johnny

I'm going to try and give you advice from my perspective. I would charge a customer A LOT more (even if I took the job in the first place) if they wanted to have a hand the in the design (or drawing process). There is more work explaining the reasons for something to a DIY-er like yourself rather than working with someone that didn't want to take part in the drafting/design process. Remove yourself from being the drafter to just being the owner and you might find better success....and perhaps pay less.

I just built a 9900k system for my home office where my build was about $1700 and the closest thing I could come to that spec was $4k. However, I shopped parts on discount etc and even purchased a brand new video card (unopened) via craigslist. Your point about your own time being accounted for makes sense, but I find that knowing how to build and fix your own systems is superior to relying on others and having down-time. When rare issue comes up, I can fix or replace a part quickly since I know the system so well...and all the parts have warranties.

Building your own system is the best option - its very easy with todays tech and you get 2x the system for the same price.

We're using X11 across 10+ PC's of varying types and its been very stable for us. That said, you do seem to be running an older spec PC if your signature if up-to-date.

FYI there are different "standing seam" profiles...Chief i guess decided on a certain style (which isn't my preferred version either).

I hate to be captain obvious, but its probably because there is no such thing as a single framed wall that thick. Eric's idea is probably a practical solution, but you also might just try modeling the condition out the actual way it would be built - the software works much using it that way.

X11 is solid...no question. I'm sure we all still have some issues but its nice to see they are moving in a good direction.

I hate it too....i was able to switch back by not using any of the custom UI options and going back to the true "classic" and then uncheck "color theme"...

Is it my imagination, or did the recent update change the thickness or color of the toolbar separator lines when you use a custom theme? Below is a visual example. We tested on other machines with the same result.

Does anyone know if its possible to export Chief files WITH all the texture and reflection maps??? Using PBR would be incredibly useful if there was a way to export the work into a rendering app that continued the process.

I once heard someone from Chief describe their terrain modeling like working with cellophane. Then I went to the kitchen and tried to make a terrain model with cellophane - and realized.....he's right, Chief's terrain models are just like that. ...followed by the thought - why would someone make a terrain modeling process similar to working with cellophane?

It looks like you will need to draw in that "gable end" manually. That would be a attic wall and then have the roof cut the wall at bottom (option under roof tab in walls Dbx). You'd then extend the hip roof so its under the new gable end wall - that operation will cut the wall bottom.

Yep that is it!

Also, something else that is actually a factor in my current project. I can't set an allowed angle to the angle I actually need. Chief is limiting the angle to 1/2 deg - but it so happens I have a project that is using a very particular angle based upon a property line, but the number isn't supported by Chief.

It rotates the view, but doesn't let you use right angles to the relative rotation. Everything still draws the same regardless of how you rotate the plan.

Thanks everyone! I've incorporated many of these things to keep working on the project in Chief. Micheal actually gave me a personalize lesson on the best practices (which you guys state here too). I will say, when you rotate a plan it would be very helpful if somehow you could ask Chief to view the plan rotation as the new basis for 0-90 deg. I feel doing that would really make this process very easy.

Is there some trick to drawing in Chief with odd angles. What I am finding is that even if you have exterior walls drawn in an odd-angle nothing else draws itself in relation to the off angle item - in terms of parallel or 90 degree. You basically need to re-set the angle of each element draw in the off angle. If you look at my sketch below, this is the project I am having issue with. I set the red line to 90 deg in Chief so the main section is all right angles. However, the blue like section of the home is an odd degree to the main body (to hug the property line). Drawing/modeling the exterior was fine, but what I am finding is that everything subsequent is beyond a PITA in that nothing is drawing itself relative to walls in that section of the home. Is there a way to make walls and subsequent items snap to 45/90 degrees from the parent item (exterior walls)?

I forgot all about that suggestion... its the simplest thing to implement. Just a checkbox or something on "retain aspect ratio" and let the computer do the work.

But if you have say a site plan that has no clear 90 degree X/Y there is no way to keep the scale contained so its pure madness. Honestly, Chief would only need a little checkbox in that Dbx to say "Keep resize contained" and it would work fine.

Thanks - to clarify so when you say "scale a known distance" that would be taking a measurement of the base scale and doing the math on the % difference for a scale factor? I assume there isn't an easier way. In Vectorworks we have a similar tool to the point-to-point resize with the option to keep the aspect ratio the same. Therefore, when we bring any object like PDF into the drawing we simply point-to-point and type the new dimension. I guess I was thinking somehow point-to-point inside Chief could be constrained. This other method you mention works though.

I would love someone from the forums or Chief Architect explain to me how you can accurately scale a PDF using an associative length contained in a drawing. Point to point resize would work fine if the aspect ratio stayed the same - but it doesn't. Thanks for the help.

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.