CARMELHILL

Thanks guys. I found that default setting. I couldn't find it two days ago. I use windows that I added to my User Library for standard Andersen's that I use constantly. I'll have to go in and change their individual attributes. Weird. I don't ever remember seeing this issue before, but Rescheck itself might have recently gotten an upgrade.

Thank you.

I just noticed that every time I export to Rescehck, the windows come in as vinyl frames. I can't recall if this also happened in previous Chief versions. Is there anyway to force Chief to export them as wood framed windows? otherwise you have to change every line item and re-input thei U and SHGC values.

Thank yooooooooo.

I submitted the bug late last night. Brian Beck just replied. They have been able to replicate the bug and are working on a fix.

Hooray. BEST company ever.

15 minutes ago, MarkMc said:

I tested a layout with multiple files linked and can reproduce the problem when any plan file is not in the same folder as the layout.

It was also acting peculiar when trying to link to a different file within the the same project folder. I save old versions of previous designs in the same folder and it couldn't relink to any of those older designs. The only way to do it was picking individual layout boxes and manually relinking. What a bummer. I hope they haven't permanently removed the external file linking ability because that will kill the detail warehouse option.

I tried it on an extra computer at my office and it does not work.

The file missing is a detail warehouse file residing in a separate folder. It doesn't work in a few other ways too. It doesn't correctly relink files within the same project folder either. You can't change the referenced file to a previous older file. You can only do it by selecting individual layout boxes and linking them individually.

I'll see if anyone else today has this problem. Until then, no updates to the rest of my staff.

See errors attached.

I installed tonights update and have lost the ability to use the relink button on the top tool bar to relink referenced plan files. Anyone else?

I've checked two projects, done a "Repair Install", and a reboot. Still no good.

You can only relink individual layout views with the "relink file" button on the bottom toolbar, but global relink tool doesn't work.

I also uninstalled and reinstalled with the file in our Digital Locker and it still doesn't work.

I also get hung up on the pricing. Client's ask all the time what this will cost. I hate the generic "standard minimum construction costs are $185 per sf". It would be great to give a semi-accurate price and some basic material takeoffs. But what's the best resource for prices?

Means books have gotten crazy expensive. Craftsman National Estimator are more reasonable and has a direct export line item program free with their book. You can also buy the online Suite of estimating programs I think for $200, with updates for the year.

Those resources still aren't very accurate for local conditions. And it's hard to find prices for, and keep them up to date, for non-standard items, or specific manufactuers. Most lumber yards have garbage websites with no listed prices. Using the web to search Home Depot and Lowes only gets you so far. I had to use Menard's website (midwest) to price out I-joist's because no one locally has listed prices. I guess one way to go is grab a set of your drawings and occasionally send them to the local yard for pricing ($150 to $300 fee). Then take their estimate and add it's line items to your Chief Master Price list. But that seems pretty stupid.

5 hours ago, Alaskan_Son said:

 

We already have arrows in defaults.  The thing I assume you're wanting is the ability to set arrow style to be controlled by layer settings somehow...i.e. change layer set and arrows change to suit.  Is that correct?

That would be nice.

6 hours ago, Richard_Morrison said:

Ed,

You might not be aware that you can set your text with leader to input standard text by going to Preferences>Text and unchecking Rich Text. Also, you can select all leader arrow lines at once by selecting "text line with arrow" and group selecting. I would love to see arrows added to defaults and have suggested this, but sometimes it takes a few years. 

Yes, I know. But I use the leaders with Rich Text within our plans, more than I need them in details. I'd rather not confuse my employees with changing that preferences setting back and forth. Sadly, it takes 2 years to get decent competence with these drafting programs, on top of the standard Architectural training I give these kids. College teaches them nothing useful, except how to be the next Richard Meir, Loui Khan, or Frank Gehry.

I have a take on this I wanted to share. I did a detail creation movie for my employees, to train them how to do it the way I want.

Movie for how I arrange my detail warehouse.

https://youtu.be/5HbsgUNQHAY

Movie on how to create the detail with automatically resized text.

https://youtu.be/VqK004LwYwY

I see everyone's points here. I've also seen it explained the other way. An architect's forum I read, said more detailed spec's yield better quality work, with less variation in bids, and less liability to us. But I agree, all too often these sheets get thrown in the trash.

