic activity. And in my province there are varying requirements for various regions, so this changes when I do work outside my region. All of this needs to be taken into account to determine the most cost effective assembly for the application. I don't even try to determine that myself, I rely on builder feedback. Until you can understand the requirements of the building codes as they apply to your region, you will be shooting in the dark.