johnny

Did anyone video capture the go-to-meeting Scott hosted?

Yeah, I have a similar %....but I find the 10-20% times an issue comes up eats most the time I saved in the 80-90% "worked fine" automation. I think if we had something inside Chief specifically for manual connections when something doesn't work correctly that would be a huge time saver.

Holly cow - its amazing that you could create that panel using a cabinet.

For all the features I want Chief to add, it hit me that this issue of connections is my #1 time waster. In Vectorworks all the connections are semi-manually done...meaning you would first select say a wall, and then the roof plane you want to intersect (connect) and there is very little that can go wrong - with the connection being very clean. This method is slower by comparison to when Chief makes correct auto-connections, but in Vectorworks there is rarely a time where a connection problem exists....so it is really slower? I was going to make a suggestion that Chief add a tool to quickly make positive/affirmative connections if the auto-connect functionality fails, but was wondering how many people are effected by this issue.

Is there any way you'd be willing to do a vid of that process? Id really love to see that....could what you do work for commercial curtain walls?

I'm curious if I am alone in how often I run into connection issues inside Chief. 80-90% of the time connections are just fine and Chief really shines in how fast it can be. However, I find that when I do run into a connection issue inside a model (and id say I get 1-5 issues per model no matter what) the time savings Chief gave me is ruthlessly taken away when I end up having to go back and correct problems which 9 times of 10 end up being a problem with one of my connections. Do you guys run into this problem? Below are some vids that Michael did for me on what I am referring - actually very good to review for many of you guys. Michael knows this inside and out, but so few of us are on his level when it comes to Chief.

I hate to break it to you but... you are going to have to model that door out and make a symbol (which is going to take some time) if you want it to show up correctly. Good news is you do 1 side and the other side is set for you (reflect). Thats a $10-20k door set so having you spend some time modeling shouldn't be a budget buster for your client. If you really wanted to do it the "cheesy" way, then you should start by using just a slab door style and use the pic to "stretch to fit"....not tile.

I'm curious if something got messed up in the most recent update. I dont remember this many people commenting on sluggish files before. Granted, Chief has never been zippy with large files, but there seems to be an unordinary amount of forum discussion on the matter lately.

True... i was just giving him some place to start so he didn't think he had to get his camera out every time he wanted to take a screen shot.

Just an FYI. When you hear the term "screen shot" it doesn't typically mean using your digital camera to take a photo of your screen. You can do the whole thing digitally...

who doesn't need a chief terrain guru...? Chief terrain is "spooky action at a distance".... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_at_a_distance

It may help others follow better if you posted the plan you have above.

Larry, wouldn't you need a beam in that location anyhow? ...point being is that however you look at it some manual framing work is required for that condition. I would love to see if you could get that to properly frame, since I commonly just finish this type of work in 2D.

When using manual rafters, I can't seem to get the rafter to "bind" to my selection of a custom rafter tail? Is there a special way to do that?

I agree as well. Chief works so hard trying to make their tools super easy - but since they are unable to program their tools with every conceivable condition (even for simple situations), it ends up backfiring when you veer off their scripted course and spend countless hrs looking for a workaround that is adequate. Take stairs in Vectorworks. Very similar to Chief's options in the dialog box, but once you get to a point where pre-scripted options dont work you have the ability to explode any 3d object and finish with basic (but robust) generic shape tools. Like you drawing the stairs in 2D, the generic 3D tools allow for any changes to all the stair elements to customize completely. In fact, they even have a name for this: Hybrid Modeling. Right now in Chief we have no such ability.

Although, I dont think what you have is correct either. The roof plane needs to be brought back in line with the attic wall.... in which case, if you did that Chief auto-generates that wall correctly.

I have to say, the issue that Scott is demonstrating has screwed me up so many times its not even funny....since the view auto-updates in Layout, so I sometimes dont even know i made a change to the appearance of my drawings thru simply navigating the model. Scott hit it on the head when asked "why would someone want that functionality"??? I certainly dont.

Thanks Joe! I will use this macro. ...out of curiosity, is this a bug in the app?

I am fairly sure Alaska is correct - but, if you do happen to own X9 and still getting the error you need to re-associate your .plan files to open via X9 and not X8. You can do a basic google search on getting this done and should be easy for you to fix. ....again assuming for a moment you own X9 or have that available to upgrade via SSA.

Here is the other wall with the exact same label.

Before reporting this as a bug, I wanted to verify - When I (a) set a specific wall label, (b) produce framing to get the wall details, and (c) go to look at the wall title callout it doesn't match. In fact, in my example it calls the wall layer "4" but then I have another "4" wall detail so that makes no sense all the way around.

I assume you mean 2d birdseye view....and yes, Vectorworks is awesome at landscape design. You could probably pickup an older version of Vectorworks and get everything you need at a fraction the price of a new copy.

You'll have a love-hate-love relationship which will leave you loving Chief just enough to hang around but feeling frustrated by the lack of intuitively obvious features.

Lewdis - you probably can get a lot closer to what you want using a "back-clipped" cross section.....but honestly, this is an area Chief doesn't do well on IMO.

I used Vectorworks daily for real production work. Unless you plan on modeling your homes in that app, its hard for me to recommend it just for presentation work. I'm using Chief more and more and working to get a certain style I can start to live with since Chief can be more rapid through to plan production. That said, I think in 5 years time - unless Chief does massive overhaul and makes an effort to keep up, Chief will be type-cast for DIY and fan-boys from older times. Vectorworks and other apps are moving 10x the speed in development. A lot of the development has been geared more for commercial, but I see them adjusting back to residential soon.