What Would Be 1 Thing You Would Love To See Ca Fix Or Add?

[Nicinus]

We have seen poll posts in the past.

How about getting a priority list from Admin of say 25 things to fix or add into CA.

Then all CA users can mark their list in order of thier priorities then CA can publish the results?

 

I think this is a great idea, but even if Chief was willing to publish such a list (I don't know, but it could be seen as something feeding the competition perceived weaknesses), the downside is that it would be restricted to what they think are the key things to adress.

 

If a number of regular users would publish their own thread with their list of the 10 most critical/desireable suggestions, Chief could then (assuming they care) study and compare these lists and see which features/items seems are the most requested and if there are some ideas that make particular sense. 10 is a good number in that it limits the scope, forces people to think, but still allows some desired things that may not typically come up.

 

Everyone creating their own thread would allow other users to discuss and scrutinize it in case the OP has misunderstood or just don't know how to do something. OP could update his/her list as things gets addressed and needs change. There are certainly some users here, whose top 10 lists I would love to see.

 

Just an idea. Or it could just be what a thread like this one but with the 10 most desireable things instead of 1.

[Ed_Downunder]

If you could have 1 (one, uno, I) thing that would get updated / fixed / added / or tweaked in CA, what would it be? BIM? Stairs? Command Line? Undo List? Layouts? (Please keep it in topic and post only one wish and give a brief description) - Thanks!

My wish is that this post called for things to be fixed only and not features added. I get the attempt at a broad question to get some engagement. So staying on topic.

 

My one item is fix layout elevation auto update. This is more than an irritation. If you get caught late in the design process this failure has the potential to make you look silly at best or incompetent at worst.  

 

Speaking from experience it caused embarrassment. It could of had liability issues.

 

In my opinion Chief architect is paying lip service to listening whilst  foundation issues go unresolved. Statement have been made about the development resources going to areas that address our productivity. Why spend resources on new interesting features when the big serious issues are ignored.

 

In my view it seems that the marketing department is driving this boat. We are just passengers paying our SSA in the hope that things will get better with the next version.

 

Why can't a simple thing like a door be placed in a plan properly. Whilst improved in X6 with a door jamb it will still not display correctly. Door will only hang on hinges not float in in the air having an alignment with a wall! Small point maybe but it is just one of a long list of things that are just wrong. This post has opened up for a lot of comment. Not much is new. Most is old and rehashed. Question is will X8 - X9 be having the same conversation?

[ragetoca]

Since I opened this thread I would like to close it and in conclusion I would like to point out that the (2) most requested items desperately needed to be "fixed" are: Stairs and Auto Elevations

Why do we have to wait for these fixes any longer? Why do people speak of waiting to see if perhaps they will show up in X8 or X9? Perhaps beta users know something we don't ?

- I really hope CA engineers are paying attention to this thread because its customers have spoken. Is all about your customers needs - don't become another Autodesk please......

Thanks everyone for your input

[DRAWZILLA]

Chief has never posted any list and probably never will, even though ,for years, we have wanted to know what's in the works. Sorry guys, but true. Sometimes they give some hints, but very rarely.

[HumbleChief]

The fixes that go into X7, 8, 9 etc. will not be driven by threads like this. Businesses are not run that way. Think about it. This thread represents a minuscule piece of the CA user base and minuscule doesn't even begin to describe how small a cross section this thread represents. In this thread of very few users there are a couple top requests, one being live elevations, requested by 6 or 8 users, OK make it 10 or 12. Of the thousands of CA users who have no idea what a live elevation is, and who don't use Anno Sets or even Layers for that matter, how does that request become a priority for the Chief engineers?

 

One way is that it is cheap and easy to implement (remember they're running a business). Can you imagine the complexity of adding live elevations? And the cost? There are parts of the entire program that might have to be re-written - from scratch. So even if it was requested by every single user it would end up low on the priority list because of cost constraints. Very easy to understand and one of the reasons I'm very happy with any changes I get.

 

Running a software business is very hard and successful businesses do not cater to the user base, they cater to the marketplace if they want to continue to succeed. As users this is a hard reality to face so we get these threads requesting all kinds of cool things because we think that the business cares. Doug cares. He comes here and tells us so but the business is another animal and it can't care about what you want, it must care about what it needs to succeed. Sometimes it will include a change you want and sometimes it won't but those changes will be driven again, by the marketplace, not by the user base.

 

Another 2 cents

[HumbleChief]

Chief has never posted any list and probably never will, even though ,for years, we have wanted to know what's in the works. Sorry guys, but true. Sometimes they give some hints, but very rarely.

To list upcoming features would be business suicide. Why would Chief participate in its own demise? Not gonna happen.

[Nicinus]

There is probably a lot of truth in this, Larry. New users are where software companies grow. At the same time I don't neccessarily think the average existing user is ignorant about some of these things. All who make an elevation surely must be concerned if they produce drawings where these aren't current. I assume the average Chief Premier user is relatively hands-on, given that there are cheaper products like Home Designer otherwise. 

