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Rob: for us it depended on the client most clients don't want/need high-end detail for those that do they should pay for it I was working on a multi=tier system for my website where the client could choose what level of service they wanted 1. Bronze - walls, window, doors - OOB from CA few, if any, custom symbols or colors etc model looking basic, renders only 2. Silver - same as Bronze with a few custom colors or symbols, or countertops etc model looking decent, renders only 3. Gold - same as Silver but with details applied to every room and outside shingles/siding etc more custom symbols, model looking pretty snazzy, renders and rays 4. Platinum - same as Gold with lots of detail and custom symbols model looking damn good, almost all rays 5. Stellar - top-notch for everything, everything custom model looking fabulous, almost all rays, magazine worthy this is about as far as I got and needed to apply some metrics and costs to these levels Lew

Unless you have special needs if you are spending more than $2K you are probably spending too much Lew

CA's model are far more complex than line drawings in Autocad Lew

it is usually possible to change the drive letter http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000038.htm Lew

Surely, CA can snip that import logic from X8 and make it a separate utility ? As a 30 year programmer I doubt if it would be that difficult to do Lew

Joe: FAR is a ratio not a percentage http://wikidiff.com/percentage/ratio Lew

Morgan: I gotta seriously soubt it you need 64G of ram save some money and add ram later if you truly need it I'll let other suggest the desired amt but my guess is 32 MB is overkill Lew

for the clients presentations get a 17" or bigger very hard for 3 people to crowd around a small screen another recommendation is to spend a few hundred and get a palm size LCD projector much nicer for doing the client presentations if you are going to huddle make sure you don't have bad breath and use lots of deodorant as for brands I've had many different ones over the years - some pros and cons with each check Amazon for reviews and look for 4 out of 5 stars for 100+ reviews I wouldn't bother reading the negative reviews as every single brand and model has "horror stories" I use these guidelines for anything I buy and haven't been burned yet put your $$$ into things that can't be upgraded later you can add ram later, you can add storage later get as big a screen as you can as many cores for i7 as you can get a decent power supply (forgot min. for a laptop) get the best gaming PC you can afford with the best Nvidia video card you can affford plan on spending at least $1500 I use to have a $2000 rule but things have come down some the last few years Lew

as a retired programmer I prefer to do my own "Save as" I don't rely on Chief's archive system It may be fine but old habits are hard to break I like adding date/time to the file name and other info such as my initials or my partner his initials etc I prefer the control this gives me Lew

you could try contacting tech support but they may be closed for the holiday ??? Lew

deleted my X8, probably a bass ackwords way of doing it. deleting prior versions is up to you my partner and I used to keep all the prior versions since we provided assistance to other Chiefers who may not have the current version after awhile we kept only 2 prior versions David Potter has all versions back to 9.5 and maybe even earlier plus all of the HD versions back that far too Lew

Perry: some do use PRO for their business for over a decade I have advocated that CA change PRO's name to Master or Deluxe I agree while it is possible to do condocs and plans in PRO if you are in business then Premier is the better choice at $495 PRO is 20% of what Premier costs and that translates into 20% of the features Premier has Lew

Joe: you've added new choices to the poll but there is no way to re-do our voting ? Lew

Joe: seems that FAR is being replaced http://patch.com/virginia/herndon/bp--floor-area-ration-far-a-measure-of-density Lew

X9 final replaced my X9 beta X8 and other prior versions will remain until you uninstall them Lew

Eric: yet, the knowledge base has articles on creating a barrel roof ? https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/search/?q=barrel&default_tab=support ok, I reviewed that article - and while doable - probably not by me - it can be done in HD PRO yes, better to have a Chief Premier user create the template for you Lew

While most HD product users will find the Chieftalk forum of little benefit HD PRO uses have manual roof/framing/cabinet etc tools and can find benefit from following the Chieftalk forum Lew

Javatom: HD PRO costs $500 as a reminder the entire cost can be applied as an upgrade to Chief Premier if you decide PRO is not sufficient for your needs Lew

Hi: I guess I am curious as to why PRO can't do it ? PRO has manual roof tools that should be the same or nearly the same as Premier ? I am not a roof expert at all - but this is my understanding also a Chief Premier user should be able to create that roof template for you and then set the "allow editing in HD" (not sure of wording of that setting) but it has to be done by the same version of Chief Premier as your HD PRO Lew

this where BIM could come into play create the model in Chief - send the plan to the HVAC software - it does its thing to the model then back to Chief - then off to the next app if needed then finally to layout Lew

NOTE: they are closed for the weekend Lew

you probably should contact CA's tech support I suspect this is not "normal" or others would be posting about it also how can tech support fix it if you don't let them know it is happening ? Lew

unfortunately, new releases can cause things to go bump in the night best to inform CA's tech support as they try to minimize these "bumps" while I advocate that most of Chief's tasks be doable without macros the use of Macros can be very handy and "powerful" my last career job involved heavy use of macros and editing them was part of the job Lew

The Rolling Stones had that solution long ago Lew

Yes, that is about the size of it the big dog industry players are trying to be BIM compliant so they can share the plans create a plan in Revit - send it to the Energy software to do its thing - then back to Revit - then over to the MEP software to check for collisions among the Mechanical, Plumbing, electrical and building - then back to Revit then over to the structural software etc etc etc Sketchup can communicate and share with these BIG Boys surprisingly Chief can't I have been after CA for over a decade about this and they have given strong indications that they are not interested Chief also doesn't allow for plug-ins Sketchup does yet, Chief is far better than Sketchup for creating plans and construction docs it is an island .... Lew