Smn842

Is the 'Drawing Unit' on the '3D' section of the 'Symbol Specification' dialog set to the correct unit during symbol import using Advanced options import? I find most issues for symbols I import are due to this so I now check on every import (although I use metric and not sure if that makes a difference to importing).

In a 3D view Chief will show the total surface count of layers shown in the status bar. For individual symbols you can open the symbol and it shows on the 3D section under the faces section. I am just using Chief on my own home renovation so no idea of how many surfaces is normal for professional use, but FWIW my plans seem to be 600K to 900K. The biggest issue I've had is I import a lot of manufacturer symbols (from Revit format usually) and some of these are very high count like as with general symbol sites. It takes time to check and avoid issues, e.g. 30K surfaces for a single radiator but its worth it in the long run.

I thought the checkbox on the 'General' tab for doors 'Separate trim and materials on each side' did this for all cases:

I choose mice based mainly on the right size for my grip style and hand size. Then I just choose whatever good quality and reasonably high dpi mouse I can find (being left handed reduces my choice a little) However I am a fan of the 3DConnexions SpaceMouse as a mouse for the other hand. This way I can pan and zoom more easily in 2D and 3D and also when some modal dialogs are showing and I need to move the underlying plan/3D view about to determine settings for the dialog, but perhaps that is more an issue of how I use Chief being a part time user.

I use 3 Dell 27" 2560 x 1440 here and they work well for my day job (software) and Chief. The move from 3 x 24" I had before was really worth while so I would recommend the 27" of those two options as its 60% more space. The text is smaller when not scaling on the 27" compared to the 24" (109 dpi vs 94) but I actually find that better. For reference I have tried one 43" and missed the convenience of easier window separation (it was too big for side screens on my desk!). I also tried 2 x 40" and didn't like the central bar or off to the side mode of working. So for now I am a bit stuck as to how to go better other than perhaps 16 x 10 form factor 30" screens. However as that is no longer a common form factor its quite pricey and as an upgrade would only give me 11% more space. For now the only thing I am sure on is I want my next upgrade to be high dpi monitors to benefit from sharp text when scaled as required.

Thanks - I did scan through that thread but didn't pick up that issue was included given all the points mentioned.

After some experimentation to get good results with PBR for a particular plan I updated the plan default settings to match what I was manually entering into the 'Rendering Technique Options' dialog in 3D views. However after changing Default Settings -> 3D View Defaults -> Rendering Technique Defaults -> Physically Based the next time I opened a 3D view and changed from standard view to PBR I had a white out with the sun enabled (without it was okay). After some experimentation it appears for me its just the 'Improve Lighting Quality' setting being on in plan defaults that's causing the issue not the other settings I changed. If I leave that option off, open a new 3D view, switch to PBR and then enable 'Improve Lighting Quality' from 'Rendering Techniques -> Techniques Options' it doesn't white out. The settings should be the same unless I am missing something but perhaps having it set before generating the initial view is the issue. Can anyone else reproduce this as I see the same behaviour in several plans.

I use one and don't have that issue, however I have had the odd case where it stopped working while using Chief and I had to close Chief and restart it to get it to work again. I find this mostly when changing between three Chief windows over thee monitors so there may be a glitch with doing that rapidly. The drivers for the space mouse have also had some odd issues over time. I had a case recently where after an upgrade the mouse would show as not connected and eventually I had to fully uninstall, clean up install remnants manually and re-install to get it back.

Thanks, the latest update fixes the cases I noted earlier. I appreciate issues happen, but a suggestion for such problems in future would be to post in Announcements that there's an issue and library update in progress/done. That would have saved myself and others some time and probably a few support tickets/calls for CA to answer as well.

I've updated my support ticket about this as it was closed after the last library updates.

I've just checked and although the recent updates fix the missing texture icons in the library browser when using those previously affected materials I get the same missing file warning you get. The material then looks likes its applied but in fact some details are missing: Maybe other people aren't trying the materials out fully.

The response I got from the support case a month back was to manually edit the wall and the issue would be looked into. Manually editing is fine but stops auto rebuild so not ideal. Today I chased up to find out if this issue has been confirmed/logged as a bug given the X10 official release version still has the same problem. The response was to request the plan in X9 format which I provided a month ago when I raised the case and specifically stated it was still in X9 format. This makes it appear this hasn't even been reviewed to date. I raised another compatibility issue when I upgraded from X8 to X9 that also yielded nothing other than a workaround and was never fixed. I work in software development and appreciate that some regression bugs will never get fixed, but lack of feedback (request for more info, not reproducible, confirmed bug ID etc) and not appearing to read clear case notes doesn't do much to make users keep reporting issues. I do hope I've just had bad luck with my two support tickets to date.

