Rashid_Garuba

This really illustrates the power of marketing and positioning.. A lot of these apps are as powerful (or more) as Sketchup AND have been around longer BUT Sketchup resonated much more with Architects... "Sketchup" sounds a lot better than "Formz"... Also didn't hurt that Google made Sketchup free. Utlimately I see a lot of Modern architecture that is a lot less ornate with all straight lines.... The devil is in other types of houses (High end US) AND construction docs.. For massing studies they sure are good though..

Here's to you Yusuf!... There is no doubt one's mindset of thinking of problems brings more problems and a resistance to learning new ways. Thinking of possibilities (open mind) is the core of progress.. I think we get more rigid as we get older...

Easy there Scottie... .. I did not kidnap you first born.. I did not say defaults cannot be changed either. I am referring to floor structure which is not straight-forward unless you know what you are doing. Floor structure HAS driven me nuts... not initial setup but adjusting heights afterwards, especially forgetting defaults that may affect changes I am attempting..

David, I asked the same question a while back... can't find the thread. Same answer... Chief doesn't like too much structure tinkering after defaults are set.... "Learn the Chief Way". It IS the truth though.. that is the way Chief is and it is not going to change as Chief is quite mature... Like marrying and expecting change. It is a bit of a bother as I find it hard to discourage clients from revisions, especially early in the process. Get good with Sketchup or do your design schematics on paper BEFORE getting into Chief.

Hmmmm.... I will save it to my own Library.. Hopefully I can build any vent type from a window... gable vent for example. Thanks Jonathan.

It is something simple as usual... Need to recess the vent like the window.. Thanks

Great idea.. All should be in the Library ONLY... So there will be a save to Library in every Tool dbx. Go suggest this.

Diane, Mick's post #20 and #23 are the only ways 5 planes will achieve that Porch/Garage "mandate" ... No amount of fudging will change that.. PLEASE let us know how it ends up...

You do a base plan with a 2 car garage... Then there is a 3 car garage version of it, then Garage right side and Garage left side. Now they decide to make a major change in the Master Bathroom.. She wants to keep what is common to all 4 files in one place so the revision is done only in one place. In my CAD program careful cut and paste gets it done but in Chief cut and paste is dangerous for large sections of the file.

Scott... Sorry for the Troll accusation... :) .. When getting into any CAD program (and especially 3D) expect a learning curve... 6 months to be "productive".. whatever this means. From your walls issue it sounds like you want to jump in and draw plans without slowly learning and expecting plans to "pop out". VERY simple plans may pop out but little else. Ironically your lack of CAD experience will help you greatly in Chief. Go through the tutorials step by step completely first and read the reference manual. FYI.. when you quote a post you can type your reply directly under it so you have one post rather than two..

Troll anyone?... This why some boards are aggressively moderated.

Mick, The point being when it comes to built-in libraries/materials Chief is unequaled.. Sketchup, Archicad, Revit... etc. ALL require you find/build you own to make them do what you specialize in...But then again they are built with that in mind as they decide they can't do it all, therefore delegating to 3rd party developers to fill the "gaps".. And that can be a bear to manage for the user. Chief with Skethups slick interface (AND a third party API) will absolutely concquer the world.

Both are tools capable of nearly anything with VERY different paths to "nearly anything". You have to decide what you want.. Just 3d, Construction Docs?.. Search "Nick Sonder Architect" on youtube to see what even "seemingly simple" sketchup can do.

There was a time I would run to the store and buy the latest windows but that past a looong time ago. Let's see... I was forced to finally stop using XP last year and move to Windows 7.. I wonder when I will move to 10... I do like the no re-installing programs idea though....

Ok.. The size I feel right now cannot be seen with the naked eye... Sorry to all at Chief!.. You are still a bit "special". Glenn.. It's your fault.. send me $225!

Soooooo... Who at Chief Architect decided S,A should be the hot keys for saving? I have extensively modified my hotkeys but it never occurred to me to see what the save Hotkey combo is. So as I do with 99% of other Windows app I Ctrl-S often (I avoid icons) thinking I am saving... Today I lost 3 hours of work (backups were older) due to a Windows crash. Oddly I have Autosave set to every 5 minutes but it seems that only saves a phantom recovery file (which I declined thinking my save was younger) rather than the actual plan file. If you don't save the plan manually the file modified time never changes. Why not save the ACTUAL file? I will reduce the Archive option to Hourly as well as Ctr+S (assigned now) No wonder Chief always asked me on normal exits if I wanted to save.. Why MUST you guys be endlessly quirky??

Spend your time on more productive things..

Thanks Mick..

Even better.. have them appear in a schedule.. which is what I am manually creating.

Please forgive me if this is somewhere.. could not find it. How to display the Specs of a closed polygon inside it? Using it for Square footage... Now I open and copy what I want, then write the Square Footage in... Error prone... Would be nice to add a height calc for volume as well..

Mick and Sherry... I am flattered I could contribute to you Chief Pros.. .. I work on some very large houses so the zooming was driving me mad..

This used to waste a lot of time and cause me snap anxiety... so I turn on "Walls Main Layer only" when dimensioning...

This Roof return area is the BULK of my work so I am VERY bothered to spend hours on it and the Elevation views still looks like crap because of the number of Roof planes I had to use.. And when copied to others they are slightly different... enough to irritate. THE ultimate solution here MAY be to draw ALL frieze boards manually... Not worth the pain trying to get them to work automatically. with the types of Roofs I do. In my 2D world these are are pre-drawn so I spend maybe 5 minutes on them.

Mick, Thanks for helping... Who would have thought to pull the Roof plane to the BACK of the wall?.. Did you notice the wall now shows in the window? (Fixed the other Roofs a while back..)

I take it all this planning (My current project is "wrong?!) is because we can't change the elevation of an entire building once built?