Frustrated With Chief ....may Be Going To Softplan

joedesign30

By joedesign30,
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BrownTiger

BrownTiger

Posted
Posted
4 minutes ago, Alaskan_Son said:

 Wow, that's a very creative method Glenn. Thank you. 

 

I agree.

 

Still think Softplan beats CA as far as Softlist producing one material list.

 

I am also going to try checking "Consolidate Unhandled  Boards". Not 100% sure what it is going to consolidate them to... 16' or 8' or 9'. Wish me luck.

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dshall
dshall

For you guys that don't know,  David Michael and his  Chief Tutor is one of the best learning tools.  His vids have always been my favorites to go to.  And for any newbies out there,  one of the best

DRAWZILLA
DRAWZILLA

I'm not having any of those problems, you talk about, you just need to learn the program better as with any you might choose

AndyGump
AndyGump

Now my opinion is that I could not care less if you go to SoftPlan..   Good luck to you and may god speed you on your journey.   Andy.

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Richard_Morrison

Richard_Morrison

Posted
Posted

Generally, if boards are under a certain standard length, you will get an accurate count. If over the longest standard length, they go into the "unconsolidated" category. If you have a 42' wall, Chief doesn't know how you want to cut and overlap the plates, so these are just shown as overall lengths, and it is up to you how you want cut them. If you check "consolidate", then all these boards will be totaled together as an overall sum. If you get plates that consolidate to, say, 2"x 4" x 140', then it is up to you to decide how you want to buy these. 7-20' or 9-16' or 12-12' boards. Seems like Chief could make some decisions, but that is part of the artistry of estimating.

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Jonnoxx

Jonnoxx

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Posted

After all the talk about "Softplan" here. I downloaded a trial version.

 

Did ... not ... go ... well !

 

After installing the program I was keen to see what the User Interface was like. Elegant and useful UI design, Ease of use, Simplicity, and Flexibility are the key factors that interest me in this regard.  Your criteria may be very different, but these are my go-to hot buttons.

 

So I construct the simple 4 wall test house in plan view. 

Go to have a look at playing with this in 3D view

 

And ...

 

discover ...

 

I CANNOT add /move / modify walls in this mode.

 

Unbelievable !

 

This is the 21st century, and this by now "take-it-for-granted" CAD capability is ABSENT from this (not exactly cheap) program. Get the impression there's more of this attitude lurking there.  Sooooo ....

 

Even while the rest of the 2.4GB libraries et al were still downloading, i reached for the "kill switch" and activated the full nuclear termination!

 

KA-BOOOOM !

 

No more Softplan for me. 

 

Ever!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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HumbleChief

HumbleChief

Posted
Posted
13 minutes ago, Jonnoxx said:

After all the talk about "Softplan" here. I downloaded a trial version.

 

Did ... not ... go ... well !

 

After installing the program I was keen to see what the User Interface was like. Elegant and useful UI design, Ease of use, Simplicity, and Flexibility are the key factors that interest me in this regard.  Your criteria may be very different, but these are my go-to hot buttons.

 

So I construct the simple 4 wall test house in plan view. 

Go to have a look at playing with this in 3D view

 

And ...

 

discover ...

 

I CANNOT add /move / modify walls in this mode.

 

Unbelievable !

 

This is the 21st century, and this by now "take-it-for-granted" CAD capability is ABSENT from this (not exactly cheap) program. Get the impression there's more of this attitude lurking there.  Sooooo ....

 

Even while the rest of the 2.4GB libraries et al were still downloading, i reached for the "kill switch" and activated the full nuclear termination!

 

KA-BOOOOM !

 

No more Softplan for me. 

 

Ever!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even with this video shown in post #92?

 

http://softplan.com/?page_id=1284

 

 

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BrownTiger

BrownTiger

Posted
Posted
8 minutes ago, Jonnoxx said:

After all the talk about "Softplan" here. I downloaded a trial version.

 

Did ... not ... go ... well !

