para-CAD

I tried to give you a thumbs UP but I've reached the daily limit that chief allows....... so Great Job.......you definitely help make people's lives better with Chief!

Who's the petty down voter? Nathan is offering CAD solutions to make us able to produce better plans and modeling. Some people must be "one-software-only" cultists. Why? I see so many people take 3D items from SketchUp's 3D warehouse.......do you all pay for that? Do y'all give work for free? I subscribe to multiple CAD platforms because it makes me more versatile and to me it feels worth it for me to spend the cash. Nathan creates these extensions to help people do more.....faster.....and more accurately. I wish UP and DOWN votes came with the ID of who clicked it. Thanks for your insane ruby work, Nathan. Keep up the great work!

You know the old saying......everything before the "but" means nothing... (just kidding.....since written text can sometimes be misunderstood) I used to be able to raytrace by CPU but I can't seem to find that right now. I made a pier block in sketchup and .skp files now import so I brought it over into chief. I'm actually rendering a few things to see how I might create 3D details more.

I started on Windows in the Army in 1995. I watched a "contractor" burrow into our Army Gold Master windows NT system that was considered secure from the Signal Corps, in seconds. Yep........N[ ]A has back doors. Windows takes user work to keep it maintained. People who like to tinker like Windows and Android. I started to hate computers and mac was a nice change. I could focus on creating the content and not have to also be a computer tech. The intel to Apple silicon switch is a bummer, but computers have a shelf life. As new features are introduced, software is modified to take advantage.....6 years is about right. I still have a 27" 2011 iMac. Works like a champ on most online tasks. I also still have an Alienware Area 51 desktop (WIN 10) for tasks that windows supports with better apps, but my M1 max MBP is a workhorse. I haven't found a need for rendering that people would pay for so I don't get all giddy for PBR. I guess if I was using rendering to actually sell the job then that might be different. All I do is create plans for permit which most jurisdictions want everything in 2D. People are odd. Often it's an ego thing......Ford better than Chevy......Dodge pfft. Everyone should like what they like and use what they want and keep to themselves about what other people choose to like or choose. I hope everyone has a super fabulous day.

YES. Color and 3D convey more information. Since most trades now have the PDF on their phone or tablet, color is where I am headed. I'm hoping to one day have chief modify the Notes feature so I can have colored fills, by individual note in a schedule.

Legibility is paramount to me. I'm a framer and I like clean, factual documentation. I dislike the fake hand written fonts. Scuffed up paper plans often get difficult to read dimensions when the font choice is nostalgia from the drafting table days and the plans are ever wet or folded. I'm also leaning more into 3D details and annotating with a Note schedule over just 2D and leaders. I can add so much more information in a note schedule and keep the detail clean with only the reference call outs. Alaskan Son set me up with the ability to use alphabetic letters (both lower case and UPPER case) instead of only using numbers. If your focus is on making the trades jobs easier and more accurate then your plans and rep will benefit.

Damn It sucks when promises are unkept. Well, I help people, initially for free just to see if it will work out. Even that doesn't always work, but at least no one can claim I stole money for sub-par service. Good luck to you in your future endeavors.

A Hip roof would not be calculatable and would look like a mistake. PitMan has a good solution. I could frame it.....but you'd pay the PIA fee. Here's a quick video showing the challenges.

There might be the 800 page PDF user manual somewhere

Hey Rene, Yep, I bought your X14 template, but I will need to complete a few more plans before I upgrade to your latest goodness.

Alaskan did this for me.

6040 6/0-4/0 6-0/4-0 60”x40” crazy, huh. Rene and Alaskan Son both have macros to make that issue go away.

I consulted on an ocean view job today.....so I missed the webinar. Any chance y'all will publish it like the sneak peak video?

Every time I start it, it says I'm missing Century Gothic font. I don't use that so it must be from a template I bought or plan I collaborated on. And today upon closing it asked if I wanted to perform the scheduled back up.....so that's cool.

I will have to try metric.......mm's seem like a fun change