WhistlerBuilder

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  1. WhistlerBuilder
    Hello all, I have asked about hardware specs before, specifically about graphics cards and got some good answers here. I was wondering what I could do to speed up the general working speed of chief for designing larger buildings. I know from previous conversations that chief is really not designed for apartment complex style design. Unfortunately it is the software I have access to currently and have spent a long time getting trained up in. I do not want to move into another platform just yet as I am still doing single family and duplex designs fairly often, but our company has shifted focus to building mid sized apartment complexes of 50-100 units. I am running into the issue of chief taking a long time to implement changes, move lines, and snap calculations. The software seems to pause a lot before "building" the different layers with every small change. Is this a ram issue? Processor speed? number of processor cores? Graphics card? My home PC seems to run faster with better quality and more ram, along with a better quality processor. My office PC has a better graphics card though, so I am thinking this a processor issue? I read a posting about a multi core system build on the forum a while ago. The build used two Xeon 8 core processors on a single board. I was thinking a build like this might be the answer? Suggestions and comments welcome. Thank you all for your help in advance. Cheers,
  2. WhistlerBuilder
    Thanks for the definitive answer. Cheers,
  3. WhistlerBuilder
    Their Hardware recommendations link for video cards specifically references OpenGL. Which is what the Quadro / Firepro cards are designed for. I will submit a request to tech support for clarification and see what they say. Thanks for the help so far, but it seems like other people are just as much guessing at this as me.
  4. WhistlerBuilder
    Hello Everyone, I had a post recently where I asked for help with hardware suggestions for speeding up Chief's performance with large files. Specifically multi family buildings with 40+ units. There was a bunch of answers but mostly the consensus was that Chief was not designed for this type of work. One area I have recently discovered as a possible solution to this problem is switching from a standard graphics card to a "workstation card" Workstation cards are purpose built cards for 3D rendering and work on Open GL based software instead of a gaming cards direct X software. Nvidia has the Quadro Series and AMD has the Firepro series. For 3D rendering programs such as 3D Studio Max and Maya there is a substantial difference in performance from gaming cards. I was also told that other Cad software is dramatically improved as well. What I am curious about is if anyone here has done the switch over to a workstation card and experienced an improvement in Chief's performance. Thanks again for all your previous replies to the last post. Cheers,
  5. WhistlerBuilder
    Thank you for the insights everyone. In agree that it seems chief is not the software to use for such a building. This is unfortunate as I am finally getting trained up and efficient in it. The symbol suggestion was something I was considering, but the main reason I drew this up in chief was to try and make use of the material estimating feature. I will see what I can do in regards to updating OS and graphics card, but I don't expect that much of an improvement.
  6. WhistlerBuilder
    Thank you for the link. The build you are suggesting has increased processor cores and Ram. You think the chugging / glitchy performance issues are due to core usage / ram usage and not video card processing power?
  7. WhistlerBuilder
    Hi Everyone, I was just wondering what people did to boost the performance speed of the software when working with larger drawings. I have recently been working on some 45-100+ unit apartment buildings with chief and I have noticed that even though I have a pretty good computer many actions start to trigger significant delays or glitchy freezes once the plans get large and complicated enough. The system I am running is: Operating System Windows 7 Professional 64-bit SP1 CPU Intel Core i7 3770 @ 3.40GHz 43 °C Ivy Bridge 22nm Technology RAM 32.0GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 668MHz (9-9-9-24) Motherboard ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. P8Z77-V PRO/THUNDERBOLT (LGA1155) 37 °C Graphics 27MP35 (1920x1080@59Hz) L1953T (1280x1024@60Hz) 2048MB ATI AMD Radeon R7 200 Series (MSI) 47 °C I think upgrading to windows 10 will help the overall utilization of the ram I have. But I am worried that the freezing and glitching I am experiencing is caused by not having enough graphic processing power as chief tends to calculate the 3D elements of a plan even when not in 3D viewing. Some advice from any techies or people doing large drawings would be very much appreciated. Cheers,
  8. WhistlerBuilder
    Please see breaks.jpg as an example of page 9/9 for the issue of the line breaks or jogs. I also attached the plan. This issue has been popping up in every plan I am working on now, and has only appeared since upgrading to x8 from x7. Cheers, Florence Addition 2.plan
  9. WhistlerBuilder
    Since upgrading to x8 I am getting some really weird display artifacts. There appears to be some weird vertical alignment issue. There are vertical breaks and misalignment in horizontal and angled lines. This is showing up both in the chief client and in the export pdf's. See attached pdf for example. Any idea what the issue is with this and if there is a fix for this? Florence Addition May 17th 2016.pdf
  10. WhistlerBuilder
    Thank you Solver, that solved it =D
  11. WhistlerBuilder
    Hello Everyone, I am stumped on an issue with dormer walls. I have a design that uses a cape cod roof bearing on the 1st floor walls. The top floor of this design has two dormers. These dormers have 1 exterior wall on the top side, and 1 interior wall on the lower side. I cannot figure out how to get the lower side walls to show with siding above the roof and drywall below the ceiling inside on the top floor. Any suggestions? Thank you in advance. People are so helpful on these forums! Cheers, Florence Addition.plan
  12. WhistlerBuilder
    Is there a way to change the default wall height? It seems to be set to 97 1/8" even after I have changed all the rooms to 96 3/4" Some windows are displaying at the proper height while others are not even on rooms that have the same floor height. This is very confusing that it would show some windows at the proper height while others are not within the same room.