 

The other thing to consider is who those potentially new users are? Tract, stock plan and cookie cut builder? I would assume these are the original target market, which may start to become saturated. I obviously don't know but if they are reaching for the one man architect firm, and I think they could, things like this are very important.

[HumbleChief]

Not saying any of the suggestions are bad or that they are or are not important. Heck I would like to see everything in this thread and everything in the suggestion forum implemented tomorrow. AND the contributions from the users in this forum, suggestions and otherwise, have helped me immensely but business realities will always supersede my need for a new feature.

 

One of those business realities is customer acquisition and customer retention. A new customer will not walk away because the elevations don't update. New customers come from aggressive pricing and a feature set that caters to a large sub set of the architectural and design community. I'd say very nice job in this regard to Chief. On the other hand an old customer might walk if the elevations are not live, and that fine line of features has to be measured against the possibility that an old customer will walk, especially with Chief's SSA business model.

 

I'm not leaving because elevations are not live. Would LOVE to see it but I'm not leaving if they stay the way they are. I bet most are not leaving with elevations the way they are so from a business prospective why put in thousands of man hours to change them when your existing customer base will not shrink and your new user base will most likely even grow because of the current features? Makes no business sense.

 

Every software company also comes up against another hard reality - making great software. Once software gets to a certain stage why upgrade? I'm using some REALLY old programs because they work just fine - will never upgrade - ever, (unless forced by an OS upgrade etc.)

 

That's why IMO Adobe and others are going to a subscription plan for their software? Does anyone really need PhotoShop version LCXIIV when the current version will paint the night sky in any color you choose? No need to upgrade anymore. Can't build a business plan on such uncertain revenues. Subscription plans offer a means to forecast future revenues, upgrades do not.

 

Will Chief get there too? It already is subscription software but when will I/users no longer really need SSA? Or even to upgrade at all? From a business perspective these are very difficult decisions and I think CA has been stellar, no wait I KNOW CA has been stellar. How do I know? Because they are still here, in a very tough business they are still here, and that gets much much respect from me and I'll be happy with my 'dead' elevations until something changes.

[Doug_Park]

Lot's of good input on this thread.

 

Many of the employees here read ChiefTalk.

 

This forum is one of many sources of information about what we need to put into the program. Our support and sales teams talk to customers a lot which provides another good source of information. Our engineers communicate with customers from time to time as well to get input on certain things. Our marketing team also does surveys as well as competitive analysis.

 

We take all of this information and discuss it internally to come up with priorities.

[4hotshoez]

This thread represents a minuscule piece of the CA user base and minuscule doesn't even begin to describe how small a cross section this thread represents. In this thread of very few users there are a couple top requests, one being live elevations, requested by 6 or 8 users, OK make it 10 or 12. ...

 

...I'm very happy with any changes I get....

 

....successful businesses do not cater to the user base, they cater to the marketplace if they want to continue to succeed. ... changes will be driven again, by the marketplace, not by the user base.

 

Another 2 cents

The user is the marketplace. This forum may be the minority of users, but each users here represents all the users. To ignore the threads on this forum is suicide. All those who are the "marketplace" are just future users. Technology keeps moving and it is important to keep up or fade away. Listen to the users and live! Potential users come here and inquire and make an investment or not based upon the user forum that does speak. Hail! to the user!

 

My two cents!

 

So how much is that now? six cents?

[4hotshoez]

I would imagine the reason a request has not been implemented is because the programmers have not figure out how to make them work successfully. Nobody wants a buggy app.

[Nicinus]

One of the toughest decisions a software developer has to make has got to be between rewriting an existing functionality that has reached a ceiling, or adding something new.

[ragetoca]

.....Or carve a hole in the ceiling

[keithhe]

Lot's of good input on this thread.

 

Many of the employees here read ChiefTalk.

 

This forum is one of many sources of information about what we need to put into the program. Our support and sales teams talk to customers a lot which provides another good source of information. Our engineers communicate with customers from time to time as well to get input on certain things. Our marketing team also does surveys as well as competitive analysis.

 

We take all of this information and discuss it internally to come up with priorities.

 

Doug, so what was the outcome of the X7 meeting? What's new? Promise, I won't tell anyone.

[Ed_Downunder]

The fixes that go into X7, 8, 9 etc. will not be driven by threads like this.  Can you imagine the complexity of adding live elevations? And the cost? 

I don't have a qualification that allows me to make a comment about the complexity of writing code or even if 'live updates' would be to much demand on the average computers used by CA users.

 

But I would think that even a mediocre software engineer would have the skills required to writ a script activated by an icon that would run on layouts and update on demand. Live updates is only the language used to explain the problem. What is required is 'auto update'. Preferably with a choice to run automatically when a layout is opened and if it takes to long to run that cycle each time layouts are opened then let the  user activated (manual) update.  No new features here. No re- writing the program just enhance the current process of open, close and save the elevation. 

 

If CA allowed this to be a ruby script it would already be done by someone. 

 

This is core functionality and speaks directly to productivity.

[mthd97]

To all those who say they put in their 2 cents worth that is just not true.

We all have invested thousands of US dollars and some tens of thousands in CA.

If CA want to keep getting our money they need to get the right priorities or CA may be obsolete one day?

