para-CAD

P-Line solid subtraction issue for me tonight. Suppose to make a timber beam that has an ellipse cut out of the bottom. I could ACTUALLY build it in reality as a framer but in CA I fail. I made a rectangular beam p-line solid. I then made an ellipse the same width. I laid the ellipse over the rectangle and checked the make hole box on the ellipse. Evidently holes can only be cut when completely contained in the other polyline solid. Autocad is much better at this kind of thing in my opinion.

Thanks for the kind words, Mark. I was a framer for a long time. I just want to make plans that can be useful on the job site. Some builder's don't care...some do. I have fun trying to make things go smoothly from the design onward.

Would having multiple different roof types in the same plan file wreck havoc with an accurate Material Take-Off List? I would be inclined to create a separate model for each style of similar home so that such things would more accurately represent the project. Best of luck with whichever way you take things.

https://www.pcworld.com/article/3280999/laptop-computers/alienware-17-r5-review-core-i9.html Like Drawzilla said

I switched to home designer from framer after 20 years. I LOVE FRAMING! As far as software, I like CA but I still keep a current subscription to AutoCAD LT for those times when I want extreme precision sections, details, or hand-cut roof sheets. I still draw to "cut sheet" level detail sometimes, and CA just doesn't make that very easy. Para-CAD Complex Roof.pdf

Good eye. 25" inside framing to get a 24" finished closet is very standard wherever I have been a framer.

Actually, the M.2 NVMe is around 6 times faster than a traditional SSD. Seems like a solid build. I bought the one in my signature line last year. I can attest to how important speed can be and why investing in good tools is always the right decision.

I tried that. No joy.

Update: Yes, a wireless Logitech mouse has the scroll direction option. Great suggestion. With that mouse, I can zoom the drawing out by scrolling away or closer by scrolling toward me. A wired mouse, however, is still backward to that. From my ancient windows days, I remembered an app called AutoHotkeyScript that among other things could be used to reverse the scroll direction for the entire system (application irrelevant). That works, but unlike olden-days windows, placing it in the Start folder no longer works...because that method is gone. So when I power up the first thing I just double-click the file ReverseScroll.ahk and all is good.

I just upgraded to a new computer [custom windows build] and Chief is a bit different than on my macOS system. After searching: 1. Google 2. YouTube 3. chief-architect-current-reference-manual (X10) ...I'm still trying to figure out how to switch the zoom in/out to match the mouse scroll wheel (windows only issue - mac works as expected). Currently: as I scroll the wheel away from me, the drawing and layout both zoom in (enlarge) Goal: I would like to reverse the scroll wheel zoom direction so that scroll away zooms out and scroll toward zooms in. I'm sure there is some easy setting in CA I need to check...but I'm not finding it. Thanks in advance for help with this. ~ Mike

I have an Asus ROG 34" ultra wide curved monitor on my windows machine. It's a bit too wide, or maybe I need a deeper desk or wall mount because with my lame-ass progressive glasses I end up having to turn my head a lot when things are full screen.

Greedy bottom dollar builder looking to beat everyone else down so he can make more $$$$. Life is too short to waste with people like that. You need to figure out what you are worth and what you bring to the market. Of course a builder will see your work as buy once, wash and repeat. If he wants to draw up his own plans, then fine. I don't see this as a good way to market yourself. Allowing this guy to get you to operate this way can be perceived that you are: 1. desperate for work 2. easily pushed into doing work for cheap 3. not sure that your work is worth fighting for. I went down that road before. Was desperate. Allowed a builder to sweet-talk me into the idea of $1000 per set of plans. He said I could knock them out as fast as I wanted so I could make bank. Yeah, right. And he wanted me to act as the agent for the clients.....that's time spent in the planning department, health department......all away from my desk. I nearly went under. Now I charge 5 times that at a minimum and I am never the agent. Things are working great. I wish you every success in the decisions in front of you.

What is what you provide worth to the designer and ultimately the customer? If you are making the process: - clearly and fully understood, - designed to secure a permit, - efficient and managed on-site, then you bring negotiable value. No no one can tell you that price. That’s yours to figure out.

My custom build from Puget Systems would crash whenever I used Adobe image and video applications as well as chief Architect during Ray trace. It turned out that, for the Adobe issue, their code was requesting more power than my CPU was allocating so Puget Systems walked me through doing a very slight over clock and everything is working correctly now. I never did find out if that was the problem with Ray tracing since it hasn’t crashed since this adjustment was made.

- Word of mouth. - Yelp. - Helping people outside of trying to make a buck on everything. Good happens.

