kylejmarsh

One thing that should be addressed is that Chief should offer a standard 'Master List' with dang-near everything on there. Would be great if they hosted it on their website (with some kind of disclaimer obviously) and updated it every season or so. Problem is that all framing should be already on there (beacuse we're not creating anything new like that) and a basic window, door, etc. etc... just a 'ballpark' type of Master List would be excellent because I could export it and give to the builders just for gut check type measurements. Maybe we should crowdsource a Master List together here at the forum. Would be a lot easier if we had all of us pricing things and adding them to a list than one of us chasing down prices for every part of our project like a General ...

Here's how you can make some nice looking demo elevations with red dashed linework. Start with demo layer having the dashed + red linework style. Then go 3D to vector view - and try to turn off the 'color' of the wall textures. Problem is it turns off the linework red color too, which you want to preserve: My hack is just to turn the 'material color' to white for the textures on the existing model: And the final result is pretty nice: Then you can send this to your layout view as a static image -> Or you can coordinate the demo elevations, which now look like this: Final product - demo elevations with dashed, colored linework showing demo areas: Does anybody have an easier idea? There could probably be some changes to the software to allow for 'plot lines' views with colored + dashed linework (or maybe there already is?) but currently this seems like the best way to do it. Kyle

Good idea - ok so time to make better use of' saved plan views' I guess

Hmm so I would need to set up different Annosets for the different type of dimensioning I do, and the Auto Dimensions can be controlled by the Annoset defaults? That could work. I will give it a try and report back.

Just revisiting this again - I wish that each of the different automatic dimension types could be on a different layer, because depending on what you're showing you want different dimensions to show up. For example, I would like my outside corners and perhaps my overall dimension on the roof plan, but I don't need my window centerlines on there. For site plan, I would want just my overall dimensions perhaps. Here they are - I keep overall, outside corners, and centerline dimensions on different layers and show them in different colors so I can keep track of them. It would be great if we could tie the auto-dimensions to these different layers

This is how I always end up doing it. The Bay/Box window controls are too weak for a finished product, though they are useful during conceptual design

Just checked the MI Residential code section and it looks pretty accurate, even with the later 'Addendum' notes which changed some things like stair rise+run requirements, so looks like they have it up to date. Plus you can see quite a bit of content without an account, just not the photos. Will be bookmarking for future reference and for sharing with builders who may not have a codebook. So far I just keep a pdf of the code I usually work under, the MI code, which I bought from the icc store: https://shop.iccsafe.org

Thanks for the tip Michael! I have used the skydome but never the reflection probe - will check it out.

Twinmotion is also a good renderer. Fairly easy to learn and powered by the Epic (think Unreal Engine) core rendering software. It has basically realtime rendering (like physically based) and then you click export to get the final one in about 6 seconds. I'm just dabbling in in but got some decent results: Also I'm not sure if this still applies but it was at the time the only one that worked on a Mac. Good Luck!

I have the M1 Pro on my new macbook and it's blazin' fast I'm so glad I upgraded. Also the fact that X14 has a native mac version didn't hurt either - but so far I have been feeling like the program operates smoothly and with far less lag than before. Hope that helps. I bought a refurbished 'new' Macbook pro and it's been more than enough to handle big models and construction drawings.

I like SnazzyMaps too - been using a greyscale one I adopted for Vicinity Maps https://snazzymaps.com/style/6298/subtle-greyscale-grey-roads

Horizontal windows in otherwise traditional designs are jarring and technically incorrect, especially in a gable-dormer like shown below. Look how splitting this one helps make the entire house much better. So remember to split your transoms into multiple windows, or at least add 'grilles' to them so they are legible from a distance.

Just wanted to chime in here with my first impressions. Overall it's a great update - seems like they did some work 'under the hood' because the overall program seems a lot faster and sleeker. All the actions and things are so much faster - not quite instant like with the mac studio Ryan has but still quite snappy compared to the previous versions. What I really liked is that Layout is much faster than before - they've really sped it up so it works like a CAD program should, without lag. It's certainly a game changer when that little bit of lag time is eliminated - very happy about that aspect of the update and it seems to run great with fewer crashes.

This is probably the answer you're looking for. Here's how I do my window schedules - separating width and height so there's no confusion (sometimes those window codes are so ambiguous especially for customers reviewing them) Here is the basic window schedule, which live on their own 'cad detail' sheet and automatically update - this way I don't recreate details, and they don't have to live on my main modeling sheet off in the corner. Set them all up, then you can reference them from a template layout file and you know they'll always be correct. I also have this one which shows window elevations etc and all the windows are split apart (no double qty etc they are all individual). This goes to the builder when he orders windows, but doesn't appear on the drawing sheets (too big) AS for W+Height, those feilds are in the table options you can add them, rename, etc.... Hope this helps! Kyle

Anybody else got a recent follow from this person, who seems to be a BOT or spammer? Caroline81, if you're real I apologize

Thanks! Have deleted it. Anyway I do agree with the post - dimensioning in elevations should be improved. How about having some snaps for what you want to dimension in the elevation, same way they do in plan view? BTW I'm not sure how the original toolbar layout does it but I keep my snaps off to the right side like this. You could imagine similar for elevation/section snaps.

100% of the time it's faster to update your elevation views directly in Layout, as opposed to when you're updating the view. Always say no and you will save a lot of time. I've observed that this dialog is missing the 'hide for this session' like many of the others do, and therefore it seems like the Most Annoying Dialog that I Never Want To Say Yes To - therefore possibly making it the most useless thing in Chief. Actually a pretty good find now that I think of it. Anyway here is a graphic which explains it all. Enjoy!

I've never been able to get sequential hotkeys to work. I'm on Mac so maybe that has something to do with it. Mine are all key or modifier+key

Yes I find that turning down the Diffuse is the key to getting things to look a lot better. It's always set to 100% and that's almost never correct - I ususally bounce between 75-85% on most things as it looks better.

Not perfect, but it's an improvement. Use a bump map (can just use the same texture image for 2048 grass) and reduce the 'diffuse' on the material.

I did not realize that changing those snaps has an effect on the temp dimensions. I turn them off usually but that's becaune I find them too busy - this may be a solution. Thanks

This works but it is a PITA - when your model gets larger it takes a minute to have everything cycle off, then you have to do the selecting, etc etc. it's typical Chief because it takes seven steps to do what should be a keystroke or single click. EDIT: I would respectfully add that this feature which is requested, to me, seems like it gets to basic functionality and user interface design. This is not the only issue, only the 'canary in the coal mine' - and speaks to a deeper requirement of updating the User Interface. Now that the stability and rendering are there, in my humble opinion if the interface could be upgraded I think Chief could compete with the big guys. But right now new people and prospective chief users open up the program and think 'what decade am I in' and they run the other direction - not knowing that under the hood is a LS1 running 24lb boost, it's just hidden inside an old fox-body mustang IMG_6471.MOV

Thanks great suggestion. I've long been a proponent for 'left-hand only' hotkeys for the most part - placing all the most-used tools in the easiest keys. So my index finger 'F' opens up whatever is selected and brings up the dialog box. All home-row on left hand is most useful stuff. I never make any crazy reaches or hard combinations it's all there on my left hand, so I can keep the right hand on the mouse. Hope that makes sense.

Related Issue: Applying a white background image solves both from what I have found today It has something to do with the 'transparent' background. For many mac users the pdf export for view cameras with transparent backgrounds end up printing as 'black' when printed from pdf, even though you don't see the black background in the pdf itself. The white background seems to solve this - I also noticed that it stopped the black 'flicker' described here as well. Cheers Kyle