Smn842

Do you have the same text scaling on all monitors and what is the resolution of each? I was testing a six monitor setup recently, not for Chief, some other software I use but I wanted to make sure it wouldn't impact other software. I found mixed text scaling settings caused serious issues with Chief and not just the usual blurry font issues on some monitors when using applications that don't support mixed DPI modes, just system wide life Chief.

If you use a 3DConnexion mouse in multiple versions of Chief Architect and notice it loses any custom settings/speeds when running one version then another (on Windows at least) then read on. Background (for the interested, otherwise jump to the workaround) Technically this is a bug / limitation in the way Chief registers/configures itself with the 3DConnexion software but given how few people this probably affects I've not reported it as its less important than others and importantly there is a workaround. The root cause is due to the way Chief lets the 3DConnexion driver store its settings and identifies itself with the same ID string "ChiefArchitect" for every major release. Applications have the option to create their own 3DConnexion settings file but Chief relies on the 3DConnexion software to do this for it. This means the 3DConnexion software creates a settings file for Chief based on the ID Chief provides when registering for 3D mouse events. The result is multiple versions of Chief sharing a single settings file. Although this sounds like a good approach the 3DConnexion software also stores the executable name and ensures this matches before using the settings due to another default setting. An example of the top part of the 'ChiefArchitect.xml' file which is stored in the %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\3Dconnexion\3DxWare\Cfg folder: This file was created after using X11 and adjusting the 3D mouse settings. If another version of Chief is then used the 3DConnextion software finds the settings file that matches the name Chief provides 'ChiefArchitect' but as the exe name doesn't match it ignores the settings and uses the defaults again. If the mouse settings are updated again the 3DConnextion software over writes the old file with a new one with the applicable Chief exe name and the problem keeps repeating. Workaround From a browse of the 3DConnexion SDK there are various ways to configure the 3D mouse, but to work around the issue and share the same settings across versions (which is my preference) all that needs to be done is to add all applicable Chief exe names in "ExecutableName" elements as below, in my case just those for X11 and X12 to the "%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\3Dconnexion\3DxWare\Cfg\ChiefArchitect.xml' file: After this the 3DConnextion software matches the 'SiOpenAppName' value and exectuable name and all is well :-) Please note there may also be other files that appears to be specific to each Chief Architect release in this folder as below but these appears to be due to using the 3D mouse before Chief registers itself. After that these files appear to be ignored and only the ChiefArchitect.xml is used. Extra note added Mar 2023 If you install a major upgrade of Chief on the first use of it the existing ChiefArchitect.xml file can be removed entirely when the 3Dconnexion software resets the settings as the exe name doesn't match. In that case the original file is moved to %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\3Dconnexion\3DxWare\Cfg\bak and renamed ChiefArchitect.bak. If you haven't got a backup of the original with your customisations simply close Chief, copy that file back to the folder above and rename the extension to .xml, make the changes I mentioned above for the required Chief version numbers and restart Chief.

I often run a mix of resolutions as I have a lot of monitors shared between my two main desktop PCs and I don't see that particular issue. However I do see an issue with mixed DPI scaling modes meaning some applications and parts of Windows that don't support per monitor DPI awareness can look less sharp on the lower DPI monitors (assuming highest DPI is main monitor) due to the default Windows scaling. Sadly this mixed DPI issue is related to the text scaling preference and not the resolution, so even a 27" 4K monitor set to 150% scaling next to a 43" 4K at 100% scaling (which yields a similar text size) will still suffer from it. Windows was quite late adding adequate API support for mixed DPI across monitors for applications to be able to handle this correctly (and its a fair bit of work to add full support hence even Windows isn't fully compliant). Hence many applications currently only support a system wide DPI setting which is mainly to resolve problems with high DPI 4K and 8K monitors. So currently the only way to get the best quality on multiple displays is to use multiple identical size and resolution monitors.

Another thought is do you have a mix of settings for text scaling across the displays? When I've recently tested Chief with a mix of text scaling across three monitors I saw the same issue. Mixed text scaling settings across monitors is still an issue for many applications (and also parts of Windows itself) due to those applications only supporting system wide scaling, not the more recent per monitor support that was added to Windows.

Same here, its a game changer. One additional benefit for me is when modal dialogs are open the 3D mouse can still be used to move and zoom the previously active 2D or 3D view. It may be my less efficient work flow (part time user is my excuse!) but I've had a lot of occasions when in a dialog box that I've wanted to go back and check something on the plan or view that's out of sight or too small. Now I can still use the 3D mouse without exiting the dialog.

