Doug_Park

It is hard to say what is going on. If the problem isn't just in Chief then I would start by doing basic computer maintenance. Clean out your temp folder. Scan for malware. Defrag your hard disk. Etc.

There can also be problems if your internet connection is not working well. The list of possible problems is endless so it is hard to tell what the problem is.

I was able to reproduce the issue on Windows. This is what I did:

Go to Customize Tool Bars.

Drop a new "PLace Library Object" tool on a toolbar.

Close Customize Tool Bar dialog (probably not necessary)

Click on the new Icon.

Click on the Library Button.

Select any Electrical Item (I chose various outlets)

Click OK

SEH or Crash occurs at this point.

If these aren't the same steps let us know.

Chief files are compatible between platforms. In fact all files readable on Windows are readable on Mac. This means that if you have X5 or older plans you can read them directly on the Mac.

Fonts between platforms may display slightly differently if they did not come from the same source. For example the Arial font that ships with Windows has very slight spacing differences than the one that ships with Mac. You probably won't notice the difference. Other fonts may have larger discrepancies. This shouldn't normally cause you difficulties. But it is important to ensure that you have the fonts you are using installed on both machines. This is conceptually not any different than going between Windows machines as the same problems can in theory occur there as well.

Windows meta files will not display on Mac, but if they will be preserved so that when you go back to Windows they will still be there. A better option is to embed PDF or one of the other image types like PNG or JPEG.

Aside from that there are no known issues. If you do find a problem let us know so that we can fix it.

I assume you are talking about video card drivers.

AMD had some compatibility issues with Windows 8.1 when it was first released.

In any case updating your video card drivers may fix the issue.

That worked for me too, but the icons are unusably tiny on my high DPI laptop.

We noticed that the problem has to do with the edit toolbar not having enough reserved space. The view resized smaller to provide space for the edit toolbar causing a redraw.

Here is another option if you want the icons properly scaled:

Create a toolbar with 1 item in it and place it at the bottom of the screen where the edit toolbar normally shows up. Make sure it is turned on in Elevation and 3D Views. This will force the space for the edit toolbar to be properly reserved before selecting anything in a new 3D view.

In this case it looks like entirely different text is placed than what was in the library.

Best guess is that your user library is somehow corrupted. Get with our support team to track down the problem.

Best guess on 3D views is a driver issue. Video card or possibly the mouse driver.

Send to Layout doesn't sound like anything I've ever heard of.

Other than that I would do basic computer maintenance starting with checking for malware.

Multiple framing layers would be nice. Double walls can be used for a lot of the conditions where multiple framing layers are needed.

Multiple wall layers make certain things, like ICF, work really well.

Ray tracing time is mostly dependent on number of pixels times number of lights. The size of the model is generally a less significant factor so making the model simpler more than likely won't help you as much as you would expect, unless the simplification removes some of the lights.

If you are running X5 then you don't have this feature. It was added in X6. If you are getting circles indicating an error then correct the error that the dialog that comes up with it is referring to.

The red view is more than likely due to a video driver issue.

I haven't seen or heard of that particular issue before. My best advice is to make sure your video card drivers are up to date. Check with the video card vendor or if it is a laptop check with the laptop manufacturer for newer drivers. You will not get the latest drivers from Microsoft.

I should have probably included the link to the Microsoft documentation.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/lifecycle

Chief runs well on Windows 8.1 as does pretty much all other software that runs on Windows 7.

I can't speak to the motives of those that dislike Windows 8. As far as I'm concerned I prefer it over Windows 7. If you have a touch screen you will be better off with Windows 8.

Mainstream support of Windows 7 is scheduled to stop in Jan. I would recommend upgrading before then.

Go to print. Select Save as PDF.

Running Chief on Linux would require installing an emulator. Chances are that would have numerous problems. I've never been motivated to try this.

Recently I have been working on a project developing highly portable libraries for future versions of Chief. One of the platforms I test on is Ubuntu.

I've reinstalled Ubuntu from scratch at least 4 times so far this year because for one reason or another something hosed my install. Upgrading Ubuntu was the cause in at least 2 cases. I have a somewhat new laptop. Some of the hardware was not well supported. It is only with Ubuntu 14.10 that the video card actually works OK and it is still not well supported.

While I would like to think that there is a better alternative to Windows or Mac, it doesn't currently exist.

You can also use dimensions, but that seems like more work.

Something is wrong.

I opened the front elevation and everything seems relatively quick. I move a window or door and it gets into a state where things are exceptionally slow.

Hit rebuild 3D and things are fast again. Something about this plan is putting things into a bad state that rebuild 3D fixes.

A 2.3 GHz core 2 duo is at the low end of what I would consider usable. I keep pushing to drop the GHz requirement on the web site because it isn't helpful. For example a 1.7 GHz laptop with turbo boost is actually a lot faster than it sounds. I have a 1.7 GHz i5 MacBook Air which runs Chief quite nicely.

I would download the trial version and see how it performs on your hardware. If it is fast enough for you, then you don't need to upgrade your hardware.

You should try the X6 trial. The 4 monitor case is not something that we see used very often, but should work well. The ease with which views can be moved from monitor to monitor or stacked as tabs or split on a single monitor makes the management of them a ton easier than in prior versions.

That shouldn't normally happen unless the doors/draws have been created with very poor 3D. I would suggest getting a plan with that problem to our support team to look at.

Text issues may be due to not having the same font installed on both machines.

When I looked at text I looked at the numbers for font spacing sizes etc. My baseline research was comparing Arial on Windows 7 to Arial on a Mac running Snow Leopard. What I found was that while there were numerical differences in spacing they were very small. Small enough that one would have to have a very high resolution printout from both Windows and Mac laid on top of a light table and a magnifying glass to see the differences.

But, other fonts may not match up as well. Certainly the fonts we Ship with Chief will be the same. Font substitution will find fonts that are theoretically close but without something that is pretty much identical you will have issues.

Preferences > Render

Uncheck "Zoom Using Field of View"

This won't fix your already distorted view, but it will prevent it from getting distorted if you zoom using the mouse wheel.

I have had issues in the past with Logitech and Microsoft drivers. Usually I don't install them. The only time I do use them is if I'm trying to diagnose a bug in their drivers.