AvoyeDesign

7 minutes ago, Joe_Carrick said:

You can create as many as you want.

Thanks.  Could you kindly point me in the direction of how to do that?  I have searched and haven't found a way.

Thanks.

In the note tools and schedules, are we limited to the note types given or do we have the ability to add custom categories?  See image.

1 hour ago, HumbleChief said:

They will sell exactly zero more copies of Chief to new users, will distract from new features that many users may not even use but WILL sell copies of Chief to new users, and satisfy a very few current users who aren't going to change software any way. So why change it? Why change or complete anything? 

The old addage in client relations is that it is easier to retain an existing client than to secure a new one.  This is a delecate balance.  You don't want to sit and do nothing but serve your existing client base, because you may miss new opportunities to expand.  But you don't want to neglect your existing client base to the point they leave in droves.  I think X11 has done just enough to keep people interested for a while...

2 hours ago, JPBDesign said:

I have design a remodel on my home--I want to add a second story to the house.  I did the plans in Chief Architect.  I then gave the plans to a structural engineer to add his information and stamp the plans.  Originally, he said he knew and had the Chief Architect program.  However, it turned out he had a very back level of Chief.  At first, he was working with me by marking up the pages and I would put the changes into chief.  Then when we were almost done he decided the plans had to be put into AutoCad.  So now some of the plans pages are in AutoCad and some are in Chief.  I am trying to get the plans into the county for permitting but they are telling me that the plans are missing Design Pressures, uploads, etc.  I talked to a Window Company today and I believe the Structural Engineer is just putting in the max numbers to get rid of the project.  But the max numbers will cause higher costs in the construction, as I understand.  I am looking for an Architect that will work with me and Chief to generally help me get the design through permitting.   I am in Lake Worth, FL Palm Beach County.  I am almost ready to give up on the project because of all the issues I have encounter and I haven't even started the construction. 

You have posted this in the Suggestions forum, which is where you would suggest ideas for how chief architect could be improved.  You will want to post this instead in the Seeking Services forum, where you are more likely to get the responses you are looking for.

Now I understand why designers I know who use Revit for residential projects charge half my hourly rate and put in twice as many hours on average per project.

No thanks.

10 minutes ago, HumbleChief said:

The NewEgg pdf I posted above was from the Canadian NewEgg site. DOH, didn't even know there was such a thing. Was wondering why the prices seemed so high. I'm going to reconfigure another system.

Haha, yeah we have our oen Amazon site and a few others too.  How did you get there from a US ip address?

18 hours ago, HumbleChief said:

I had a similar reaction to today's prices per NewEgg or Partspicker versus a pre-configured system. $375 is not worth the time for me to build the system myself but $900 gets a lot more interesting.  I do seem to remember more substantial savings through NewEgg etc. in the past but maybe I didn't consider my time quite as valuable back then.

 

BTW Rod, your NewEgg price had (2) CPU's listed in the total. Just a head's up.

That's newegg for you.  It takes 5 minutes to update the list, so you are never sure if you added it and end up adding it again.

2 hours ago, MarkMc said:

You had me curious, 50% savings would add a another reason for me to get a desktop over a laptop and be able to do so sooner than I plan.

So I tried two versions- both 9700k.

A) Digital Storm base config at $1924 -few upgrades made it $2300; identical on Partspicker was $1902-savings $375 or 18%

more upgrades- GPU, Optane ssd to replace the Samsung 970 Evo Pro, power supply, MOBO, cooling, DS $3800, PP $2900-savings $900 or 25%

Almost a grand on the high end system is attractive.

 

Aside from assembling it yourself, you give up (or do yourself) stress test, lifetime tech support, 3 years labor and 1 yr parts, OS installed, and the DS system has both processors overclocked and checked at NC on either version.

 

Looks like it's a balance between hourly rate and cost savings. Pretty sure I could do it but I doubt that I could: unpack,sort everything (does PP send along a diagram for novices), plan it out, assemble it, install the OS, overclock, and  check everything in a day. Likely those with experience could. Otherwise I guess if you just enjoy doing it, or want to learn. (or don't have enough regular work

There are some very informative videos on youtube about how to build a PC.  Everything is basic plug in, nothing complex at all.  Unless you have overclocked before I'd suggest not doing it yourself, and any high end i7 or equivalent cpu should do fine without it. 

Building your own pc is kind of a hobby/enthusiast thing, so if you arent into spending a saturday putting it together and trouble shooting, best buy a pre built untit.

Here is a build yer own spec from newegg.  Thes prices are in CAD so will be around $1600 USD at today's rates.  Add for an OS and you are pretty close to that dell system.  My list has a 750 watt PSU, while prebuilt systems usually go with the minimum wattage they can get away with.  My list also includes the nvme drive.  

EDIT:  It was pointed out that I had two CPU's in the list, so the adjusted price is $1,662 CAD or $1,250 USD

Newegg.ca - Newegg shopping upgraded ™.pdf

I'd get an upgrade to a 500gb NVMe drive.  Many times faster, and 128mb is way too small.  16gb is a fair amount of memory, but check if it has 2 memory slots or 4.  Assuming the system comes with 2 8gb ram modules, 4 slots allows you to upgrade without replacing your existing ram.  

