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.

On 7/11/2022 at 12:12 PM, rgardner said:

Hey Johnny good to hear you are still with Chief.  

 

I have a new Studio with the Ultra chip.  It runs extremely well and fast.  No RTRT yet (although a certain competitor whose name starts with V and ends with works does offer a RTRT feature so the ability is there), but you can still do PBR and CPU RT.

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.

On 4/29/2022 at 8:33 AM, Dermot said:

If anyone can find a case where X14 is noticeably slower than X13 was when doing something in particular, then please be sure and report this to our tech support team.

 

If would be very helpful if you could include the original X13 plan and the exact steps that you are using to see the slow downs.  This is the kind of information that can really help us to determine the cause.

 

You can find information about contacting tech support here:

https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/

 

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.

On 6/11/2022 at 6:25 PM, rgardner said:

I assume you mean Luke?  Who uses Chief.  There is Cox Obrock @johnny who still has Chief and I believe still has an engineer on staff. I have been working with another engineer out of Seattle who doesn’t use Chief but I do the drafting for him on my projects.  If you want his info let me know and I am happy to pass it along.

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.

7 hours ago, BrownTiger said:

 

Fyi this error plagues a lot of software. Not just ChiefArchitect . 

 

Have you guys tried to set TdrLevel to 0. Many times it helps/

 

BT

I use a lot of software - and it hasn't happened one time other than Chief.

How do you set the TdrLevel tp 0? 

2 hours ago, Kbird1 said:

 

This is also my experience to date with the "Lost Device Error" on Win10 and a 3080 though I occassionaly get a "invalid parameter" Error in 3D as well

 

 

 

I am also having issues though with Chief locking up for 3-9 mins randomly, which is a major time waster.

While trying to find the issue with Task Manager etc I noticed Chief was actually trying to do an Autosave with the file being stuck at 0kb until it finally recovers , coincidence I don't know? But I have decided to reinstall Chief this weekend with the hope next week will be less problematic.

 

 

 

Mick.

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.

2 hours ago, MarkMc said:

Did you try Windows Graphic settings? I think starting with Win 10 you need it set there, at least that's what I've been doing.

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?

2 hours ago, Renerabbitt said:

Should be able to designate this in geforce experience. Might be worth setting up a profile for chief in GeForce. You could also do this through display settings.

 

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

5 hours ago, robdyck said:

Don't suppose you have an example pic handy? I can think of plenty of ways that Chief can be used for larger projects, but larger is relative. As long as the building is rectilinear and made up of rooms and floor levels, Chief may very well be able to handle it. 

This...Yes:

 

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.

2 hours ago, Alaskan_Son said:

I would recommend looking at Archicad.

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.

On 6/3/2021 at 9:17 PM, scottharris said:

 

Apple’s strategy is to develop its processors in-house.  They no longer use NVIDA and will move away from AMD.  Not sure how long before its GPU will be on par with NVIDA or AMD.  BTW, Lenovo has a laptop with an NVIDA 2070 RTX or Desktop at Newegg with a 3070 for right around $2k.

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.

7 minutes ago, Chopsaw said:

 

From what Scott said it was Apple that forced the change in the first place.

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.

2 hours ago, Electromen said:

I downloaded it.  I'm extremely disappointed that X13 Real Time Ray Tracing is not supported on the Mac.  

I have a $4,400 Mac Pro and a $3,900 MacBook Pro.  It's hard to justify buying a $4,000 PC just to Ray Trace.

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.  

9 hours ago, JiAngelo said:

Lastly, have an engineer give you a blanket statement regarding the spans you actually use and include it with your plans.  We've done this before as well.  A one-time cost is then offset by multiple future uses and both you and the inspector are covered in case there is a question regarding the practice down the road.

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.

10 hours ago, HumbleChief said:

Steve, is it possible that the local building official can't certify anything over 12 ft. without an engineer's stamp because the IRC code doesn't address nor accommodate any structure over 12 ft.?

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.

On 3/19/2021 at 9:15 AM, HumbleChief said:

Here's a house plan created in 2013 for a home I designed for a client in Squaw Valley, Lake Tahoe area. I'm including a screen shot from Chief and it will be hard to ignore how crummy it looks but there were over 60 iterations of the design and I don't have time to find the best representation and you'll just have to trust that the design and 3D were complete and the construction was permitted and built as the actual pictures of the home under construction depict. If I had to tackle this job today with Chief I wouldn't hesitate and would be much quicker with the skills I've gathered since.

 

There were steel beam superstructures, glass embedded into rock. Crazy stair details, a climbing rock inside the living room and a few other details baked in. Again the 3D from the plan I chose is pretty sad but the design was done completely in Chief.

 

 

 

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.