My specs have turned more into code references that the one local town, only one specifically, is asking for more and more detail.  Everytime they send their plans examiners for a code training day, I get a wave of new rejection comments and more stuff that needs to be added to the drawings.

9 hours ago, para-CAD said:

Then they started to request that the code language be placed on the relevant sheet and not “buried” in a specification sheet “that no one will read.”  This tends to make some plans a bit busy. 

I have started doing this too, with the specific section of the code referenced on the drawing, but I do it via keynotes. The keynote system is the only way I can conceivably keep drawings readable, without getting too busy. And it's standard practice in commercial.

Thank you all for your input. I'm going to cut some of the "fat", and through some specific notes into the drawings with keynotes.

With localities asking for more and more code info on drawings, and in an effort to reduce liability, I have steadily been adding to our drawing specifications. Someday I might just buy a copy of the code book and staple it to every drawing.

What's the general consensus here? Other than very basic code reference notes that need to be on the cover sheet near the Climatic Data chart, where are you putting your specs? Are you adding two or three extra sheets of notes to your projects or are you printing a dedicated 8-1/2" x 11" spec book? I've seen it both ways but it seems silly to print 3 full size sheets of prints, just for the contractor and subcontractors to basically look at it once during bidding, then never again.

31 minutes ago, Alaskan_Son said:

 

Did you change the wording of your original post?  I could have sworn that it originally referred to using drop-down lists. 

No. I would prefer checkboxes in the database that sends items directly to the created spec book document. But it doesn't look like I'll easily be ableto get somethign like this. 

1 hour ago, rlackore said:

I use Word. Text formatting and editing is easy. I have a master document that gets "copied" for each new job and I edit as necessary, then export to PDF for publishing. Making use of the "hidden" font attribute allows me to keep text without it being displayed or included in the TOC; "unhiding" allows me to include it at a later point in the job if necessary.

That's what I've been doing for 19 years, but it feels clunky and tedious. 

Yes. A construction specification. I'm not thrilled with having everything in a single column of text that I subtract from. For the past 15 years I've had all my spec's fit on one sheet of 24 x 36, but I'm starting to get more detailed. I might be heading to a spec book rubber banded to all my plans. Only the very basic bldg code notes will still be put on the plans.

I've thought about Masterspec, Spectext, and others, but those are overkill at this point. I'd rather just like to be able to organize my own notes better.

Thanks guys. Those might be too complicated for the rookies in my office. I did some searching and will look further into:

MSWord Autotext, Autocorrect, Quickpart Gallery, Building Blocks Organizer

Phrase Expander , Text Expander and Autotext Software

Clipmate

Ditto

Clipboard Fusion

Spartan

Acetext

I'll let you know if I find something useful.

Can anyone recommend a good program, or technique, of creating a database of specifications, and then adding individual specs to a word document via simple clicking of checkboxes? Then drag and drop that created document into Chief. I want to enhance and customize my specificatikns but i need a better way. Can thks be done within ms word, or with ms excel, filemaker pro, etc...?

I've looked all over the net tonight and can't find an answer to this one. Anyone know.......

I was on the Epic Games website today and downloaded a bunch of free texture libraries and a few plugins for the Unreal Engine. Can Twinmotion access these additional downloaded libraries? Or do you have to import each texture individually? I don't see a link between the texture libraries of the two programs. Does TM only use the rendering engine and not really use the textures? 

If not, then it seems you might have to start your Chief import to Unreal Engine, apply textures, then export/import to Twinmotion?

I've noticed when I do a demonstration video for clients, I have two monitors open. I change the main 43" monitor resolution to 1080p just for the Screencast movie so the resolution on Youtube isn't crazy and it's easier for the client to view the movie. My second 43" screen remains at 2160p. If I click on an object in my 1080p screen and the dialogue box pops up on the other 2160p screen, it makes Chief crash. The program gets stuck trying to display the dialogue box at a different resolution on the other screen. I tested it by changing the pop up location of the dialogue box to appear on my 1080 screen and it doesn't crash, so it's definitely a bug. Not a big one.

