johnny

I have VW 19 and have to agree, its a buggy release. VW 18 had an initial bug that you couldn't copy anything - but they fixed within a couple days. The good news is that VW seems to fix their releases pretty quick - but it is annoying. Chief is fairly stable in comparison, but I think that has to do with how good a job Chief does with its Beta releases.

Good work there Andy. Though I have to point out the key to having great tools like in Vectorworks is how fast it is to make adjustments or changes thereafter. I agree it might not be bad in Chief just to draw this out one time with no changes - but we all know changes are common even after you think you're past a certain phase of the drawing.

Amen. ...and I would gladly pay Chief for plug-ins on extra toolsets.

There are so many reasons why you don't want to have a single plan file with all homes contained therein. I also don't see any efficiency gains by that approach. Meaning, since you have to update all 3 plans within the file (different elevations), then how does this save any time over independent plan files but 1 Layout file? There is actually a huge benefit by having different plan files. If there is a change to the plan that needs to be updated across the other 3 elevation versions, you can simply copy/paste into place the changes. If they were in the same plan file that wouldn't work. I do this type of work all the time, and its actually fairly efficient keeping separate plan files and 1 Layout file.

Not to put too fine of point on it, but I dont think the way that drawing shows the framing of the column is the way someone would build it. If you really are going to build it onsite and have it contain that inset panel, its best to incorporate it into the structure of the column - like below. You can also buy pre-made fiberglass versions.

Thanks - yes, the trees and plants are from Lumion. Thanks! Lumion is really improving with each release and getting better all the time. Lumion is using both CPU and Graphics card, but I don't know the ratio to give you on importance. My guess is graphics card.

Tract homes for a builder. Designed in Chief - rendered in Lumion.

I hate to be the anti-Chief guy - but Chief is terribly inefficient at this type of work. In other apps you have instancing of units and basically anything you want - which is key for multi-unit buildings. I would not use Chief for this if I was you. Look at Vectorworks or Allplan.

For some reason in the Core Library under "roofing" I no longer see metal roof options. I just reinstalled the Core Library manually and its still not there. I did a search and still cannot find the options in materials for metal roofing. Has there been a change?

Yep - that is the best way for now.

Yep, I often place my texture materials in a small box to the side to show the material more specifically and call it out - I posted a quick example. Thinking through this I found I could use a polysolid but then its a 3rd element in the model, and I need to then trace over with a box to get the perimeter line to show. If you stop to think about it, why can't a 2d box have a texture fill?? I can do it in any other CAD/BIM app i use. powder.pdf

Is it true a poly, box, circle, or other 2d item can't contain a texture fill? What is the point of that limitation?

Chief doesnt have a way to set a ceiling height based upon the depth of a beam. Solver’s suggestion is prob the way to control that ceiling. You may not be looking for design input, but with such a large ridge beam you might be better off embracing the visual and not look to conceal it.

Yep, I was able to use this method to get the angles correct - but for some reason other faces don't follow the same setting.

Is there any way to make the point to point tool non-associative as it used to be? I hate the change they made to this tool, as it seems like they've nearly invalidated the reason someone would use it - its purpose is now blurred with the other dimension tools.

I really don't understand texture directions in Chief. Its difficult enough that individual faces on a shape/object can't be controlled (without exploding), but it sometimes appears textures on other faces of a shape/object aren't even following the same direction the rest are. What madness is this? I mean the very ends of the wood sections would look like this (the bad area), but the sides should have the same directional grain.

I know everyone is going to have "their fav", but i've been particularly impressed with MSI products. My laptop (which isn't my main workstation) from MSI is full metal construction, solid spec, and focused on cooling - which is the single most important thing for a laptop user to consider when doing high end graphics/modeling. No matter the spec of your laptop, if its not good at cooling then it will "throttle" down (automatically limit) your performance to the best cooling profile it can make for itself. This means you might pay for an awesome processor or video card and the computer just slows it down regardless.

God bless the engineer that makes that work structurally.

I didn't see that video - looking at it now - thanks

Does anyone know how they are showing the topo lines on the terrain model here? https://www.chiefarchitect.com/company/pressgraphics/magazine-ads/california-house.html?utm_content=&utm_source=VerticalResponse&utm_medium=Email&utm_term=Read more&utm_campaign=Chief Architect Software News To a lesser extend I would also like to know how they show the transparent building on the non-transparent foundation structure. Is this in Photoshop or Chief?

I use an Wacom Intuos and it works great with Chief versions X4-X10. If you really mean V.10 I have no idea, but I would say Windows is probably fighting with that old of an app.

I just tested using your files and it works perfectly. Here is the PDF. MPD_LAYOUT_FILE.pdf

Does anyone have any tricks on recalling render-view settings? I personally like a setting combination in Watercolor with the overlaid sketch to certain numbers with shadows but having to do this each time, for each view, and each project is next to insane. I see no way to save the view settings...?

I'd say its the contractor. If you had "for construction" drawings that had the gable drawn in then its his fault for using the permit set. That is a fairly common issue and why most firms label the drawing sets "Permit Set" and "For Construction" set.

Yes, it does!