CARMELHILL

My 2 cents.....this X11 release, and all the tweaks they have made during the beta based on all our comments, have been AMAZING.

I just noticed that I now have the ability to update/revise/change layer settings etc.. for keynotes that are saved in the User Library, DIRECTLY in the Library Browser! AWESOME!!! No more insertion, updated, tweak, reinsert back into the library, delete old note.

HUGE HUGE HUGE time saver. Thank you for listening...... 

just curious. Does the PBR use the CPU or the video card? I'm upgrading to a new rig when the new AMD Threadripper comes out this fall.

I still wonder why Chief hasn't addressed this. Seems like referenced section marks in elevations would be easy to program, just like the referenced section marks in the floor plans. Then again, I suck at programming.

Is it possible to get more areas included in the Finish Schedule, similar to the floor area square footage. This seems like a no brainer and I'm puzzled why Chief doesn't have it as an option. Wall areas for quick painting or wallpaper bids would be nice. And maybe linear base, crown, and casing lengths for each room too.

I know we can get it from material take offs, but it would be nice to have it automatically populate.

Or am I just fuzzy on the ability of macros. Joe, Michael, chime in.

2 hours ago, robdyck said:

Edward, do you bother with adjusting the light fixture display.

I don't bother. When I get tunnel vision and get lost down a rabbit hole, I spend too much time on interior renderings that aren't sufficiently reimbursed with client fees. It's nice to provide this eye candy, and even nicer to hear this particular client say "could that look ANY better", and "that looks awesome", but it still doesn't get me anymore money. So I don't get stuck on details.

Going off on a tangent.....

At the recommendation of a successful attorney, I have started giving clients three "services" options. Level one is an outrageously expensive construction monitoring and GC price and I tell clients that only 5% of people choose it. Level two is my main aim which includes renderings and permit filing and I tell clients 90% choose it. Level 3 is a bare bones builders set with no permit filing, which the remaining 5% choose. The book "Influence - The Psychology of Persuasion" by Robert Cialdini (should be required reading for anyone that is self employed), he says it's a mental mind game. 90% of people chose the middle option, no matter the price. People want to do what everybody else does "part of the herd mentality". There is a secondary mind game that after you show people the crazy expensive option #1, the second option that your truly trying to sell them doesn't seem so bad, and actually seems pretty reasonable. And no one wants option 3 because they don't want to appear they are getting "no frills" service.

It's exactly why people buy a car for $40g, but then don't mind later when they add all the silly little options for $1,000 a piece that slowly add up, and eventually that car costs $55g

I tell ya, it's changed my business. I've increased my per project fees by 40%.

We're not in Alberta, so not a problem here as long as the pipe is wrapped and wall is insulated. Although we have moved to 2" x 6" stud walls to comply with prescriptive requirements. This is an existing wall that we'll likely fur out.

Thanks Mick. I know it looks messed up. That was an early version from x10 and I switched to x11 beta but didn't want to post the x11 plan here because of the NDA. It's not a bug specific to the X11 version so I didn't think it was appropriate to send to the beta forum.

I'll send it over there with the more recent plan.

In 9 years with Chief I've never come across this. It's something specific to that plan.

Thanks. That works for the renderings, but won't work when I do the electrical plan later. I have a ticket  in to tech support.

It seems the only way to get the lights automatically on the ceiling is to change the rough ceiling height to a high number. There is some imaginary ceiling being drawn, but not shown. Very weird. 

I'm working on some design revisions and I just noticed my lights are not installing on he cathedral ceiling, but rather floating at the 8" ceiling height, even though there is no ceiling in the room. I've never seen this before and I can't duplicate the issue on a new plan, just this one.

Any idea what is causing this?

HONOR_DESIGN_1.plan

On 12/28/2018 at 2:09 PM, Alaskan_Son said:

 

A lot of Sketchup's add-ons look pretty cool...

I have been wanting to add something to my drawings that might be too specific for Chief to do. I want to add 3d plumbing risers and also 3d HVAC runs. Is Sketchup my answer? Chief has a "cute" HVAC work around with molding profiles...but it's limited and not as automatic as I would like. It'll probably never see further development.....see here...

and a description here....

https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-02840/drawing-hvac-ductwork.html

I know Vectorworks has an HVAC tool but it was developed years ago as a demonstration only tool. Again, probably won't ever be further developed. The new version of Bricscad has an nice HVAC and plumbing run tool and also additional pay/for plugins.......

So I'm thinking Sketchup with it's huge exposure to and extensive base might be a good option with the additional plugsin by 3 skeng

http://extensions.sketchup.com/en/user/2706/store

especially since Chief is relatively compatible with imported Sketchup symbols. I use the warehouse ALOT!

Any thoughts?

You could also dump Autodesk's Autocad LT since they are moving to all subscription and try using a buy it once program like CMS Intellicad or Bricscad which both import/export 100% native dwg.

https://www.intellicadms.com/

https://www.bricsys.com/en-intl/bricscad/

Adobe has gotten just as crazy as Autodesk with their subscriptions, so I use basic Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements for photo and video work. My structural program Strucalc is trying to go subscription but I'm resisting the urge to upgrade until I absolutely have to.

