HomeDesign724

We have to first be sure we can do everything in Chief before making that investment, video cards ain't cheap xD I'm sure there's something we can figure out, just have to play around a bit more. Thanks for helping!

Yeah I'm in charge of becoming Chief expert so I can teach everyone else in the office eventually and hopefully fully switch over in a few years (': Mostly everything else has been good, it's just these cross sections and details I can't figure out no matter how many videos I watch or articles I read. I'll figure it out eventually haha

Oh, I just chose a random plan hahha I haven't been taught that yet so I honestly have no idea how they make the porch in the cross sections xD I'm just at a loss for how to make all this work in Chief without adding work haha

As far as I can tell if there are other pitches in the plan, we just make separate cross sections? I don't think I've seen multiple pitches on one cross section.

Okay thank you, I'll let him know and hopefully we can figure it out!

Yea it's super impressive! Don't know if my boss wants to pay money for it, though. He basically just wants to know if details can be created through wall/floow etc manipulation and then maybe just zoom in and it'll show in the backclipped section for example.

Typically we design the house first based on the customers specific requests then detail what is necessary in the cross sections/details. Ideally we wouldn't have to go between multiple programs to finish plans.

I mean kind of? But the program still figures out what to draw based on your selections, so we're not having to edit any labels at all. That's kind of what we're looking to replicate in Chief, something we don't have to edit or redraw everytime. The detail isn't the same each time, that's why we can't just import one or two drawings, it would take us forever having to draw it in our current program and then import to Chief when there's literally hundreds of possibilities (ie someone has an 8 pitch, but the next guy has a 12, or this person has brick but the other vinyl siding).

So what happens is you input the information in the dialog box and then the program draws it for you, including the text. It was a macro the boss' son in law made before he left a number of years ago, it's pretty impressive. If there are multiple pitches, you have to make a new cross section/detail showing that it's different. As an example, I attached screenshots showing the progression of how to make the details box. It creates one detail based on all the information you click on. So it's kind of like pre-made drawings but also not...? Not 100% sure how it works, I'm still new here xD As you can see, there was nothing on the page before I hit OK, so the program drew this detail based on my selections, it decided which already made drawings are needed to make the desired end result. But yea so what we need in order to full time switch to Chief is an easy way to create the details and cross sections so we're not wasting time adding single CAD blocks or drawing every single instance. Boss wants to just create the plan and then maybe zoom into the side and get the detail from there because details would be already input from like the wall info or something. Like saying what type of insulation is being used for example. I hope I'm explaining this okay?? Thank you everyone for being so helpful!!!

Thank you, I'll try this today!!

Same honestly, I just started this job three months ago and I'm shocked at how many old computers are still here xD The one I'm working on is ViewSonic, Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4570 CPU @ 3.20GHz 3.20 GHz, 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor. I can't even run x13 on here, a popup comes up saying the video card is too old and the 3D models won't generate ):

Thanks I'll have boss man take a look at it is this only for x14 or will it work on x12 which is the highest version that'll work on my computer?

Yea for the most part whatever we put in the dialogue box will be drawn on the plan. It's not completely dynamic like Chief is, but for instance the roof pitch will change depending on what we input. I just brought up the text boxes for you to see, they're not what I input for the actual plan drawing I sent.

Yea absolutely! Just posted some down below. Let me know if you need anything else!

Thanks everyone for replying!! I attached an example of what our details page usually looks like, as well as the text box that we have to input all the information to create each details as well as the cross sections. Because it's so simple in the program we already have, we need something similar in Chief.

There's a very specific way my boss wants our plans to look and what he wants included in the details page. In our current program (a dinosaur called CADVANCE99), there's a macro where a text box pops up and you input the details (also for cross sections) for the specific plan, such as if there's R30 insulation in the walls, if the outside has vinyl siding/brick.etc, the rafter & joist size, floor to ceiling heights, etc and then the program draws it all for you. I've been searching nonstop for 2+ weeks for various tutorials, videos, articles, even called tech support but no one is really giving me a straight answer to if there's something similar to what we have in CADVANCE that can be replicated in Chief. My boss doesn't want to switch over to Chief if we can't figure out how to auto generate the cross sections & details to his specifications. Chief is 10,000% more efficient than CADVANCE, but the ONE thing that CADVANCE seems to do better is this super easy and simple way to make the details and cross section pages. We can't use CAD blocks since those are canned, we need them to basically be like everything else in Chief that auto generates and whatnot. Please help!! I'm about to give up.

Would definitely be interested in learning how to do this too. We struggle with getting realistic plants. So frustrating!

Thanks Mark, that's really helpful too!

Thanks for the tip, that should be helpful. I use Ray Tracing all the time, I don't mind if it's a little slow, but I do need to Ray Trace plans with good quality. Just wondering if slightly older cards can still work.

CPU: Intel Pentium III Xeon Processor Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E8500 @ 3.16GHz 3.16 GHz Installed RAM 8.00 GB (7.87 GB usable) System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor Video Card: GeForce GT 610 Just to be clear, I do plan on upgrading, but the "recommended" video card (RTX 3080) is quite a bit out of my comfort zone, will version 13 run on a PC with the RTX 3070 or even the 3060? The older cards are significantly less expensive.

I've been running CA X12 fairly well on the machine I have (the only issue is that it runs a bit slow), but I have nothing near the recommended hardware requirements for X13.The upgrade is kind of pricy, is it worth the added cost to use the recommended hardware? What is everyone else using?