Delete Downloaded Skp Files And Material Jpegs?

[Designers_Edge]

Here I am again asking what is probably a very BASIC question, but I have been fearful of deleting symbols downloaded and jpegs created for tiles, fabric, textures etc for new materials for fear that I will get the dreaded file can't be found message after using one of them in a plan--especially the textures & jpegs.

 

Question:  can I delete them after they have been imported into my library or does the library look for the material jpeg each time?

 

Thanks again for all of your patience as I venture beyond the safe Chief Architect library content.

[CJSpud]

I think that all materials that you include in each project need to be in that plan's folder.  I am not sure that their just being in your library is sufficient.  If you have your materials in both locations, I think it is safe to delete them from other locations.

[Designers_Edge]

Thanks for answering, but are you saying that as you add new products to your library, you have to save it.  I wanted to expand my tile library and texture library not for any particular project, just so that I would have them as a resource.  If I had to save these for every project, it would become a huge amount of stuff on my hard-drive after awhile.  Hope this is not the case.

[LevisL]

You don't need to save the texture file for each project. Just put all your textures in the same folder and make sure the material in your Chief library links to the correct texture image. I put all my custom texture image files in the Chief X6 Data folder, in the Textures>My Textures sub-folder. This also makes it easier to migrate your custom materials from one version of Chief to the next, rather than having texture images scattered in multiple folders.

 

The only time you need to have the textures in the same folder as your plan is if you want to send the .plan file with all the textures to someone else, in which case using 'Backup Entire Plan' will do that for you.

[Joe_Carrick]

Sharon,

 

I think you misunderstand.  Symbols stored in the Library reference Textures in the Textures Folder, not in the download folder.  When a Symbol is added to a Plan, that reference to the Texture in the Textures Folder is maintained. 

 

When you Backup a Plan (the entire Plan), a copy of the Textures are attached to the Plan so that it can be transferred (copied) to another system.  This is the ultimate archive of the Plan.  Other than that, there's no problem with just leaving the Symbol in the Library and the Texture in the Texture Folder.

[Designers_Edge]

Joe, sorry to take so long to respond, but have been out of town.  I am confused about your answer and want to make sure we are talking about the same issue.  I am asking if I can delete the materials and textures that I create AFTER I import them in to my user library.

 

I usually download items like a copy of a picture of tile to my desktop.  I then open Chief and in my User Library in my tile folder, I choose to add new material.  The texture file I select is the image of say an Ann Sacks tile that I saved to my desktop.  I wanted to know if after creating this new material in my User Library, if I could then delete that Ann Sacks tile jpeg on my desktop?   I wanted to make sure that if used that imported Ann Sacks tile in a plan from my User's library, that I won't have a problem with Chief after deleting the file on my desktop. 

 

Thanks so much.

[MPDesign]

Well IMHO I would do a test, see what happens. import it, save it, make a material, save to lib, delete . close chief , open chief and see!

[dshall]

Here I am again asking what is probably a very BASIC question, but I have been fearful of deleting symbols downloaded and jpegs created for tiles, fabric, textures etc for new materials for fear that I will get the dreaded file can't be found message after using one of them in a plan--especially the textures & jpegs.

 

Question:  can I delete them after they have been imported into my library or does the library look for the material jpeg each time?

 

Thanks again for all of your patience as I venture beyond the safe Chief Architect library content.

 Don't delete them.

[LevisL]

The library material still needs a texture image to remain associated with it, so you need to keep the image you downloaded to your desktop somewhere. If you don't want them to clutter your desktop, create a folder somewhere for all the texture images you download instead. Then you can changes where the material looks for the texture file to get it pointed to the right folder.

[Designers_Edge]

Thank you to everyone who has answered this question.  I was hoping that one did NOT have to store all of these images, but I guess there is not getting around it if one wants to have more selections above and beyond the Chief Libraries.  As a kitchen & bath designer, I do need a larger assortment of tiles.  

 

I obviously need to change quick downloads to the desktop and set up a folder/file in I guess, my Chief data folder.  I appreciate everyone taking the time to help me out.