johnny

Thats interesting - its not like Chief has some specific Wacom driver so you're system should be relying on the default Wacom driver that makes the apps think its just a mouse. I use Wacom on my PC without issues.

Does anyone know a trick to accurately moving/reflecting items in a block based upon line or point feedback of a sub-block item? Having to unblock and perform those tasks on each item is beyond troublesome.

My bet is that you're pushing nearly 5k (retina) to those monitors - which is going to require a better graphics card or external booster you can get for the Mac. I found that even on my laptop I got far better performance in 3D views with more like a 2-3k resolution. Its presented in the Mac OS under scaling.

I think you're right if you're just going to model the entire structure and then rotate it at the end - but if you're building the structure in place on an angle Chief handles this poorly in my opinion.

I was thinking it might be worth $55 to rent Revit Light for a month to get all the moen fixtures exported. While i am at it I might also grab all the Heat-n-glow products that are also in Revit format. If I was Chief, I might think about doing something similar to grab all the libraries I could of suppliers that offer their symbols in Revit - but could easily export them into a Chief acceptable format.

What would be great is if Chief could give us something like this:

I run into this issue often - and in Chief its super tough to make work in a "live" view at certain angles. What i've done is have a separate file for the element to be on angle, but keep it in that file as a "normal" 0,90,180 degree axis for modeling and working on the design - but then make a symbol of the entire structure to show the client a realistic view of the entire project. Rotating a symbol object is far more easy to control.

Its frustrating that Moen's fixture library is only available in Revit. I was wondering if anyone has ever tried to open anything in Revit to then export to a 3DS (or other) file format that can be used with Chief?

Since you brought it up... even though this was incredibly easy to do in Chief, its not intuitive. I wouldn't have considered the idea that I should use ceiling plane framing to then falsify into the beamed members unless Eric and you suggested it. Therefore, i wouldn't have known to search this issue out in a way that made logical, successive, steps forward. In retrospect I see the logic, and next time I run into this I have a good answer. One of my first options was of course to use the tools that are titled correctly for the modeling I want to perform - ceiling beams. If you ask me, I think ceiling beams should be able to follow a ceiling plane - and have their angles controlled by user input. As is fairly typical for Chief - there are ways to accomplish things but they are too often not direct nor intuitive. (i.e. the best column tool i have is using a cabinet or countertop...the list goes on and on) The Chief guru's on the forum are invaluable to this program - you and Eric stand out for helping people get past things like this and I thank you both.

Here is how it turned out.

Wow....that was CRAZY simple and now even all my textures work perfectly. It even cuts all the beams at the right angle...that was exactly what i needed. Thank you for that suggestion.

Thanks everyone for the ideas - working on it now. What i meant by #3 is when I place the PS in position, and then get my camera in place it doesn't offer me the ability to rotate at an angle like that. At least its not working the way I am trying. I'd love to know if you can get that to work, since it was actually one of the first things i tried.

I'm trying to model an interior beam along a valley based not on the roof plane pitch, but rather than ceiling plan intersection. This has been a struggle even for some very good Chief minded drafters I have. Attached is a picture to illustrate the effect I am looking for, and a pic of my model condition. Does anyone have any recommends? What I have tried so far is: 1. Roof Beam - but it uses the roof pitch not my ceiling plane. 2. Rafter - same problem. 3. Polysolid - can't get to an angled view to make work. 4. Solid - seemingly uncontrol-able at an angle. Starts to twist as it rotates.

Compared with other applications in the market, Chief is the least customizable of any i've used. However, nothing you specifically mention can't be customized. There are going to be some 2D visual preferences you'll give up in Chief, and because we are limited to rounded line edges the drawings don't look nearly as sharp as other apps who either use square line edges or give you the option. There are several other visual issues I have, but I still use Chief since it does so many modeling things well (particularly for Residential) that it outweighs the negatives thus far. It reduces steps in other apps by a factor of over 50%. Lastly, I do want to make sure you understand that Chief is designed to work primarily in BIM, and is geared to the type of output product others above show off. Chief is, without a doubt, the worse 2D CAD app i've ever come across - ultra inefficient and frustrating. The same could be said about its generic 3D abilities (thought got better in X12), but by contrast it shines in its data driven 3D, and is truly unmatched there.

Looking into the Chief folder it appears my core textures are 0 Kb. That can't be right obviously. Can I ask has anyone else downloaded the core catalog recently and been successful? I'm starting to think this is a problem with those catalogs from Chief and I might need to contact them.

Im not sure you can change the auto -toolbar, but you can change your other toolbars. You might be able to make a new toolbar and then move it down where you want, but it won't be the same thing. For me, I just setup my hotkey so that Ctrl+D is duplicate (Copy/Paste in place).

I think he means yours LeRoy - your lines are not all connected. There is a great Chief video on this subject here: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/5444/editing-cad-polylines.html

Convert to polysolid is a method i would use. See below. The lines need to be a single poly (connected).

I upgraded to the latest version of CA the other day, and all my library textures went missing - the entire catalog. So, i simply reinstalled - but that just placed the structure of the library in the folders, but the textures are still missing. I've installed the core library items 3 times now and the same each time. I can install bonus catalogs and it works just fine, but the core textures are all missing for me.

Yes, i've had this happen often.

You're saying by adding it to Layout - but I guess for us having a single window/door schedule for the project is fairly important. If you can break it out into separate schedules then you're idea works all the way around. From my perspective working in other apps like Vectorworks I can have any structure - group it, and ungroup in any other plan file and its seamless. So Chief feels unnecessarily burdensome in this regard - and its something I run into often. The same principle for this concept project below....a 4-plex in concept stage I didn't want to have 4 different model structures in the same file - so I tired the symbol solution and you see the lines between the units i couldn't get rid of. krieger_concept_townhouses.pdf

That kinda works for a render visual, but doesn't address the plan aspect with schedules and data reporting for the structure. Honestly, this is an area Chief really doesn't have any good answer for since they don't allow blocking of certain objects. I wish Chief would find a better solution for multi-structure plan files.

I figured Id report back another anomaly..which i believe nearly guarantees the problem is with Apple or driver. My favorite scale setting was the second smallest. When I change to a larger text, or even a smaller text, things smooth out for me greatly. Going larger (smaller resolution) would make sense I suppose, but going smaller (greater resolution) also works, and that is really something bizarre. I'm just reporting my experience in case it helps someone else. Lastly, if anyone is thinking about buying a 16" MacBook - its a great machine, it really is. 17" monitors are a bit too large for me since I travel a fair bit - 15" is too small at HD scale to draft effectively. This 16" Monitor and the resolution it can handle is really a treat. I do think I made a mistake not maxing out the Video Ram - and that is one thing I wish i could do over....and will in future models.

Its possible, but GoToMeeting is far better for that sort of thing. I think its free under a certain number of people.

That is the golden ratio/angle for deflection of water - most people know that. --- not really Again, i was just quickly sketching in 2D and eye-balled it...and didn't bother fixing it.