Anyone else notice this?

Video:

https://youtu.be/3v7bVWPJRT4

On 8/2/2019 at 11:07 AM, HumbleChief said:

Are you happy with your new system in general? My system is now acceptably fast which is a huge relief and have all the overclocking turned off as there seems to be no performance gains from that either as far as I can tell from reading a lot of tests. I do run the Ryzen Master software which seems to be faster at least on the hardware monitoring stuff but I don't know if I could tell a difference real world. I'll get a NVMe drive one of these days but for now it's just money I don't need to spend.

During my last upgrade in 2014 I noticed a bigger jump in performance. On this upgrade, not as much. But there is a difference in my office usage that affects the apparent performance..... I don't do the design work as much as I did in 2013. I don't use the 3d rendered views as much. Now I spend half my day redlining my employees work, trying to search out new clients, and balancing the financial books.

I REALLY needed this recent upgrade because one of my two new employees I hired in April was using an old off the shelf (B.J's Wholesalers I think) Dell XPS 8400. It was SOOOO SLOWWWW. I promised him a new computer very soon. So when the 3900X came out, it was time. It probably would have been much easier to give him the new rig (drivers and office sensitive files are a pain in the ass to move/reinstall), but what fun would that be? My other new employee uses a rig identical to my 2014 build (built 3 months apart).

Without being a computer engineer, this is the best I could think up......

The faster read write should theoretically not be a bottle neck for the programs undo feature anymore. I was told a few years ago that Chief saves a copy of the plan for every undo. One of the older undo settings had an undo save feature that you setup Chief to save a backup at your preset time frame, in microseconds. Setting it for anything useful slowed the program down tremendously.

So I set up my system to have my core programs like Chief, Photoshop, and video editing on the Sabrent Rocket 4.0 SDD. I keep all my client folders on the old style spinning HDD. Whenever I work on a project I copy that client folder into a specific folder on the SDD. I have my Preferences set up so all the backup, autosave, and plan/layout template folders are on the Rocket PCI 4.0 SSD.

The extra Samsung Evo SDD was a screw up. I was buying the parts for the computer and didn't think I'd be able to get my hands on a newer PCI 4 SDD in time to do the build, so I bought the Samsung. Then the Sabrent popped up on Amazon. So I'll use the Samsung for commonly used stuff like some symbols, macros, Sketchup symbols, textures, etc...

Some new food for thought. Disk drive tests of the read/write from the 2 drives in the new Ryzen 9 build that use PCI 4.0. The Samsung is last years model and not maximumized for PCI 4, but the Sabrent Rocket uses the PCI 4 to it's fullest extent.

The remaining test is my Samsung SSD drive from my 2014 build that uses PCI 3.0. 

EDS RYZEN CRYSTAL MARK E SAMSUNG EVO DRIVE.pdf

2014 build i7-4960 DISK MARK.pdf

EDS RYZEN CRYSTAL MARK C DRIVE.pdf

Just for kicks, and to revive this thread, my new rig is complete. I still need to tweak the RAM settings because they aren't running at fill 3200 mghz speed yet. I'm goign to setup the undo file on the Rocket SSD to see how much faster the read/write is, and see if there is still a lag.

Cooler Master Mastercase H500M, AMD Ryzen 9 3900x, Asus ROG Strix X570-E Gaming, Sabrent Rocket PCIe 4.0 1TB SSD, Samsung 970 Evo Plus 500 gb M.2-2280 SSD, Western Digitial Caviar Black 1tb 7200rpm HD, G.Skill Sniper X 32gb DDR4-3200 ram, MSI GeForce RTX 2070 8 GB Video Card, Corsair 750w power, Dual Hisense 43" 4k monitors

It has something to do with having the templates autoload in the Preferences settings for new layouts and new plan files. If I leave the defaults as Profile.plan and Proifile.Layout instead of my templates, the problem doesn't happen.

I noticed this problem in a version a few years ago, but it has reappeared.

Whenever I update some of my templates and resave with new names, and relink the referenced files, the program clears my Client and Design Information. Is anyone else experiencing this? Or did I corrupt my templates a few versions ago? Something is forcing a clearing of the fields.

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.