I agree Chief rendering is good enough. Lumion looks like a lot of fun, but I don't get paid for fun. I get paid to produce. Sometimes less is more. The more renderings I give to people the more revisions and nit picking they do. I don't charge hourly so it's hard to prevent clients from going crazy. I was sending clients the 3d Panoramics and posting the 3d models on Chiefs servers for client review for maybe 3 months and stopped. It was too much. And most clients are so busy in their day to day worlds, they don't have the time to use and manipulate the 3d models. I do enough rendering that I have something decent to use for future marketing. (Chief knows about the rendering "eye candy factor" all too well). Now I just give clients a Youtube video link on our website. It's a video of my thought process when I was doing the design. It draws more traffic to our website too.

http://www.carmelhill.com/client-updates.html

My wife has these coupons down to a science. Before entering any store she signs up for their mailing list o downloads their app. When we're half way through the store shopping she receives a $20 coupon. She received "Kohls cash" to match every dollar she spends. We eat out 3 times a week for $25 for a family of four at Applebees, Ruby Tuesday, and Outback. Today she received a $20 coupon for Pottery Barn while we were on the checkout line buying a blanket for my daughter. She cancels our satelite radio subscription the day before it's set to auto renew at full price every single time. They call her next day and give her a crazy new deal to keep her enrolled. It's insane. But I can't keep up with here. But cable TV screws us no matter what.

If I put her in charge of my expenses she would have Chief sending me X12 in advance, at no cost and I'd already have 5G phone service. But then she'd also see all the purchases that she's not supposed to know about....drones, planes, helicopters, surfboards.....

I see. It's a matter of what you contemplate might change more.....your house design or the site plan. I unfortunately deal more with existing home renovations and additions. The existing geometry of the house often dictates the extents of the addition. I am more likely going be making changes to the plot plan requested by building department to legalize everything that's been added to the property in the last 30 years before I get the permit for my addition.....sheds, decks, gazebos, 4ft fence, 6ft fence, detached garage, driveway encroaching too close the property line, etc....

Michael, just curious. Why DON'T you currently draw it as a live plot plan instead of a detail? Maybe your explanation will make me go back to my original way of doing it.

I know you didn't want to get into this, but......I know I personally don't like fiddling with the north arrow to get the meets and bounds angles to show correctly. But it only takes a few minutes. As for roads, driveways, and fences not drawing in 3d when they are off the lot, I draw the plot, convert a copy to lines as my plot line boundary, then expand the terrain perimeter boundary outwards by 50 or 100 feet so I can add the streets and background trees without any drop off.

I wouldn't mind hearing if the city approves that exterior staircase. The last two risers look like a tripping hazard unless they are separated by a 3ft deep landing transition and then considered a separate set of stairs.

And you are precise. I don't think I have ever shown roof vent stacks like yours. But I've heard that Cali is crazy on the submission requirements. Locally on Long Island we've gone from 5 to 8  sheets back in 2005, to now 12 to 15. And just for a basic colonial with not much detail. 

In the past year I'v also started doing 3d plot plans. Any changes I make to the project are done once, and represented everywhere.

They typically have it released, at least in Beta, for the National Builders Show. This year it's in Vegas on Feb 19th. They have a very large presentation booth, look at the exhibit floor plans for the North Hall.

So I too am expecting a pretty big release. I don't know about the interface though. I'm not convinced they felt the need to update it, yet. But maybe they remodeled it after the Archicad, Revit, Bricscad ribbon theme. That would leave Vectorworks with the award for worst Graphical User Interface.

But......but....a big release inevitably means lots of bugs. So no moaning and groaning when it comes out. We asked for features and tools. Let's help the programmers with feedback and bug reports, not bitching and moaning.

Cheers. Merry Xmas.

I posted this topic about the high failure rate of the new 2080 cards. Read before you buy. More info further down.

They don't offer the 1080 because I read two weeks ago that they aren't produced anymore and back inventory is running out...

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2018/11/05/report-nvidia-gtx-1080-ti-no-longer-in-production-supply-running-low/#7853f77a723f

As far as CPU's, you might want to look at the AMD Ryzen Threadripper, but you'll likely have to go to a specific builder for it. Compare it's price and performance to other high end CPU's here:

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

The Ryzen Threadripper 1950X has twice as many cores as I9, twice as many threads, but is only $449. Seams like a no brainer. It's clock speed is slightly slower, but not much.

https://www.amd.com/en/products/cpu/amd-ryzen-threadripper-1950x

The I9-9900 is $539

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/processors/core/i9-processors/i9-9900k.html

The I9-9700 is $399

Personally, I'm waiting for the next Raytrace cards to come out after they've sorted out all the kinks. By then the Threadripper 2950X will be a bit cheaper and prime for a new custom build. That's 16 cores, 32 threads of goodness. And way up on the performance chart.

https://www.amd.com/en/products/cpu/amd-ryzen-threadripper-2950x

Here's my video of how I do keynotes. I've stopped using them for structure (joist, rafter, and collar ties spans), but I use them for everything else.