I will wait and see what we get in X7.

FYI some here do keep their elevations live, check the old forum please.

Stairs is a specialist area and may need a more sofisticated plugin app to broaden all the design types needed.

The only people who can close and or move or delete this thread is admin not us.

[Ed_Downunder]

FYI some here do keep their elevations live, check the old forum please.

Elevations are always live. It's the layout elevations that need updating. This is no small thing.

 

I recently had a layout for 3 town houses that was 30 pages of A2. Were all my exterior and room elevations current? After a few mods to a bathroom on one unit and electrical on another unit change a window style from sliding to awning - you get the idea. Can I trust my plan? The only way to trust that every  thing is up to date and current is to manually open and close every elevation in the layout. 

 

More recently I removed a chimney from an as built. It was removed in plan I made comment on the elevation 'perfect' moved on to other items that needed attention and when I opened my layout to send as a pdf (this is the midnight hour) I overlooked the manual update for layout elevations. When the phone rang the next day I was asked to remove the chimney. 

 

It's not even possible to group select and update a page of elevations.

 

In a perfect world we could send to layout and be done with it. But if the layout  goes out to the client for approval and there are changes at any stage of the design process the world is no longer perfect. Even after a building license is issued there  can be changes to the plan. The local authority demands that all elevations in the layout are correct and current.

 

It is not possible that this is a burden I bring upon myself. If anyone has a solution that does not require the opening and closing of every elevation in layout I would be very pleased to adopt it.

 

I checked the old forum. If you have a link that I could follow to solve this issue I will be grateful. 

 

Here is a reference to the old forum. http://www.chieftalk.com/showthread.php?43283-When-to-send-to-plan-to-layout&highlight=update+elevations+layout it's dated 2009. Nothing has changed.

[Rich_Winsor]

Well, I don't know if this thread is closed or not,

but I will cast my vote for a decent search feature

for the Library Browser. Seriously, I just did a search

for a mailbox. How hard can that be? You can

enter any combination of the word, upper case

or lower case, singular or plural, hyphenated or

two word and you will get the same result. Zip,

Zilch, Zero, Nada. You can enter simply an "M"

and scroll thru the dozens of items listed but you

won't find a mailbox. In fact after you enter the

first three letters you will get no results to scroll

thru at all.

 

Yet they are there. Maybe the question should be

just what can you find using the search feature?

[glennw]

Rich,

 

Open the library browser.

In the search field type MAILBOX.

You should get the Mailbox and the Ornate Mailbox listed.

 

Now, go across and click the Search Filtering Options on the very right hand side - it's the yellow page icon with a magnifying glass in it. 

Check Folders.

 

All the mailboxes will display - there is about 10 of them.

[mthd97]

Ed, thanks for the more specific explanation and I can see how this would be very time consuming too.

That should have been an update fix not an upgrade fix don't you think?

[HumbleChief]

I don't have a qualification that allows me to make a comment about the complexity of writing code or even if 'live updates' would be to much demand on the average computers used by CA users.

 

But I would think that even a mediocre software engineer would have the skills required to writ a script activated by an icon that would run on layouts and update on demand. Live updates is only the language used to explain the problem. What is required is 'auto update'. Preferably with a choice to run automatically when a layout is opened and if it takes to long to run that cycle each time layouts are opened then let the  user activated (manual) update.  No new features here. No re- writing the program just enhance the current process of open, close and save the elevation. 

 

If CA allowed this to be a ruby script it would already be done by someone. 

 

This is core functionality and speaks directly to productivity.

Ed,

 

I'm no software engineer either but the 2 or 3 actions needed to update each elevation, which now includes nothing more than opening the elevation, closing and hitting the Yes button for each view, should be very easy to implement in a simple script.

 

It's always more complex than I think but I think I see your point and agree that it's probably not as complex as I presented in a post above. If it really is that easy then not having that feature now is a real shame.

[yusuf-333]

Ed,

 

I'm no software engineer either but the 2 or 3 actions needed to update each elevation, which now includes nothing more than opening the elevation, closing and hitting the Yes button for each view, should be very easy to implement in a simple script.

 

It's always more complex than I think but I think I see your point and agree that it's probably not as complex as I presented in a post above. If it really is that easy then not having that feature now is a real shame.

 

 

3,8,13,18,23,28…

The sequence has a difference of 5 between each other. It is obvious

But if someone is asked to tell the 999^th term of this sequence he may say, it needs writing this sequence

999 numbers to reach up on that value asked. And tell it is tedious.

While someone else may just formulate the sequence and find that  the nth term of the sequence =5n-2

After that finding he will respond in less than a minute for the 9999^th and 99999^th terms. in the same seconds.

 

I think some users see easier ways to handle some issues to be fixed. I don’t know about programming language but I am sure some things that seems to ca staffers it needs a program rewrite may have an easier ways to handle it and a layman like me may suggest precise solution for some problem that you couldn't figure out , that doesn't mean you don’t know it, but simply that person may have looked at the problem from an angle you may have never stood to look at the issue.

thanks for reading the note and please ca listen more to what users say to step up chief to "Edge versions" from the old "x- versions"