peter_c

Just confirmed R can convert to sketchup. Now looking for alt software that will do that. Its interesting to see how different locations (countries) use products. The detail you show in kitchens and on walls etc is not the norm here. Typically more modern styles. All clean lines so CA strength for you is not as vital for us.We leave the nitty gritty detail to the cab maker. Yet in saying that if the sink or stove for ex are wrong the layout for what fits can also be wrong. Skirtings is correct. Ive beeb on line looking for US construction terminology dictionary to better understand CA. Haven't found one. Do you know of a website for that?. Thanks for everyones feedback.

Hi Michael, Pretty much every product whether it's made locally or imported is available in R or AC format. There is less & less support Sketchup etc. Plumbing & appliances are typical issues. Clienst want to see want they select and finding look alikes can be quite difficult. I understand Government contracts are moving towards BIM modeling [similar to the UK] which may be adding to the switch. R & AC are the 2 softwares being most used by architects, designers, project builders & engineers etc. Rivit for example has manufactureres libraries available pretty much for every product on the market. Those of us with Chief are being left behind. Sketchup is now yesterdays tool. I'm afraid Chief may go the same way if we cannot access the models.

In Australia manufacturers are providing rivit & archicad bim files for their products. There are less & less CA compatable product files. Is that happening in the US? Is Chief looking at ways we can convert or import those models? This inability is making it very difficult to stay current.

You guys are absolutely brilliant. My eyes are hanging out of head with all the late nights chatting with Tech Support and the Forum. Such a simple solution. I'd buy you a beer or 2 in appreciation. but unless your in Western Australia it might be a bit difficult.

Hi Glenn, Yes I use that option now, its not 1/2 bad, but it could be made so much easier/quicker, which is one of the reasons for our contribution to the post. an example - To edit in on screen as you mention require opening a text box. 2 clicks. type the new note, adjust the box size so it fits the text. 2 moves..1 click to close. drag textbox handles to suit required formatting. 2 moves. Text in the wrong location, drag text box to new location, but the text itself is not visible in this move, so if you haven't adjusted the box to a tight fit on the text you cannot see where its to be placed. This all takes time. In AutoSketch the text box follows the typing. no manual adjustments needed. When you edit you are still on screen, not in a separate textbox. Relocating you see the text so there's no guesswork. It might not sound much but over the course of a working drawing it will save lots of time. A fellow Chief user's son joined his business, His son trained in AutoSketch. The Chief user marvelled at how simple it was to use. Food for thought Glenn. Thanks for making the time to comment. I'm in Perth by the way.

Hi Dan & Mick, Tech Support believe its my system not a CA issue, because of the Error messages. Whats frustrating is that it work in X8, I'm feeling a little better that the Vid Card not working is normal in Safe Mode, but does that explain the error messages? Plant layer is on in camera, cross section, elevation etc. There are there in 2D. In Toggle Textures - its greyed out. The image files are there. If I go to Date\Textures|Plants.zip - the plant images are there. It looking like all images, not gust plants are not visible. Whatever is required for them to be seen is missing/off [thats my simple explanation] All Core library files have been reloaded. It was suggested that we load older Nvidai drivers, but it wasn't working in X9 when the older driver was running. I can see that there are quite a few users with the same card, which also leans it towards being an operating system problem. Our IT guy cannot get here till next week. If we can find a solution / or not I will let you know. It's looking more like a sea anchor for this machine though. Appreciate the the time Tech Support and you guys have given.

I'm a bit late to this conversation but as a relatively new user of Chief, and having dabbled in Revit & ArchiCad, I'm astounded at how complicated all these software's have made TEXT. To be honest, If Microsoft used the Text system that cad software uses use, WORD would never have made into the 21st century. If you used a 2D program called AutoSketch [last version was 10, no thanks to AutoDesk] it has the simplest three click, on the page texting system. 1 -select text, 2 - click where you want the text to go and type/edit etc all on the screen [no text box], 3- click to end. Task completed. - snap attached that gives a limited pic of what I mean. I know Chief is a 3D system, but there's still plenty of time and effort that goes into 2D formatting when we preparing working drawings. Am I the only one who spends half their time editing the Textbox size and location, because you cannot see where the text will fit on a drawing as you type. Sketch has very simple offset, parallel, stamp/copy tools etc which would greatly enhance the user friendliness of Chief. If there are copyright or other issues that prevent borrowing good software ideas, so be it, but if there's not, and I have suggested it to Chief, they should make TEXT the next software improvement by doing so. Now i'm really happy with what I've been able to produce using Chief, and i'm hoping Chief programmers will look at my observation positively. Nothing gets better with out user feedback. Chief vs AutoSketch TEXT.pdf

Yes its the latest driver. Thanks for taking the time to look.

With X9 we have encountered an issue with not being able to see Plants in camera views. Its does not appear to be affecting other library items. This is not a issue with X8. W10, 64 bit operating system. Tech Support have been assisting with the problem but so far we have not found the answer. They are using the same card in one of their systems without a problem. When we run our system in Safe Mode, it comes up with a cannot open using the Built-In-Admin account [see attached screen snap] After closing that error message we get video card does not meet the software's min requirements [see snap] At the time we selected the video card as it exceeded the min std CA required. Nvidia said it was good for CAD. Now they refer to it as a gaming card. It works with X8 as mentioned. Has anyone seen an issue like this? or have any ideas as what we can try, before installing another V card. And if that our last resort, what do we now install?