  13. WhistlerBuilder
    Thanks for the heads up. I do not understand how, but the rough ceiling height had auto changed on me for some reason. It used to be 108 3/4", so there is my missing dimension. Cheers,
  14. WhistlerBuilder
    I am having a strange issue trying to dimension window sill heights in an elevation view. The heights are correct on the first floor, but the second floor mysteriously is adding 3/8" extra to the dimension. I have checked my baseline elevations and checked the window height in multiple sections and elevations and floor plans, the height is consistent across the plans but it is displaying an extra 3/8" in the elevation view. Any suggestions? See elevation 2, top right window on 2nd floor. Sill height should be 2' but it is displayed as 2' 3/8". I seem to encounter this issue often. Spruce st House 6.plan
  15. WhistlerBuilder
    Hello Everyone, The builder I work for uses Parallel Chord trusses for the majority of their projects and I cannot figure out how to get the software to correctly display this system. I have attached a jpg of a section drafted in different software showing what I am trying to accomplish. Currently I am just using I-beam trusses to mimic the size of this system but they are not getting trimmed to the walls and stick out past the walls in section and elevation view. This does not look very professional and I would really like to be able to properly display the system we are using. Can chief do this? If so how? Thank you in advance for your help. Cheers,
  16. WhistlerBuilder
    Thanks Eric, I was not able to find that earlier. Cheers,
  17. WhistlerBuilder
    Is there a way to have a belly band / flashing break shown between floor levels. I need to show a belly band breaking up two floor levels on the exterior siding. Any help here would be appreciated. Cheers,
  18. WhistlerBuilder
    Thank you Alaskan_Son. I share your feelings on this. I thought there was something I was missing, but it turns out it is just a deficiency in the software. What a shock to learn that such a fundamental and important element of design software is completely broken in this version. =(
  19. WhistlerBuilder
    I did that. It still is not snapping to anything relevant.
  20. WhistlerBuilder
    I was referring to the auto dimension for the random locations. I was also referring to trying to draw the individual end to end dimensions. It will not grab on any relevant point and I have to draw in arbitrary lines and dimension between them which is too inaccurate for me.
  21. WhistlerBuilder
    I am trying to design this hanger airplane hanger and when I put the plan in elevation view it is taking dimension points from seemingly random locations. I need to show the top of framing, top of slab, top of footing, top of roof, etc but the dimension points are completely random in the auto dimension. Is there a way to fix this? Hangar.plan
  22. WhistlerBuilder
    Thank you David, That worked great and showed me another trick to add to my list. Cheers,
  23. WhistlerBuilder
    I need to show the stairs coming off an upstairs deck on the top floor plans for a client. Since there is nothing above these stairs there is no way to create a stairwell and show the stairs from the lower floor. I can not seem to find anything that would allow the stairs to show on the top floor plans without clicking the overlay button and then showing all the elements from the lower floor in red. Can anyone tell me a way to display these stairs on the top floor plans? Thank you for your help. Cheers, Spruce st House 3.plan
  24. WhistlerBuilder
    Thank you!
  25. WhistlerBuilder
    Hi everyone, I am having an issue that I cant seem to figure out. I know I am just missing a setting somewhere and I was hoping someone could point me in the right direction. I have a set of plans where the floors appear to all be hovering above each other. I built the floor framing and now instead of hovering the rim joists are exposed in the floor package in between the siding of the top floor and bottom floor. How do I get the siding to cover this area? or apply a belly board or flashing for the siding break between floors? Thanks for your help! Spruce st House 3.plan