zowie123

Hi all, Been a while.. Any time a stair extends past a wall, the rail jogs, what's the best way to rid this? I tried extending an invisible wall, but that doesn't work. Thank you, Barry

HI Guys, Sometimes we're just cutting back a roof overhang, but when I do this in chief it leaves the gutter in. If I shut the gutter off it turns it off for the whole roof plane? I thought this would be resolved in x9? Any work arounds besides creating a whole separate roof plane in this area? Thank for your help, Barry

What I realized though is if I have a cad block in cad detail it shows up in cad management, but if I send that detail to the library and delete it from the cad block window it no longer shows up in the cad detail management. I'm still confused as to the best place to store about 100 cad details where they put the least strain on resources. I may just create another plan for all my details.

Now I see, it must be coming from a detail I added which is a conglomerate of all my details....I have to explode each individual one and purge each of individual cad blocks I guess. I find it's easier to have them all on one page then to list them one by one in cad mgt. On the page I have them sorted in sections by floor, roof etc. I didn't think they were coming from my library...OK, thank you. Thought it was a new x9 oddity.

Hi, Now that I'm using X9 I can see I have over 1600 cad block that must be associated with all sorts of stuff in my library. Most of it is just lines and junk, then there's also copies of that junk, should I be worried about this slowing things down? There's no way to follow those blocks back from cad blk managment to find out where they reside... every individual line is in there? What's the best way to cut down on these? Thanks! Barry

Hi Scott, Please include me in the Macro conference. kronoskiros@gmail.com I've been using Joe's Area Analysis since the beginning. For a reasonable fee he customized it to include all requirements for Seattle. I love it, but I'd like to know what's changed in X9? Thank you, Barry

Hi All, After shopping around, I think this repository of cad details is pretty comprehensive and clean: autocaddetails.net (I'm not afiliated with them and if anyone knows of a better CAD detail library, please share with me). They offer pdf and dwg. It would be faster for me to use the dwg. However I need a way to preview these dwgs as high res thumbnails. Windows explorer will only show them as low res thumbs. Does anyone know a better way to preview dwgs as high res thumbnails? Or is there a windows tweak to get a higher res dwg thumbnail in windows explorer? Thank you, Barry

Hey guys, thanks for your consideration. I have talked to tech support, they don't have much info as to why CA slows with cad blocks Scott suggested that it could be the difference between making them in a regular window or in cad management. Some were made in cad management and others were not. Not sure if that makes a difference. Has anyone ever noted one? Thank you, Barry

Hi, A typical details page, bogs the hell out of the computer. Adding a couple of cad details to a crossection bogs down the computer. Is there a secret to blocking or storing cad details that isn't so resource intensive? Thanks for all your collective brain power, Barry

Hi, I thought it was just this huge plan I was working on, so I started a new one, created a building section, added a couple of cad details from the library and the slowness started again.. I know Chief has never been cad detail friendly..I was hoping they'd fix that issue about 12 years ago, but still suffering the slow cad detail syndrome. In this case it's only a couple of details and when I delete them, it's still slow. Computer is a monster, but I can hear it bogging down something is weird. I did a restart. Why would a couple of details create this issue. Is there a way to simplify them. I tried exploding and re-blocking, didn't do anything. Thank you, Barry

Hi, I'm just wondering. Question 1: Please See chart: Single story, D2 seismic category, 20 foot braced wall line WSP wall. requires a minimum continuous braced wall of 4.3' 10' from a side with no more than 20' between. Also Requirements for D2 say braced wall panels must be located at each end of braced wall line. Being that my minimum wall panel is 4.3' along this line, and it says I need one within 10ft of each end, that means I actually need 8.6ft of braced wall along this line. Is there any other prescriptive way around this? Question 2: When using the apa braced wall calculator and one wall is non compliant, does that automatically discount a prescriptive approach,or do I continue to finish my model and hope that it calculates differently based on the total amount of walls? Thank you, Barry

Hello all, I feel your pain. Hours wasted working on every house with varying floor and ceiling heights. And in the process how do you know you didn't affect some other floor or ceiling ht? You never do and the larger the project the worse it gets. iT'S A COMPLETELY ABSURD SYSTEM. Until we have INDIVIDUAL WALL CONTROL OF TOP AND BOTTOM AS WALL AS FOOTING HEIGHTS, CHIEF CAN'T BE CALLED A TRUE ARCHITECTURAL PROGRAM. I'm sorry, I've been using this program for 13 years, it's great in some areas but this is the worst and weakest part of the program and it needs to be re-formulated. Scrap all the auto garbage.. Just let us draw walls and floors where we need them to be. With all the thousands of man hours and dbx boxes wasted turning on and off auto everything it's out of control, just scrap it. It should be this simple, Floor height is this, wall height is this. footing height is this. Oh, it's off in cross section, I'll just change the wall bottom height to make it work...not what magic combination of check boxes do I need to make this work. It's totally out of control, the whole program is an auto work around. Scrap all the auto and you would have a program what everyone could learn in a year because it would follow building practices, not be a life-long endeavor of learning how to work around some ideal building situation. Sorry I just spent 2 hrs fighting multiple floor and ceiling heights, I should have just created a cad detail and manipulated it manually, but I'm stubborn as we all are or we wouldn't have put up with it for this long. The whole industry would use this program if it wasn't so unstable. You can't base things on floor heights, they will always affect something else which you have to chase around or find out about later. We need to be able to build something and have it remain there until manually changed. Thanks for allowing me to rant. Cheers! Barry iT'S A COMPLETELY ABSURD SYSTEM.