Even as a hobby user I find the door frame and sill issues annoying. Also the lack of inset control which I didn't find an easy workaround for (makes modelling UK style construction very difficult). I did try playing around with using tiny sections of a different wall type but it got very messy to maintain especially with working around a visible wall cavity in some cases.

I just ensure the 'Drawing Unit' on the '3D' section of the 'Symbol Specification' dialog is set to the correct unit during symbol import (check 'Show Advanced Options' on 'Import 3D symbol' dialog) and that solves the problem. You can use the bounding box sizes on the sizing section to ensure the unit is correct if not sure of the source scale. Once imported the drawing unit is read only. The bounding box is just for correcting where the effective edge is for placement etc. I am only a hobby user so there may be ways to adjust after import but this works for me.

Yes I noticed that bit of gutter which wasn't there in X8/X9. They're all auto built roof planes and the walls have no manual adjustments so it should work as is.

I am a software developer so completely agree with the sentiment, but with my end user hat on it all takes time ;-) I'll report it. Thanks.

For my first look at X10 I tried opening an existing X9 plan and the previously correct roof and auto built walls now have a gap: Anyone else reported this type of issue for the current X10 beta? If not I'll sort out a cut down plan for CA support to have a look at to see if its a bug or problem with my plan.

Using two mice is a good, but with one of them being a 3D SpaceMouse its even better in my opinion, and it even works while modal dialogs are displaying. I am not a professional user, but even with my limited use I couldn't imagine using Chief without one.

I second the suggestion on a larger PCIe SSD as Chief does a lot of file I/O in the background and 256GB doesn't go far (only 238GB in real GB terms) . A drop on the graphics card to even a GTX 1080 should allow that and its also quicker to upgrade a graphics card than the boot drive. The general system performance increase of PCIe SSD even compared to SATA SSD is significant.

What setting do you have for Preferences, Edit, Marquee Selection? Just wondering if its the default "Select Intersected Objects" and each time you've copied some object you accidentally copied other items as well so it increased as you progressed. If that's the case then one of the other marquee selection options may be better for your workflow as its harder to over select.

It could just be that the 3D causes many more redraws so performance will be slower than the bigger movements that result from a normal mouse. On my PC with a good graphics card both are very smooth. However there is a fairly long standing performance issue that if you have a 2D plan view open on the same floor that the 3D view mouse is showing then performance is greatly impacted if both views are visible (two monitors or tiled view on one) . It appears Chief is recalculating/drawing the 2D plan for each movement on the 3D mouse. At first I thought this was due to the mouse indicator on the plan but even disabling that doesn't fix it so it looks like Chief is just refreshing/calculating something it shouldn't (I've reported this a couple of times) This workaround is to change floor level so the 2D and 3D view are on different levels. This is best done on the 2D plan as changing the 3D view floor appears to affect showing lights on floors that are different to the floor level shown.

There is no direct import which was a pain for me recently as I needed to convert almost 100 manufacturer radiator symbols for use in Chief. In the end I installed Revit trial and used that to export the symbols to DWG and imported those into Chief which was a bit tedious to say the least! I thought about using a GUI automation tool for the import part but sadly the manufacturer symbols I was using had some minor issues (seems all too common) so I needed to adjust during import.

We don't spend all our time complaining even though a few changes would make our lives so much easier I've used Chief and Home Designer before that to model several existing homes and interiors are certainly less affected by those construction limitations. The main challenge is so much library content is sized differently or lacking European items but at least they can be created/modified as required. There are also just a few places where metric units haven't been implemented fully or correctly but nothing major.

I've had this kind of problem with a few applications over the years and I've ended up creating automisation scripts (AutoIt/custom app) to work through the files. The last time I did this I converted almost 10k files but it relies on not needing manual updates for each file. It's a shame that vendors don't always consider valid use cases for files in older formats.

Not sure if this is related but ever since I moved to x9 I've had a number of exceptions in Chief when working with active layer display options. Usually when I am just toggling layer visibility. Once an exception occurs they become more frequent until restarting Chief. Even with the latest 19.3.0.49 I still get this and although restarting Chief fixes it on a few occasions it has corrupted something in the plan.