johnny

Vectorworks can open these types of files - but i'm not exactly sure what i'd save it back into in order to get to CA that is usable. I'm all for trying to help if you can think of what I would export to. My guess it it would have too many faces and artifacts for something other than the native file type.

Hey Ryan - nice to hear from you too. That is very good to know. I really don't use RayTrace so its not a huge deal. I am more glad to know PBR works.

Does anyone with experience mind if I ask how Chief is running on the Apple M-chips? Can you do physically based views yet? Rendering? Overall speed? Thanks in advance.

...or to further glenn's general idea I'd just use 3d modeling polys and add the brick course(s) as you want with offsets. If you do it that way it would even kinda show properly in cross sections.

Thank you Dermot. Out of curiosity, does Chief know why the earlier the beta the faster the app? I find current x14 about the same as final x13, but I always notice a much faster early version of each release that gets slower as the app reaches full version. Maybe there is a good reason for this - but its a shame we can't keep the speed of the early versions of the app.

Thanks Ryan - that is true.

I happen to have an engineer on staff lic in WA, OR, ID, and a few other states with time right now to jump on something. Jared - give me a call. I can get a home out in 24 hrs.

I use a lot of software - and it hasn't happened one time other than Chief. How do you set the TdrLevel tp 0?

But out of curiosity are you having that with files FULLY originating from a X13 template? I have it happen a lot with files started pre-X13 but not once with post-x13.

This isn't only a Windows 11 issue - i first started having these issues in Windows 10, and in fact moving to Windows 11 helped initially. Now, its happening again. I have a 3090. I have noticed inconsistency where if I don't have an option (greyed out) for Physically Based Render the crash won't happen. When Physically Based Render is an option on the render I have a high likelihood of a crash....and I've also noticed it happens to me only on files or templates started pre-X13. I've not had the crash happen (to me) in files originated 100% in X13.

Yep, I've put Chief in there and set it to use the "High Performance" but there isn't any difference. Are you using Windows 11?

Yeah, I've made sure that all the settings for this is correct, and even inside Chief it shows the 3080 being used. However, I know its not being used. Even in the most basic Standard mode is painfully slow. Are you using Windows 11?

So i bought a new laptop for presenting models to clients out of office - it has a RTX 3080 dedicated video card/chip. When I got the laptop it had Windows 10 installed - i operated for a bit in that and everything worked fine. I then upgraded to Window 11. Since that time, and even though i updated all my drivers for the video card, Chief (and only Chief) doesn't seem to be using the dedicated video card....rather the integrated graphics chip in the system. Anyone else having a similar issue - or know how to fix this?

This is about the best I could do with Chief's tools and that drawing. Respectfully, the design of the "revised" version isn't very good (design wise). Window seizes are all over the board, scale of some of the elements aren't great. The example you show in images is obviously done by a professional whereas the Chief file version was amateurish. concept_building.pdf

I think the key for Chief, as it relates to commercial (like your example), is it can make quick presentation work but so much of the plan is "falsified" CONDocs will be an issue (unless you want to do a ton of CAD work). Commercial windows/doors, structural elements/connections, cladding, elevators, and other aspects in Chief would be an issue. I'm not saying it can't be done in Chief - but you'd end up spending WAY more time in inefficiencies and prone to a lot more mistakes. Lastly, Chief starts to bog down with some homes we do...and I feel it would absolutely choke on a true BIM 3D commercial building.

Yes, I would recommend looking at Archicad. A close 2nd for me would be Vectorworks - but if you want an environment similar to Chief than Archicad is a great choice.

I'm curious if anyone knows if we can make custom macro's to change "default settings" in the app? I'd then want to make a button to flip things on and off if that's possible. The issue is I like designing with full width framing but I like single-line display on the plans. It would be nice to flip that on and off as i need.

As part of my offering to larger clients I service, I have a PE and Engineer Tech that work for me full time. I've been considering offering these services outside my existing clients. We're currently licensed in WA, OR, ID, ND, LA, and CO. Depending on the scope and continuity of work we might be willing to license in other states. We're not really looking for one-off clients, and we'd only work with fairly competent architects/designers/drafters out there that gives us "thoughtful" work-product (as in we don't want to figure everything out on how the structure is built). If you can do that you might be amazed at the rates we can charge - but again, we'd be looking for streamlined approach for most the work we take on. PM me if you have an interest in talking. We work in Chief obviously (as well as Vectorworks, and now Archicad) - though most our engineering is provided in PDFs. We have a process to provide digital or wet-stamped return product as needed.

Spot on Scott. A question i have for you if you're willing to answer is: Has Chief considered developing their Mac version in ARM so you don't have to use their built-in emulator (x86 - CISC) in the future? I realize its very difficult working around Apple's erratic path changes, but I do worry that in the future the only way to utilize the Apple silicon is going to be coding software to ARM (RISC - Reduced Instruction Set Computing). I'm sure a lot of Chief users don't understand that Chief may not be any faster in an M1 (or other Apple silicon) unless you guys modify/optimize your code to take advantage like Adobe and other software companies are.

You might be thinking about what he said about OpenGL. Its true Apple announced they wouldn't support OpenGL in the future which made Chief go another direction - but Apple's developing their own GPU right now and looking at ways to include Ray Trace tech that has largely been Nvidia's domain....since Apple's been sticking with AMD GPUs for some time they haven't had a good opportunity to support Ray Tracing. I see that changing in the future.

I think you need to be more upset with Apple than Chief. Its Apple who hasn't made this possible.

I would wait for the new pro-series I-Macs. The rumor's are M2 chip that has way better graphics performance and they're saying it will have a 30-32" screen. The current 24" I-Mac is more for home/personal use than a workstation.

Respectfully, unless the engineer fully understands you plan to use their work "prescriptively" thereafter i'd be careful doing this...its not typically how that works. Its like going to a doctor and telling him you only need one prescription written since you'll copy it for future refills.

This is exactly the case. The concept of the IRC is if your structure conforms then you can use it as an exception to the IBC and avoid an engineer. Anything not explicitly stated in the IRC then needs an architect or engineer to approve since you revert to the IBC.

Overall that is pretty good for Chief....especially in 2013. Although, since you brought it up the issue with Chief compared to other BIM apps is those steel columns and beams show as place-holders only unless you wanted to do a massive amount of custom modeling after your engineer was done sizing them - and then the beams/columns would be a shape or symbol rather than an actual structural member (from the apps point of view). In Chief we can change a post or beam to show as a Steel I-beam but we have no options for its actual sizing/capacity.