I built an extensive library and system for key notes, without macros. Not all of us are Ruby wiz kids. It surprising how many options there are within Chiefs schedules that use can use. I was using it for mostly commercial but I've started using for my residential. Michael gave me a lot of ideas for this that I've tried to incorporate. I'll post a video later today. It gets a little convoluted when you try to use it on sections and elevations because of the way labels populate in those camera views. 

I'm hoping fingers crossed that we get something better in the next Chief. A good notes system like what Vectorworks has can be used and implemented in stages.....

1. notes management and easy updating or maintenance of your notes database. Just placing your notes (without keynotes) all over your plan is easier.

2. Keynote implementation with a keynote schedule streamlines annotations for 1/8" plans like in commercial work.

3. Using keynotes for details is less economical because the notes are usually directly next to the detail in layout space. So keynotes arent needed. But users with a mechanical drawing background will still use them here such as when the to exploded parts views. Not really applicable to Chief.

4. Using a schedule of keynotes could have an additional column in the note schedule for code refernce numbers or even referencing into the detailed spec book.

5. Universal layout file not updating....imagine you need to update every note where you changed the wall insulation R value from R-13 to R-21. Chief can do this manually with it's find properties tool, but a good notes database or keynote system makes one change easier to implement across all the sheets. If you use the tools we have now with schedules, you can click the line of the schedule, then find in plan, and you can update the note that way. It works, has probably too many steps, but it's manaeable. 

Joe,

I'm not sure if you can adapt this, but it might help you....

https://grabcad.com/library/tag/lighting?page=1&time=all_time&sort=recent&query=sputnik chandelier

I don't buy that

27 minutes ago, Rashid_Garuba said:

The Irony is the relative low cost of Chief may be a factor in why the long suggestion list goes unattended.

I don't buy that because I think the program is relatively rock solid. Jump on the Vectorworks forum and you'll see users begging for next years release to have no new features, just fix what's broken. That's a bad indictment.

I was thoroughly impressed with X10's release. The PBR was amazing. It needs some tweaking, but amazing. I haven't looked at Raytracing once since the release of PBR. But they seem to have tunnel vision on eye candy stuff, VR, 360 panoramics, etc.., Although, that stuff is what sells a program to new users. "Hey look at all these cool features your probably never use!" But you could never sell the program with "we finally gave you a real cad stretch tool, cross referenced call outs, and better general 2d tools."

I think we're in for something special on X11 based on the absolute silence from Chief since June. No new x10 updates, beta hasn't been announced yet, and no mention of the new program for the upcoming Vegas Builders Show. X10 has new form fields that could be a precursor to REAL BIM fields, etc... there are things in X10 that hint about what's to come in X11.

So they are either working on something really big or they are quiet because we aren't getting a new version until 2020, which is highly doubtful.

Another indication, check the Vegas Builders show exhibitors floor plan, North Hall. The footprint for their display booth is HUGE. You don't spend money on a booth that size unless you have something to show off. Something new. 

see booth N1155

https://s23.a2zinc.net/clients/nahb/ibx19/public/eventmap.aspx?shmode=E&MapID=2

10 hours ago, AriseDesign7 said:

 is more like $2500 for a perpetual license.

Maybe, but what's the deal with Archiframe? $5800 additional to do wood framing. Seriously? That better be one kick ass framing module if I'm going to switch for $8300.

12 hours ago, nVisionTEKBIM said:

Autodesk thinks because they are so popular that they can just barely improve the products, and people will continue to buy.

After Autodesk went the subscription route, their corporate earnings and stock price did very well. But shortsighted I think. You don't screw over your customers just for quick bucks. 

I've been hearing rumblings that more than a few shops are looking at different CAD packages. Bricscad Bim emphasizes this a lot in their product presentation. But I don't know how much Bricscad is like Revit, or maybe more like Autocad Architecture.

1 hour ago, nVisionTEKBIM said:

but I doubt it would be considering it's lacking those features

Many other users have said this, and I have to grudgingly agree, there is no one platform that will do everything you want. You might need to adapt your own design and drafting styles to the limitations of your software, or have a multiplatform office.

I crossed Archicad off my list because it didn't have cross referenced keynotes built into the program as a base feature. After spending $6g on the program you have to then add a monthly license for a plugin from Cadimage. AC 22 supposedly released a feature that addresses this, but it looked extremely confusing. Another plugin is buy once and you own it, but a $6g program? Come on. A super powerful commercial program should have this basic feature built in.

Modern designs with slanted walls and curved roofs, or standard centerhall colonial houses, or commercial work, you need the program that fits your office. And don't forget added costs.......$6g for AC sounds like a lot, but what about the months of additional training, diminished office productivity while your training, etc......it makes more sense to stick with Chief and use what you have available.