jhoneypsu Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 So, I'm new to Chief Architect. Been using Revit for years. While it seems that Chief makes many things easier when designing residential structures, I am finding one thing a little troubling. Maybe its just because I haven't figured the software out yet, but it appears that there is no way to get exact wall placement when an interior wall is first placed. All videos I have watched show a wall getting placed in close proximity and then adjusted after placement by overwriting temporary or permanent dimensions. This seems like a lot of extra work to get a wall placed. Revit has temporary dimensions that track from an existing wall and assist in the placement of new walls. Does Chief not have this feature? This seems like a basic feature that every design software should have. Am I missing something here? Seems like a lot of extra work. Thank you in advance to anyone who can assist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kMoquin Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 As you begin to draw the wall press the tab key after the first click. You will be presented with a dialog box where you can enter exact dimensions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhoneypsu Posted February 18, 2015 Author Share Posted February 18, 2015 Thanks for your response. I tried that but it does not seem to do what I am needing. Let's say I have an exterior wall that I want to use as a reference point and I want to place an interior wall 12' to the interior side of that exterior wall. There is no way that I can see to track down from that inside wall edge and place the new wall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rlackore Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 Chief can't do what you want. You have to place the wall, then adjust. Chief does feature tracking, but doesn't allow dynamic input of distance or angle during tracking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhoneypsu Posted February 18, 2015 Author Share Posted February 18, 2015 Chief can't do what you want. You have to place the wall, then adjust. Chief does feature tracking, but doesn't allow dynamic input of distance or angle during tracking. Wow, that's disappointing. I just assumed this was a basic feature of any design software. Time is money and that seems to be a lot of time adjusting walls that might have been able to have been placed accurately the first time. Wish I would have known that before I purchased the software or I never would have bought it. My fault for not checking I guess. Thanks for your assistance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AriseDesign Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 Those of us who come from Autodesk products sometimes feel disappointment with Chief's way of doing things so we either get upset or learn to work with it - What I have learn is to use the "Copy this object" tool > then you can move it to the desired location Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dennis_Gavin Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 J - the reason you switched was because you did not want the same thing as you had. Well this program has a different approach and requires getting used to thinking a little differently. The hardest part is learning to adjust how you approach things. That is the hardest part for those coming from an AutoCAD or similar background. Hang in there. You will get better at it and come around to appreciating it. THe software is not perfect but none is. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe_Carrick Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 In reality, the time it takes to draw walls in the approximate location and then adjust their position using the temp dimensions is faster. You just have to get used to the procedure. It takes a little bit of practice but you will get faster. Then when you look at all the other things Chief does and how you can build up your standards, you'll be amazed at just how quick you can complete a project. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug_Park Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 There are some things that you can do to get things to draw in a precise location. 1) Set up your grid so that things snap where you want. This won't always work. 2) Drop temporary points at the location you want and snap to them. You can type-in the precise location when you create them. 3) You can also type-in lines as well. But, as Joe has pointed out Chief makes it so easy to change things after the fact that is allows for a creative process of quckly sketching a shape and then fix it up to align to dimensions that make sense. However, I agree with you. I tend to have a more precise picture in my head of what I want before I start drawing so I want to get it right from the start. I also don't want to force that precision on those that don't want it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AriseDesign Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 Doug one of the issues I would like Chief to address is pasting in copied objects - You should get a "preview" of the object you are inserting, just like when one puts in a door or window or library object etc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhoneypsu Posted February 18, 2015 Author Share Posted February 18, 2015 Thanks everyone for your input. I guess it will just take some getting used to. Hopefully all of the features that make it easier than Revit will offset this one inconvenience. I will say that in general I am impressed with the short learning curve. And it seemed that with Revit everything was a workaround to get it to do something that Revit was never really intended to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AriseDesign Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 Chief has its load of work arounds also! but I have learned to make it fun, enjoy the challenge and just make it work! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwideziner Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 I am interested to know what the main bug bears were with Revit as a heap of people rave about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joey_martin Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 Having a good template plan with all of your preferences and defaults pre-set will save you loads of time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DianneDSC Posted February 19, 2015 Share Posted February 19, 2015 When I started using Chief I missed the "wall offset copy" command of Autocad Architecture. In Chief when I want a wall a certain distance from another, like for a closet or hall, I do the following: select the wall parallel to the one you want to add, select copy object and start to drag the wall in the direction where you want the new wall. Hit "tab" and type in the distance needed. I recommend sticking with Chief and learn the new methods. Totally worth it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MickeyToo Posted February 19, 2015 Share Posted February 19, 2015 DianneDSC, I have tried this feature, but found it is not reliably accurate. In a conversation with someone from TS a while back (on another matter), this was confirmed. Are you getting consistently accurate results? I just tried it in X7 and no soap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dshall Posted February 19, 2015 Share Posted February 19, 2015 DianneDSC, I have tried this feature, but found it is not reliably accurate. In a conversation with someone from TS a while back (on another matter), this was confirmed. Are you getting consistently accurate results? I just tried it in X7 and no soap. You must be doing something wrong. I use this countless times each day and never, I said never have problems with it. Try talking to tech again.... something is amiss. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe_Carrick Posted February 19, 2015 Share Posted February 19, 2015 I use Transform/Replicate to copy walls at a specified distance. This is 100% accurate and a lot less hassle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DianneDSC Posted February 19, 2015 Share Posted February 19, 2015 DianneDSC, I have tried this feature, but found it is not reliably accurate. In a conversation with someone from TS a while back (on another matter), this was confirmed. Are you getting consistently accurate results? I just tried it in X7 and no soap. I have some issues when the angle listed will not be exactly right but usually it is. If not I just type in the angle I want the copy to go when typing in the distance. This is the only inconsistency I have found, and not sure if it's my user error or something else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DianneDSC Posted February 19, 2015 Share Posted February 19, 2015 I use Transform/Replicate to copy walls at a specified distance. This is 100% accurate and a lot less hassle. I just figured out how to copy using this!! In the dialog box you must select copy, add the number of copies you want. AND select move and enter the distance and angle. No dragging needed.Thanks Joe for another option. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArthurDent Posted February 19, 2015 Share Posted February 19, 2015 Please, for the love of everything that is good, don't force me to have to type in every dimension up front. Just because some other cad programs work that way doesn't make it the right way or even a good way. Most of the time, when I am designing, I don't need to draw anything accurately. I only care about the overall design and layout. I just draw free form and worry about the specific sizes and locations after the fact. This is why the Chief way works best for me. If I spent most of my time drawing as-builts, then I could see more of an advantage of getting things located exactly up front. I still don't think it's very hard to just draw the wall and then just click on the dimensions to locate them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rlackore Posted February 19, 2015 Share Posted February 19, 2015 Please, for the love of everything that is good, don't force me to have to type in every dimension up front. Just because some other cad programs work that way doesn't make it the right way or even a good way. You wouldn't be forced - object snapping/tracking can be turned on or off easily - you know this. There's nothing wrong with adding additional functionality to object tracking when it doesn't affect how you already work, and enhances how others may prefer to work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MickeyToo Posted February 21, 2015 Share Posted February 21, 2015 You must be doing something wrong. I use this countless times each day and never, I said never have problems with it. Try talking to tech again.... something is amiss. Scott, I check with TS and it was, in my case at least, user error. Seems you don't have to wait for the copy cursor to change into a four-sided arrow to make the copy (which is what I was apparently doing at times). But if you don't wait, you will very likely get an error, even if you enter 0 in the direction you are not moving in. I never used this tool before, but if you use as much as you say, I am going to give it a try. Thanks and thank you too, Dianne. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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