VHampton

Per the ever wise Yoda, it's easy enough to call any room whatever you want. To date, Chief doesn't have: wine room home theatre media room W.C. shower pantry linens chimney mass HVAC duct Elevator steam room sauna pool bath outdoor shower Rooms which we all typically use, but they're not there on the drop down menu. On a side, does anyone still use the designation "Master Bed Room"? I noted in both X14 and X15 that it isn't there anymore. Probably because CA doesn't want any issues with possibly using an insensitive term. We live in a politically correct part of the US and even though every house has an entourage of staff, and live in help (au pairs), the new phrase is "primary bedroom" vs. Master which is consider a no-no. Even the home improvement shows have stopped using it.

Balcony is the best method. Won't count towards living space. Builds like a room. Has ceiling but no base boards. Change flooring to deck boards. Nice and easy.

https://www.dezeen.com Best architectural reference website on the web. The designer for that is really interesting.

So if you go to the cad shapes, there is an option for hexagons which can be made 12 sided or more. The design looks like it gets split in half and then the center point is extended. I see what you're doing. I would try an auto-roof on a pure geometrically shaped deck with headers. In other words, build that roof in a new plan, and make it perfection. Valleys all equal and fascias all at the same height. Then copy and paste, and drop the new roof over your slightly irregular footprint. Manually adjust the valleys to bear down on the offset center support. It's a cool idea and highly unique. You'll get there. My thoughts are that the valleys and pitches want to be the same for the most part. Your drawing shows a constant fascia height. Making varying pitches means that the valleys get set higher and lower. It's gonna get tricky. Something needs to be a tad uniform.

Each facet (fascia) on this thing wants to follow the outside wall... which means that the inverted valleys should be all equal. On the drawing, they can come from each outer corner of the gazebo. Meaning that the valley rafters land on the outer posts obviously. The center of the gazebo is offset and that's where the valleys get extended and make this a unique challenge. Either way, it's do-able. Framing flat looks like the design intent would be different... since the "look" appears to involve a funnel-like feel from the interior.

Thanks again Ryan. I noticed that... meaning X15 runs like a top and without Rosetta. Regarding the OP's post... knowing the operating system can be helpful as well as CA version. It could be an X14 issue. ...anyway, thank you for visiting the forum. It's always reassuring when staff and software managers are monitoring the posts. All the best ~ Val

This was a Staff recommendation:

That's interesting Ryan. Thanks for tip. A user in another thread had recommended this method, and the glitchy rendering behavior calmed down. I'm going to turn it (rosetta) off and see what that does.

A similar question has come up with other users when trying to render, and using Rosetta has been the fix. Go to Applications. Find Chief Architect. Right Click, and click on the "Get Info" option. Good luck with that ~ and welcome to the forum.

Interestingly David, on one computer there were zero issues. Another had the error messages. It must be fluke of som e kind.

Same here - meaning same findings as tundra_dweller. Wound up opening Chief data base libraries in X14. Made a copy of the folder and saved to desktop. Opened Chief data base libraries X15 and removed data base library folder. Moved X14 data library into place. Bingo. All good. Observation... when setting up X15, most but not all library items made the transfer. My user library did not. That's why I had to go this route. Other have reported the same. Note: After going through this somewhat unique library transfer, allow some time for X15 to "load" all of the data. It takes about 5 or more minutes, and then everything should be fully stocked and ready to go.

If you know it's bullet proof, then all good. Either way, more often than not, it's a great idea to have that peace of mind, not just for the designer but for the owner. Each state can vary regarding the need to have a licensed professional provide review and approval. But when a building department is asking for certification of load bearing, whether it be lateral or gravity loads, it means that they don't want to assume the burden of risk.

Hi JT, This is just a caution on assuming risk, which you don't want and shouldn't have to take on - merely to benefit your client. The waiting period is not within your control, and this should not be a burden placed squarely on you. If something goes wrong with the project, are you willing to assume the cost and nightmare of having to remediate an issue? Don't do it on your own even if you have the know-how. Your client should be respectful of that. You will also thank yourself later in case anything happens like a once in a blue moon windstorm and the house experienced some lateral movement. Having said that, see if you can get an engineer. There must be more than a handful in your area. Many surveyors have engineering resources in-house. The ones who design septic systems usually also have civil backgrounds. My two cents... all the best.

You're quite welcome. As you become more immersed with the program, the imported texture files can be quite handy. Chief has a wonderful library, but on occasion, new found textures can take the 3D models to the next level which needless to say, is often quite important.

DB is correct as always. The library has scalloped shingles. See example. I chose the blue and colored it yellow. Texture and color have been made to be in sync so that the blue shingles would be a taupe. Or... you can find a texture by going Google images. Import a jpeg for bmp of your choice to a folder and save. Then just change the texture for your rendered view by browsing textures and going to the saved folder. Attached are examples of : A.) a colorized chief texture and B.) the imported texture option. BTW... (Are you using the tool which looks like a rainbow?) That's the one to use for clicking on a material when the camera view is open, and for altering the properties. Also... welcome to the forums. Just noted this was your 1st post. You may want to add to your signature (using X14 and computer hardware) for future help. It's sort of an unwritten protocol so that folks can be of of help in case that would assist them in troubleshooting. Many good folks here. ~ all the best.