Also check the clock speed on the CPU.  Faster is better, but comes at a price.  If you ever want to overclock your system, you will need to check that both the CPU and motherboard support this.

5 hours ago, Alaskan_Son said:

My guess is that you have a slab or some other 3D object selected and not a simple polyline.

That appears to be the case.  If you look at his toolbar, there is a tool for convert to simple polyline, but not for converting to slabs, moldings, etc.  My guess is the op drew the profile with the molding polyline tool.

11 hours ago, tommy1 said:

It has nothing to do with roof labels. If you don't want to build the roof based on the roof baseline polyline, you'll have to delete it in plan view. It might be easier to locate if you change that layer to red or yellow or something. Maybe deleting the roof will work though, not sure for I'm not looking at the program. Just be sure you don't have "make roof baseline polyline" checked.

This is a good case where having an "all on" and "all off" layerset in your template will help you find or isolate objects.  Use the all off layerset and only turn on layers you suspect or know that object you are looking for are on.  If you've lost an object and don't know which layer it is on, use the all on set and see if you can spot it.

6 hours ago, CARMELHILL said:

These are the specs on my next rig at PCPartpicker.com.   But I'm waiting the new 3rd gen Threadripper due out in August. I'm going to add that m.2 type slot on the motherboard onto my list.

From what I've seen, the sweet spot for a balance of memory speed and price is around 3000/3200.  The video below shows some telling benchmarks:

That 4400 memory might be a bit faster, but you could probably save a couple hundred dollars and get a 2080 card.

I'll vouch for thar M.2 drive.  It's really fast.  Not sure why the op upgraded; that old system is newer tech than the one I built last year.

Do a separate schedule, including or excluding room types as needed.  Then do a master schedule to get a master floor area totals.

You might want to post this in seeking services instead of General Q&A.

Can you show us the processes tab so we can see what is using all that ram?

When I load one of my larger files in chief it only uses 2-3 gb.  

It looks like you still have 2gb of headroom, if that gets used though windows will write memory to your hard drive and that will be SLOW.  But if that isn't happening, adding more ram won't make your system faster.

Have you upgraded a pc before?  You will need to know if your system can physically handle more ram modules.  If not, you will have to replace your existing modules with higher capacity ones.  

I would say 12mb to 16mb would be a decent amount to have, you shouldn't run out, but again, adding ram doesn't mean everything gets faster.

1 minute ago, Peterb42018 said:

Thanks for the suggestion, I tried that but it still does not seem to be working properly. It seems to be just a X11 issue. does not happen when I use x10

I'm not really sure how I can help.  I would need to see your actual screen and what you are doing, but it doesn't sound chief related.  

https://obsproject.com

You could try downloading this tool, it will allow you to record your screen and show us the problem.

The first thing I do when starting on the layout is to populate my entire drawing set with plan views, cross sections, elevations and details.  I have a checklist I go through to make sure I know ahead of time how many sheets I need and what will be on them, and I populate them with "placeholder" drawings of the plan or details even though they may need a lot of work.  I take my time doing this, and it helps organize my workflow.  As I work through my checklist, the layout gradually is completed.  The very last thing on my checklist is to number all my callouts.  I very rarely have to add sheets after this point;  more often than not I am removing sheets before I get here.

If you have trouble locating your mouse against your work, you can go into your windows settings and set a key to hilight the pointer.  This might help you determine why it isn't showing up.

I'm not sure about this, but I think if you do the save-as on the plan file first, the layout file will automatically re-link.  Then do save-as with layout and all good.  Not sure if that will help or not.

On 3/22/2019 at 9:41 AM, HumbleChief said:

I'd be surprised to find any experienced users here who don't think Plan Views are the bomb (could be the best thing since Anno Sets IMO) but should new users know how they work intuitively somehow, or is posting here every week to clarify their usage again, part of the territory? Don't know the answers, but have a lot of empathy for those who take some time to really understand how Chief works.

I've been with chief for 10 years and I haven't even bothered with them.

Without looking into the specs you listed too much, I'm guessing your system is over 5 years old by now, just from the processor model number alone.  A lot of things have changed in 5 years, and it might be best to get looking into a full new system.  When I upgraded to X9 about 2 years ago, my 5 year old system could barely keep up.

Edit:  that processor is 8 year old technology, even if it was purchased much more recently.  

Vector views put a lot of demand on the CPU compared to standard views.  You might want to start with shutting down unused background programs and removing any bloatware that is bogging down your CPU.  I'd also suggest opening up the machine and clearing dust/debris from the cooling fans and heatsinks.  It would also be a good idea to remove the heatsinks from the CPU and GPU while you are in there, clean off all the old thermal paste, and re apply a good thermal paste.  Overheating of the CPU can cause thermal throttling, which is the software slowing down the CPU to prevent catastrophic damage.  Old thermal paste can reduce the effictiveness of the cooling, and slow your system down.

Aside from that, make sure your camera view has only layers visible that are necessary for the view.  Less to draw = less computing needed.

This is basically a skewed staircase.  I sense a feature request coming on...