Thanks Richard! I hadn't understood that before.

I'm currently licensed in WA state. So far all my designs are in WA state. In the olden days, I did my own drawings for design/builds in TX, TN, KY and even a job in Canada. The drawings were always mine. I did the framing on-site DBA a corp licensed in TX. Always legal. Your topic title makes me think YOU think you have to be licensed in every state you draw projects in/for. I have no idea. People order plans from online sources for every state....I'm pretty sure they have that part solved. I'm interested to see where this thread goes. Might uncover some good info.

I have a single .dwt file that has maybe 500 details on it. I tried to import that and learned that each detail should be its own uniquely named file. I haven't taken the time to do that yet. Maybe I'll get motivated one day when I have time.... So how do I deploy a CAD detail in chief......in the plan, or directly in a layout? I would assume in a layout but I've never tried. And in autocad, I make a viewport to select what I want to see of the modelspace in paperspace....not 100% clued in with the same process in CA. Thus, I only have the actual floor plan in the plan file. I tried a site plan in the plan file once. Big head ache for me. So I keep scouring youtube and watching videos from those who have gone before and are kind enough to capture/share their knowledge. Mine are a bastardization of CA and autoCAD, but they work. It'll be nice when I can streamline the workflow. I can't seem to get CA to put the level of specificity into some things that I can in AutoCAD (I know it's only because I haven't mastered yet) Thanks for the encouragement and suggestions. I appreciate that!

I've done this on my last five plans because I have several details that I like that I created in AutoCAD and I'm not skilled enough in chief architect yet to bring them across successfully. Here's how I manage to bring in details as screenshots with 144 PPI/DPI resolution and at scale. I even called the ICC and vendors to get permission to use their work directly in my plans. So far, green light. I started a thread here... Here is a PDF of a layout pages I paste my details and other CAD files onto as scaled image files. reference_01.pdf

I can strongly recommend Puget Systems here on the West Coast. https://www.pugetsystems.com/nav/genesis/I/customize.php This is the baseline model I had them build. It is a solid performer and their tech support are people from their office in Auburn. Great company.

http://www.userbenchmark.com/Faq/What-s-the-difference-between-SATA-PCIe-and-NVMe/105 NVMe looks like a RAM stick and is really fast. SATA SSD has a bigger overall size, like a standard HDD without any moving parts.

Yep. I realized that I was all over the place with cloud accounts, both free and paid. I copied everything to iCloud from Dropbox and worked that way for about a week. iCloud works fine. Not as fast at syncing as Dropbox, but it does sync everything to my phone if I want to access it. "It just works".......iCloud Drive\Documents\(1) para-CAD\_Clients I also use Evernote to keep all the project data and completed PDFs in. That way I have quick access to a couple of different sources to share files from if I'm on the road or away from my computer. One Note probably works the same. If I was Windows based, I might try the One Drive/One Note combination.

I was paying for the 1TB Dropbox and the 2TB iCloud. Now I just use iCloud. - Dropbox seems the fastest. - iCloud has wider Apple integration at the app level. - Box.com is okay and highly secure but they are resource hogs. - One drive is Microsoft. I’ve never tried them. - Google drive.....well they’ll read all your files but they are free I think.

1. What does your business need and what can you justify as an investment to making that happen? 2. Contact Chief and ask their future ops people where they are thinking about being in 3-5 years and what types of hardware they will be coding for. (If they want to share that info) 3. The M.2 NVMe SSD drives are really great. They are about the size of a RAM stick. The Samsung 960 Pro NVMe is almost 6 times faster in read/writes than the 850 Pro SATA SSD and WAY more faster than a spinning platter HD. 4. I like the idea of a single large 4K monitor. With screen position snapping you can have open apps snapped to positions as if they are on separate monitors.......WITHOUT THE TWO TOUCHING BEZELS IN THE MIDDLE. This is a personal thing though. Sometimes I like a dedicated screen to have a spreadsheet open or whatever. Maybe someday I'll go solo monitor. 5. I am hearing crypto-coin mining has skewed the graphics card market....that's a pain. My mac is only 2GB and works okay. The PC upstairs has the 1080 Ti 11GB. It is a WORLD of difference in rendering 3D, rotation, zooming. I wish you the best in whatever you decide.

The layout looks pixelated compared to the plan view. Did you export to PDF at the highest resolution from layout yet? Sometimes layout issues disappear when the final export to PDF is done. But what do I know. I never have nice looking stuff like this. I just create plans for permit.