This has been an X14 issue to a degree as well. Zoom extent. ...or you can say "come out come out wherever you are", and then hit zoom extent.

Yes... the dots per inch reduction is a huge help, even if the reduction won't necessarily blur the PDF print. I have an old trick... Since a PDF (printed by Chief) can be customized. I made a custom 4" x 6" email size many years ago. This way, the resolution can be in the 600 dpi range, and if a client or whomever is looking from an iPad, the results are super crisp. This also knocks the digital print down to a range where even a 40 or 50 pages set can be mailed. This is with the full understanding that the receiving party won't be printing! Just viewing. With the cost of prints these days at over $3.00 for a colored 24 x 36, most GC's and their subs just share via email, and use BlueRay to do take-offs. Even the 11 x 17 colored client prints are pricey. The paperless method also keeps Greta Thunberg happy. Thanks for the extra info... It's always a pleasure to keep gaining more perspective. I've been using Chief since 2000, but you can never learn enough. Thank you!

I preferred the original format as well. But it was easy enough to arrange the settings to the "old" way. You just gotta be careful to avoid inadvertently dragging your mouse over each 'box" because they can get shifted out of place easily. There's definitely an upside to the new one however. For example, when it provides options to downloaded things which might be available at the Digital Locker.

Thanks Joe. I never send PDF's to layout either. They never even get saved to my plan files. But you are 100% correct. (I think you may not have completely understood what we were going back and forth over). What I was doing is sending a 'static' camera view to the layout page only (and keeping the live viewport out of the layout boundaries). Along the lines of what you are saying, the "live" camera view should never be saved in layout. Just the image file. Otherwise, when going to print, the PDF becomes enormous. Static views and jpegs will hold the Chief Architect PDF print as low as 10megabytes or less on average. Thanks again Joe. I remember you from the old days, and from the original forum from when Tim was one of the original Jedi's. Your words of wisdom are always appreciated. All the best ~ Val

Thanks again Jason. Yep... back in X1, the 1st time I sent a full viewport to a 24" x 36" sheet along with a handful of other view, the Chief Architect printer made the PDF to something way over 50MgB. I couldn't even email it. So this method of saving the camera "image" views on a layout is great, because the when the project is printed, the size is significantly reduced. Anyway.. .should anyone be reading this thread in the future, they may pick up on a good tip, ...aside from learning that the X15 download may not introduce all of your older X14 data. That's why the program had a breakdown. Me too. lol Thanks to fellow forum-ites, there's always good camaraderie and support! Much appreciated. -Val

Thanks Jason. Problem figured out... It appears that the program is looking for missing texture files when the viewport is clicked on. Probably not an X15 issue so much as bringing in an X14 plan into a new version. I also noted that more than several library files did not import when the initial X15 download had completed. Others have been reporting this as well. That said, a copy and paste of the X14 Library into the X15 Chief Architect Premier Data folder solved it. But the X15 Library was removed prior to this exchange. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To answer your question (and thanks very much for jumping in here by the way)... When live viewports are saved to layout, the PDF files get extremely large as a result. Which is why the camera view is sent to layout as an image. So in other words, I save the "Standard" camera views outside of the layout sheet - but save the static image view within the confines of the layout sheet. It's a relatively fast way way to update one's drawing package by having direct access to the saved camera. Meaning that you can click on the viewport for the updated camera view, and send back to layout as an image once more. The alternative is to go back to the plan and open the camera from there - which has been working.

Thanks Michael. It never occurred that the new grass may have a setting which could be causing this. What the rendering is showing is the standard terrain perimeter. For example... usually once something is framed, the auto-framing gets turned off since it turns into a memory hog. I'm going to explore the grass option. Much appreciated.

Working with an X14 file brought into X15. Clicking on the saved camera "viewport" causes the program to freeze. Camera views in layout are saved as images. Camera view itself is saved on layout sheet (outside of the layout boundary) for ease of access. Unusual behavior. The work-around appears to be that cameras have to be opened in plan view. Otherwise program locks up. Have turned off everything which would be deemed an 'auto-rebuild' likes deck framing etc etc. Auto-saves set to 0 to be sure that memory isn't an issue. (Posting here for CA tech to look into along w/ submitted ticket)

Thanks again. I'm inclined to upgrade several current jobs based on how good things are looking (with a beta release of all things). In the past, this has never been recommended as good practice, (meaning to bring forth older versions into the new). ...example, the glitchy text resizing issue with X-13 files when opened in X-14 Anyway, It looks like there are few in any down-sides in transitioning current projects. X15 is smooth, and when put to the test (with dated plan files), it performs extremely well. Thanks much for your observations which confirm my own findings.

Thanks for comments Perry. Likewise, it's running flawlessly. The new features are among the best upgrades ever. I have been tempted to bring both X13 and X14 projects into it, and your vote of confidence sounds like it hasn't posed any concerns.