For me it depends on the plan complexity and whether Chief is doing a full double plan type save. I had some plans where Chief was creating 500MB undo files on many edits. With a SATA SSD that was causing obvious small stalls during editing but once I moved to NVMe (or RAM drive) that became the lesser issue but I still often noted a chunk of CPU creating those files (around a second but still noticeable). I found a CPU difference when measured with some dev tools across plans evens producing similar size undo files, so obviously the plan content has a significant impact. I agree I don't see a reason with 10 vs 50 undo files would make any difference as I've not noted and reading of existing files other than to use them for undo. I just find a difference with none or any as expected, but as 50 can use a lot of disk space I usually go for 20. The reason I favour a RAM drive for Chief and other apps that create a lot of temporary files is a) I have 128GB and b) it reduces SSD writes. I recorded writes for a few days and noted Chief and equally I/O intensive devs tool I use were making 150GB+ writes per day. In theory the more durable SSDs will still be fine for years but it does seem a little wasteful for temp files!

Although undo's seem less likely to be your main issue: Chief writes a lot of these as they are created after every operation. Many undo files are basically a full before and after plan file so can be disk and a lesser extent cpu intensive to create. The best way to check for impact is to temporarily disable undos entirely. Try it to asses the impact and then as suggested set to a smaller number. If undos make your workflow laggy when editing then using an NVMe SSD or RAM drive is the way to go. With 32GB RAM a ram drive would probably be the way to go and the fastest. On the general topic as per other comments: PDF's can have a big impact on Chief so converting to images helps a lot.

I've not tried a recent Safari, but different browser have different capabilities (with or without add-ins) and some videos are made available from web sites in a form all browsers can download. It's just becoming less common without add-ins for the reasons I mentioned earlier. So it's mainly due to CA and their choice of delivery (Vimeo from the videos I've seen) as part of their web design, but I don't think CA are wrong to go this route as its a simple way ensure good video performance globally and its still easy to still download even if an add-in is required.

I've been frustrated by the lack of inset control on doors (like we have with windows) ever since I started using Chief. I raised a detailed suggestion via support two years ago covering various examples where I need to be able to change the inset either to around the middle or the 'wrong' side as Chief see it versus the opening direction. For workarounds all I do is either make it two way to put the door more in the middle if that's near enough or make a symbol out of it. I did experiment with wall layers and even tiny sections of thinner wall but each created their own issues.

I didn't look at the page source before the change, but the way its accessing the video means its not a direct link to a video file and hence the save link as type functionality no longer works (it makes a separate request which streams the video). This is getting very common with video links to optimise delivery by only streaming what is watched and to prevent downloading so people always view the latest version (and on some sites get adverts etc) and also cannot easily distribute it. All these download tools are doing is to make the request to stream the whole file and then download it.

Although you can capture videos using screen capture as Lew mentioned (I use Snagit for example) another approach is to use a download manager tool to get the original stream file. This can also be done manually if you're a techy but such tools make it simpler. These utilities are designed to optimise downloads by using many connections or downloading many items from a page and many offer video download. In my case I use Internet Download Manager and it will offer download Chief training videos:

Is that even with custom sensitivity settings or just the default? I am on Windows, but found the default 3DConnexion mouse default settings too sensitive in Chief for some axes and the opposite for the others so I always use custom sensitivity settings now.

I just tried opening an X11 plan file in X12 and immediately did a "Save As" to another file without any change but that would not open in X11 or X10 as I expected. Do you see any difference? My approach is to keep all Chief files in a version specific folder and copy the whole lot to a new folder for each release so I always have the older version anyway (irrespective of backups).

That doesn't sound right. Once saved in X12 format it's not possible to open in an earlier version even for "Save As" as Chief doesn't offer a format downgrade option that I've seen. Downgrading a file format is not possible in most applications due to data loss and the effort of developing such as feature, Do you mean just keeping a copy of the original unaltered file?

My initial test was a layout referencing two plans, one in the same folder another elsewhere and it worked. However I've just created a couple of new plans and sent them to a new layout all in separate folders and could replicate the issue. There is something odd though as on closing all views and re-opening the layout it was fine, but then: I re-linked one layout view using the right click menu to its plan. I selected the existing linked plan from the 'Choose Referenced Plan' dialog and on closing that dialog the applicable layout view becomes blank At this stage the applicable linked plan is again considered not found in the referenced plan files dialog but no other error. However following the same first step to re-link and its back. Rinse and repeat. Anyone else see this? In case its relevant my folder layout for this is:

I just tried the latest update with a layout and two linked plans and it seemed fine. What were the steps you followed to get this error? How many plans are referenced and do those plan files open correctly without the layout open? Also, if you show details in the error box does it give any more info as to the root issue?

After a lifetime of working in software I can say that's definitely a bug :-) Those two examples are both up/down edit controls rather than plain edits and trying shading contrast which is the same type with a direct number change shows the same issue. In general there should never be the need to do anything other than hit the OK button. Any validation that would occur when tabbing to the next input field or delayed update of other values (such as keep aspect ratio etc) should then be applied before closing if valid.

If you're using Home Designer Pro rather than Chief Architect Premier then the wall connection tool mentioned above is probably not available (it wasn't when I switched from HDP to Premier). Home Designer users have their own forum https://hometalk.chiefarchitect.com/

I agree with @TheKitchenAbode that the whole spec is dated, from the GPU to CPU, motherboard (older chipset) and SSD. The SSD appears to be a SATA rather than NVMe unit and these days the price difference isn't great but the performance improvement can be significant as the SATA interface severally restricts transfer rates and Chief reads and writes a lot of data.