 

No more Softplan for me. 

 

Ever!

 

 

Take a look what I posted:

Quote

 

Very true. I do NOT believe Softplan has true 3D capabilities like Chief Architect, Some of the software design decisions are very convoluted. 

 

However beyond little things it has to major strength:

1)  Builder Options <here> Very nice.

2)  Softlist: On outside SoftList appears to be a major strength. You can click on any wall and get pricing.

On inside it is complete farce.

 

 

But before you uninstall, SP comes with 22 fonts. SP-HandC.ttf is very good, it is condensed version Chief Blueprint like font.

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Jonnoxx

Jonnoxx

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19 minutes ago, HumbleChief said:

Even with this video shown in post #92?

 

http://softplan.com/?page_id=1284

 

 

 

 

Thanks for catching this, HumbleChief.

 

I re-opened my example with Softplan, and tried again - and this time, no problem.

No idea why it wouldn't play nice yesterday, but now it's fine.

So, Folks, my abject apologies for not doing my homework properly,

:ph34r:

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Archnot-Boltz

Archnot-Boltz

Posted
Posted
On 12/23/2016 at 9:34 PM, mthd97 said:

Have you found more stability with X8 or X9B ?

I don't understand the question. I don't have X9, using the most updated version of X8. The only thing that saves me when working on a remodel with various floor elevations on the same floor level are my section & elevation views with manually created CAD floor elevation lines. Also, because of layer and wall alignment issues, especially when pony walls are added to the mix, I will locate certain wall corners or wall surfaces with a locked CAD line and put it on an Existing conditions CAD layer (locked) and copy it to all floors to make sure my walls are aligning properly. Some complicated wall layers don't allow all walls to align using the wall align above or below tool (the reason I keep asking for a Wall Section Alignment Graphic and dialogue box).-BB

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Archnot-Boltz

Archnot-Boltz

Posted
Posted
On 12/24/2016 at 7:12 PM, mthd97 said:

This is what I was concerned about in my above post.

 

Quote: "Chief's roof tool is the most versatile and creates the most stable areas of a drawing (roof doesn't automatically change hgts when you move walls or adjust floor hgts etc.). I wish they would stabilize or provide floor platform thickness and floor elevation locks so that a floor platform remains as drawn when moving interior partitions."

 

Yes, this is very important and urgent. Has X9b fixed this ? If not then, can we please make serious progress in XX thanks.

 

Like we can lock a roof plane, we should also be able to lock room heghts etc when making any changes to the 3d model to overide automactic rebuild updates that throw the modeled room shapes out of place. 

 

I would say, that this is the biggest of all problems with Chief Architect, If we can fix this in XX we would have landed on the moon with XX. A giant step forward for Chief Architect and small step forward for the programmers of this app.

Gotcha, yes very much in agreement. Also tweaking wall alignment and intersection issues as well as more and separate dimensioning  tools (2d CAD only dimensioning mode etc).-BB PS the -BB at the end of my post is my initials (Brad Boltz) so was only referring to X9 not X9b, sorry for any confusion. 

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dssharp

dssharp

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, ShaneK said:

Move this thread to the chat room. Good grief I'm sick of hearing "I'm switching or leaving CA because.............."

Agreed . Either move on or don't quit whinning . People are acting like spoiled kids. Get over it. 

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HumbleChief

HumbleChief

Posted
Posted

I personally really like these discussions. I learn a bunch. Why do those who don't like these types of discussion feel obligated to comment? Seems it takes more effort to say some people shouldn't participate in this thread than to ignore the thread and get on with your day. Whatever. Happy New year all.

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dssharp

dssharp

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, HumbleChief said:

I personally really like these discussions. I learn a bunch. Why do those who don't like these types of discussion feel obligated to comment? Seems it takes more effort to say some people shouldn't participate in this thread than to ignore the thread and get on with your day. Whatever. Happy New year all.

It's obvious.... isn't it? 

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