Hi, It seem to have been happening in v8 more than before. I can usually change the ratio back to 1 to 1, but now the block won't unblock... Weird blocking behavior has happened several times this year. Just checking to see if it's a known glitch, Thank you, Barry

Hi, On complex asbuilt remodels, i always waste an incredible amount of time trying to align the tops or bottoms of footings. I try setting the room stem wall heights, but that only goes so far with step footings and shared walls. Does anyone else have this issue? Wouldn't it be nice to be able to click on a wall, not room and say make bottom or top of footing same as this one? Thank you, Barry

Alaskan Son...You da man, thanks, I'll give it a try. Barry

Hey all, I'm having to do more framing plans and I've been adding more overviews for better comprehension. I'm adding an upper floor to this house: Is there a way to show siding on the main floor with framed walls on the second without photoshop? Thank you, Barry

Yes! Please add whatever it takes to allow time tracking by 3rd party. Chief should not be a time tracker, but it would be awesome if it interfaced with some of the popular time tracking software. Manic time, Chrometa to name a couple. Manic Time is amazingly universal once it's set up. It seems to work with all programs but Chief. Thank you, Barry

Hi, thanks for the suggestion, Alaskan Son and Mark! I'll give it a try. Cheers! Barry

Hey all, I always run into this when I'm making custom mantels and legs? The guys find it easier to build from scratch than try to fit pre fab pieces when covering an existing fireplace. So I always run into this micro adjusting 3D molding polylines and as powerful as they are I find them a pain in arse to work with because you can only adjust them from the inside handle (I'm usually trying to lineup their outsides) and they tend to be sticky to move around even with all snaps off. Point to point doesn't work very well with them either. Also, in 2D view they show up as a line and not the depth of a molding. Which is also true of room moldings until you convert them into a room molding polyline. I was going to make a suggestion for improvements, but wanted to see if anyone had remedies. I usually build mantels with a combination of slabs, soffits, p solids and 3D molding polylines so that they can be easily manipulated (resized), look correct in 3D as well as create a 2D plan to build from. Thanks very much, Barry Perhaps someday Chief will develop one solid tool that is editable from all sides wouldn't that be awesome?..

Oh, you just have to keep clicking on the curve / flair tool ....ugh... thanks anyway

Hi, I'm trying to make a curve stair around a hot tub. I can initiate the curve once, but if I change the stair in any way, the curve initiation handles go away and then the curve radius can't be changed. Is there a way to make those handles come back so I can edit the curve or do you just get one shot. Or is there another way to do this altogether? Thank amigos, Barry

Exterior and interior dimensions will never agree, but you will need to get all your interior dimensions correct. You can always open a wall and change it's dimensions if you really need to, but trying to account for every 1/8" change in wall thicknesses is a wast of time, no one cares unless they are plumbing walls. Always concentrate your efforts on the rooms that need critical dimensions for cabinets. Make foundation dimensions what they are. I find it's rare that an old foundation lands on the whole inch. You can cheat on the foundation below. There's always a compromise. I block point to point dimensions for most of my dimensions because I find I always have to jog things around for hidden thick walls, unforeseen bump-outs, and angled walls. This is why I've been asking for point to point lock so the whole dimension can be moved. Don't try to block point to point in place, do it out in the field then drag to where you need it. In simple houses I try to shoot the furthest extents I can if there's a clear shot from outside to outside wall. And yes, if you can, try to get an outline of the foundation first, but ultimately your'e not going to need to change the whole foundation, so perfect foundation dimensions aren't that necessary. If you are adding on, then your new room will have perfect dimensions and will be tied to the existing foundation. If it's any consolation, I've never gotten an asbuilt from an architect that was perfect, in fact most of them are way off. I never trust them. Anyway, asbuilts with Chief is an artform...Real world buildings are quite different than new buildings and it will force you to learn a lot more about Chief than you ever thought was necessary. I've done 130 asbuilts in the last 1.5 yrs. I like doing them, but they are tricky. Good luck, Barry

Oh, wait, I got it to work that time, cool, that's it! Brilliant! Thank you!

Hi Joe, I wasn't able to do the click landing after doing what you said, doesn't it have to be done in 3 contiguous moves or the magic runs out? Is there a way to click landing after interrupting the sequence with the copy past move? Thanks very much for helping with this, Barry