For me its the fact I want to make more use of shortcuts in many applications, not just one or two. I have around ten applications with a huge number of existing shortcuts often with 3 or 4 key presses and despite years of using the applications I find I am not using as many shortcuts as I would like because its hard to remember them all (I may not use one of these some for several months). Hence why I am trying a standalone mini keyboard with tactile buttons and LCD images for ease of remembering. When using Chief I find I spend a lot of time with my right hand near my 3D mouse (left hand on normal mouse/keyboard) so can use one finger to select a function with less movement than going back to the keyboard.

Slightly off the core topic but for shortcuts I've recently starting experimenting with a Stream Deck XL as this latest and largest version finally has enough keys (32) to make it generally useful for the software I use. Previously I've used ever more complex key combinations or larger keyboards with more user definable keys. Compared to a small touch screen keyboard it provides tactile feedback which I find helps avoid miss keying and yet with the LCD underneath saves making labels for everything and of course it can still switch icons/functions per application. It's still early days and not fully set it up for Chief but for me seems another step in productivity for some applications. I am left handed but use it right handed next to my 3D Connexion mouse in chief so half the time I barely need to move my right hand to use it. For other apps I find the distance to move for it is still better than the both hand/multiple key press shortcuts some tools use.

I am an not a professional user, but use Chief to assist with my passion for buying and remodelling my homes and gardens in stages and to similarly assist friends and relatives. I fully model the house as built and then use Chief to plan out several years or remodelling. For changes that don't require professionally created plans I provide my plans to the relevant trades (if not doing the work myself) and in other cases they're used as the base to finalise and get approvals. I purchased Chief as the only other tools I was familiar with are general CAD tools such as Revit and in comparison Chief is way more productive for this purpose. When I started using Chief there were some issues with brick and block cavity construction with windows and doors especially (endless gaps to cover due to lack of casing) but some of these have improved over the years. However there are still some annoying issues with doors and windows in this type of construction such as a lack of control for door inset and also window construction in general (I submitted some enhancement requests a couple of years ago). Most of these can be worked around but it does reduce the time otherwise saved of using Chief versus a less specialised product. The symbol library is also heavily based on non European sizes/styles and that adds some work updating symbols and finding new ones where required. For a professional user this is less of an issue but for me with a fewer number of projects this was a pain initially. While this post may sound a little negative, I am still surprised by how many UK professionals in building, kitchen/bathroom fitting etc end up quizzing me about how I produced such detailed and well presented plans and 3D views compared to their software and especially in the time taken.

Windows has supported 32,767 characters path lengths in of the Unicode versions of many file functions from some time when used with a "\\?\" prefix. The reason Microsoft doesn't just switch every function to support that length is due to the way data is often passed between programs and the Windows API as this could cause crashes or issues with older code that assumes the older fixed maximum 260. Therefore its not a problem to write code that works with very long paths (I've had to on many occasions for long network paths) but the challenge is legacy code/third party dlls and other applications not being able to work with such files/folders, although this is improving all the time. More recently Microsoft has a implemented an option for applications to opt in to existing API calls working with longer paths without special prefixes so hopefully we're getting nearer to the time this issue finally goes away. As @Alaskan_Son mentioned this can be worked around by assigning a drive letter to a path, and there's also the option of using the various Windows files system links (junctions/symlinks) to create a new folder say 'C:\CA\Arcs' that in fact points to the existing archive folder and avoid extra drive letters if that is a concern.

Not really. I purchased Chief mostly for remodelling my own home in stages and although you can get away with some minor changes and switch between views/layers it's all too common to get issues due to overlapping objects and Chief's room based approach. These days I always save a base plan and then separate plans for each option. In my case I sometimes update the base plan such as for all new windows, revised heating (moved radiators) and then re-create the options. It's not as time consuming as it might seem. As an aside: My day job is software and one product I worked on had complex data and also needed a way for users to experiment with various options. In the end we offered two approaches: A managed serious of data sets somewhat akin to separate plan files/related data in Chief but with management of them as a whole set of variations with a known base. A way to manually merge certain changes from one variation to another. Over time most people ended up using the first option as the merge feature was very time consuming in practice. This was due to small changes in other data/.objects which meant the merge feature had to ask many annoying questions about how to handle certain issues otherwise the result had objects with broken connections or not as expected. Even with that some manual editing was always required. Ultimately it proved impossible to make the merge significantly quicker to use than copy and paste/ and manual editing hence why users went back to that after trying both, although the merge feature remained useful to highlight changes between versions.

Chief tries to make the minimum size of dialog boxes large enough to show all content but if the screen height and/or font scaling makes that impossible you will get scroll bars. So could be that or a remembered size from use on a smaller monitor (I would expect it to recheck in that event - not tried it)