Connections in Chief

[johnny]

I'm curious if I am alone in how often I run into connection issues inside Chief.  80-90% of the time connections are just fine and Chief really shines in how fast it can be.  However, I find that when I do run into a connection issue inside a model (and id say I get 1-5 issues per model no matter what) the time savings Chief gave me is ruthlessly taken away when I end up having to go back and correct problems which 9 times of 10 end up being a problem with one of my connections.

 

Do you guys run into this problem?

 

Below are some vids that Michael did for me on what I am referring - actually very good to review for many of you guys.  Michael knows this inside and out, but so few of us are on his level when it comes to Chief.

 

 

 

[dshall]

Yes,  I have often seen missing connections.......  I can't prove it is a CA issue or user issue.

 

i am talking about electrical connections.

[DavidJPotter]

The only times I have observed this is when I also had to "Edit Area all floors visible" move the structure relative to an existing structure. Some of the electrical connections in the moved structure disconnected and I had to manually reconnect them after the move. 

 

DJP

[Chopsaw]

Yes there are definitely situations where it is user error but if it happens to Michael and needs a workaround to fix it then it is obviously an issue for other users as well.

 

I worked on a relatively simple plan file all day to correct a attic wall issue and when I was done I sent the plan file in to tech support asking why it was so much work to fix an automatically generated wall and explained the whole situation to them.  That was 9 weeks ago and obviously there are issues within the software because I am still waiting to hear back from them.

 

 

 

23 hours ago, dshall said:

Yes,  I have often seen missing connections.......  I can't prove it is a CA issue or user issue.

 

i am talking about electrical connections.

 

Not so sure that is what Johnny is talking about but I have never done an electrical plan without connection issues so I am voting for CA.

[chief58]

I have to agree on electrical connections in Chief they were stable in the release when they first came out

[DRAWZILLA]

Wouldn't the "Edit wall intersections" tool fix that siding coming through to the interior wall, I use that tool to fix a lot of those lines.

[Alaskan_Son]

1 hour ago, DRAWZILLA said:

Wouldn't the "Edit wall intersections" tool fix that siding coming through to the interior wall, I use that tool to fix a lot of those lines.

 

Usually yes, but not in that particular case.  In that case, the siding needed to continue through to that point in order to correctly blend into an adjacent attic wall.  There were other ways to make it happen without the siding continuing through, but the other possibilities resulted in extraneous lines on the exterior, drywall gaps on the interior, incorrect framing, and/or siding gaps on the exterior and I think there were other problems as well but it's been a while and I don't remember all of it.

 

I do see problems like that quite frequently.  Basically as soon as we start to have irregular, non box-shaped rooms we start to have the problems Johnny is talking about.  Sometimes it's not the room shape either...Sometimes its an irregular roof connection or a situation where a roof starts higher or lower than the adjacent walls, or a situation where a wall shape lands somewhere outside a plain rectangle and a gable wall, or perhaps some combination of the above.  Point is that as Johnny says, Chief can handle the majority of wall connections/intersections just fine.  There are those situations though that Chief basically cannot handle very well at all.  Enter The Workaround...

[johnny]

For all the features I want Chief to add, it hit me that this issue of connections is my #1 time waster.  In Vectorworks all the connections are semi-manually done...meaning you would first select say a wall, and then the roof plane you want to intersect (connect) and there is very little that can go wrong - with the connection being very clean.  This method is slower by comparison to when Chief makes correct auto-connections, but in Vectorworks there is rarely a time where a connection problem exists....so it is really slower?

 

I was going to make a suggestion that Chief add a tool to quickly make positive/affirmative connections if the auto-connect functionality fails, but was wondering how many people are effected by this issue.

 

 

 

[BenPalmer]

I have many connection issues.  As mentioned, in most cases it works fine.  Or in other words, the normal wall connections.  But add anything out of the ordinary with multiple intersections, angles, short walls, or thick walls, and they have to be fixed manually, if they can be fixed at all.  It seems that ever since we have been given control to fix wall intersections, i get more issues then before.  However, it is nice to be able to fix some issues easier then before we had the control.  I probably come across it 10-20% of the time, but when it happens, it's frustrating, but usually fixable.  It's the angle wall and curved wall connections that are difficult at times.

 

Electrical connections still have issues.  I liked the way it used to work before splines were used, other then not being able to connect mid-circuit.

 

One I ran across the other day was a plan was finished with annotations that included arrows pointing to walls.  Due to a field change, i needed to break a wall and make an adjustment.  As soon as I broke it, all the arrows shifted down for some reason.  Fortunatley I caught it on all plans (electric, annotation, framing, foundation, etc) before sending to print.  Don't get why that happens.

[MarkMc]

I run into it often enough, same as others and I don't do as much heavy lifting as some. 

[johnny]

On 5/1/2017 at 1:59 PM, BenPalmer said:

However, it is nice to be able to fix some issues easier then before we had the control.  I probably come across it 10-20% of the time, but when it happens, it's frustrating,

 

 

Yeah, I have a similar %....but I find the 10-20% times an issue comes up eats most the time I saved in the 80-90% "worked fine" automation.  I think if we had something inside Chief specifically for manual connections when something doesn't work correctly that would be a huge time saver.

 

 

[BenPalmer]

Working on one now that has a lot of fixes needed.  For me, thick walls are a big offender.  Chief changed the way those connect when they added the connection adjustment tool and it has caused more problems for me.  I hate doing individual walls to create voids because then there are room definition issues that mess with the 3d model and roof production later (and foundation production).  Angle walls and curved walls are also big problems.  I guess everything that is not a normal 90 degree, 4 or 6 inch wall with only 2 connections typically take some work.  Unfortunately sometimes I don't want to fight with the program so I adjust my design (permanently or temporary depending on the situation), which should never happen, Chief should be working for me, not against me.

 

I should send in all the example to Chief to help them fix them, but i'm just too busy to get a reply that says, we can't reproduce it, or you should adjust your walls, or mess with this wall, then this wall, then this wall and add an invisible wall at this spot to get it to work.  Or stop using thick wall, that isn't how Chief was designed to work.  Just don't have time for that.  So I guess that means I can't really complain, right?