Project Lagging in Commands

[JSC_SCC]

Are there some basic tips for preventing a project from bogging down and lagging? I have a file that is lagging even just panning or zooming, and it gets even worse when trying to use the move command or inserting blocks. The file itself is 92MB, which doesn't seem like a large file to me, but I am fairly new to Chief Architect. My PC is an Alienware with an i7-10700 3.8GHz processor, 32 GB RAM, and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 graphics card. I don't believe to be a hardware issue since I have also drawn fairly intensive plans with AutoCAD, SoftPlan, and 3d models in SketchUp on this same PC. Any tips would be appreciated. I would attach the project but the file is too large to post here. Thanks

[Joe_Carrick]

There are a few things to consider.

1. Do you have a lot of 3D Symbols with large face counts?
2. Do you have automatic rebuild, framing, etc ON?
3. Do you have any macros that may be repeating during pan/zoom?

I've also found a combination of settings for Section/Elevation views that can cause almost 100% CPU utilization. 

I need to submit a case to support with an example.

 

Otherwise, you can post a link to your plan (Dropbox, OneDrive, etc)

 

[JSC_SCC]

26 minutes ago, Joe_Carrick said:

There are a few things to consider.

1. Do you have a lot of 3D Symbols with large face counts?
2. Do you have automatic rebuild, framing, etc ON?
3. Do you have any macros that may be repeating during pan/zoom?

 Unfortunately there are a large number of 3D symbols on in the plan, but as it was drawn mostly by the lead designer I don't want to delete her work.

 

I did turn off the auto rebuild options and have not created framing yet, so those things I believe should not be contributing to the slowness.

 

I do not utilize any macros, I am just using X14 as is out of the box at this point in time. As I become more familiar with the software I will look into macros i'm sure.

 

Thanks for the insight and help guys!

[Michael_Gia]

15 hours ago, JSC_SCC said:

I am just using X14

That’s your problem. 
 

I have never had this kind of slowness in Chief before. 
 

There’s one more tip to add to Joe’s list. 
Make sure Chief and all your plan and layout files and anything else is on your local hard drive and not on cloud services. 
 

Also simplify your wall and floor structures. Less composites. 
 

Unfortunately even after all that, X14 is still maddeningly sluggish. 
 

Chief is just not the right tool for larger or more complex projects. 

[JSC_SCC]

50 minutes ago, Michael_Gia said:

 

There’s one more tip to add to Joe’s list. 
Make sure Chief and all your plan and layout files and anything else is on your local hard drive and not on cloud services. 

 

I did forget to utilize this advice; we had to do this all the time with SoftPlan projects too. I was afraid that our projects were just too large and detailed in the 3D model to be handled by any architecture software at this point. Our average home design fall around 10,000 - 12,000 sq. ft. across 1 or 2 floors typically. On top of that, we try to make the 3D model look as close to the finished product as possible, so we spend a lot of time designing small 3D details that probably aren't typically shown to clients in 3D. Most of the time we can take care of those with a 2D detail drawing, but we are really trying to push the limits of our 3D models. Thanks for the reminder about working off the local harddrive!

[DBCooper]

It's not the size of the model.  It's all of the details.

 

You can design a 50,000 sq ft McMansion that's basically an empty box and Chief will do just fine.  You can also design a 400 sq ft tiny home and bring the program to its knees.

 

If you are seeing the biggest problems in 3D views, then the biggest cause is usually surface count.  The more surfaces, the slower it gets.  Using lots of fixtures/furniture, especially ones you import from 3D warehouse, are often the leading cause.  Turning things off can often speed things up but not putting them in to begin with (or until later) can make you a lot more productive.

 

Chief also has a support article that has some good advice about dealing with slow plans here:

https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00521/troubleshooting-slowness-in-chief-architect-plans.html

 

[OldBarnDesign]

Based on my limited experience thus far, I definitely see a slow down when using Live View on elevations, especially if I have a bunch of interior wall elevations. Updating only on demand helps tremendously.