X18 Features, My Favorites - New Thread

[Joe_Carrick]

This thread is a replacement for the previous one which was hijacked by some users who just wanted to complain about what didn't get into the X18 public beta.

 

If you have a feature in X18 you especially like please feal free to mention it.  If you aren't sure how to use one of the new capabilities please ask.

 

X18 has some great new features.  Here are my favorites:

• Project Information. 
  • Project
  • Designer
  • Client
  • Custom - additional consultants, etc
    • 
• 3D Profiles
  • User defined to add to Walls, Roofs, etc
  • 2D Moldings - Board & Batt, Standing Seam Roofing, etc
    • 
    • Lots of options using 2D Molding Profiles 
  • 3D Moldings - Mission Tile Roofing, Shingles, Shakes, etc
    • 
    • Note that profiles should be as simple as possible to avoid redraw slowdown and file bloat.
    • Don't attempt to create either 2D or 3D profiles with extreme accuracy.  Fewer surfaces will provide better performance while still enhancing the 3D rendering.
• Room Labels with controls for what is displayed for various view types
• Wall Intersection editing & Wall Layer Fills
• Corner Board "Recessed to Sheathing Layer" option
• Replace Identical Objects in Plan (from Library)
• Numerous Framing and Truss improvements
• Schedules (Include from Floors options - much more flexibility)

Obviously, a couple of the user's who were guilty of hi-jacking didn't like that I had wiped out the garbage and gave down-votes.  So childish !!!

Edited yesterday at 07:38 PM by Joe_Carrick

[Renerabbitt]

Voice-to-text ai formatted unchecked(There may be errors)
For me, the best new features in Chief Architect X18 are:

1. Speed. Speed for everything.

This is probably my favorite improvement overall. Project Management feels significantly faster across the board. Creating new projects, deleting projects, deleting individual files, and even booting up Chief Architect in Project Management mode all feel much quicker.

I can’t fully confirm this yet, but plan draw speed also seems faster to me. On the whole, X18 just feels faster and more stable.

Rendered views also seem more stable in DLSS mode. For any kind of ray-traced/rendered view, DLSS now feels faster and more usable than it has in the past. In some cases, the ray trace with DLSS enabled feels faster and more stable than a standard rendering technique, which is a pretty big deal for day-to-day workflow.

On top of that, I’ve been doing a bunch of system testing and have found that if you want the greatest amount of speed in Chief Architect, a RAID configuration for your hard drives may actually be a worthwhile expense. Chief appears to rely on thousands of individual file reads/writes rather than just large sequential writes, so a RAID setup can make a noticeable difference for the fastest possible system configuration Since it is always indexing or cachine many different img files for your materials

2. Layer-based fill styles.

This one is huge. The options are basically endless when you can control fills on an object-by-object or layer-by-layer basis.

My favorite implementation so far is a working framing view where different framing member types are clearly distinguished by their fill styles. That alone makes framing views much easier to read.

I’ve also set up a bunch of custom layers for wall type display control, including separate control for air gaps, framing layers, exterior layers, and interior layers. This allows me to drive an entire wall display system across saved plan views, making wall assemblies much easier to read, customize, and manage.

3. More object types in Style Palettes and the library.

The additional object types that can now be included in Style Palettes, or saved to the library, are another big workflow improvement.

Things like distribution paths and cladding profiles being savable to the library open up a lot of potential for faster, more consistent workflows.

4. Room labels.

Room labels are definitely one of my favorite additions. I’m using a custom font to create rich-text-style room labels, and I’ve built a three-tier system that abbreviates room names and ceiling height labels based on the size of the room.

The result is that I almost never need to relocate a room label because it doesn’t fit inside the room or because it conflicts with dimensions, text, or other annotations. That is a huge quality-of-life improvement.

5. Project Information System.

I’m using the Project Information System to drive annotation preferences and automatic annotation systems.

For example, I can now automatically annotate wall elevations just by dropping in notes or text annotations that are driven from project information. I really like how this reduces user error and lowers the potential liability that comes from having the same information entered in multiple places.

Having one addressable location for project-based annotation data is a very strong addition.

6. Nudge Further in layout.

The new Nudge Further function is really useful in layout. I’ve actually inverted the way I use it. I set my snaps to 1" and my grid to 1/8", so I can Shift+nudge by 1/8", while still snapping or bumping layout boxes by 1" increments.

That setup has been really nice and saves a lot of time.

7. WebP image support.

This is a bigger deal than it might sound like. I was able to reduce my overall backups by about 5 GB just from WebP support.

For people with large libraries, like myself, that is a huge improvement. It saves storage, speeds up backups, and generally makes managing large assets easier.

8. Editing materials created with Material Builder.

Being able to edit materials created with the Material Builder is another great improvement, especially when working with additional SBAR files. This makes material workflows a lot more flexible and useful.

9. Managed Mode units.

Managed Mode units are something a lot of us have been asking for. I still want a few improvements to that tool, but I’m very happy to see this addition.

10. Retain auto framing by converting to manual framing.

Being able to retain auto framing by converting it to manual framed members is a really cool addition. I think this could make a big difference for pole barn construction and other workflows where you want Chief to generate the framing but still need manual control afterward.

11. Default room fill.

Setting up default room fills is also a great addition. I can see this being especially useful for real estate-style plans, stock plan listings, presentation plans, and other graphic plan workflows.

12. Library thumbnails.

I really appreciate that Chief is generating thumbnails for library items. Anything that makes browsing large libraries faster is a win.

13. Restricting schedules to specific floor levels.

This is a huge addition for anyone doing automatic area analysis or floor-specific schedules. Being able to restrict schedules to particular floor levels opens up much cleaner automatic reporting workflows.

Overall, X18 feels like a very strong release to me. Some of the changes are flashy, but a lot of my favorite improvements are the ones that remove friction from everyday work: speed, better display control, better annotation systems, better library workflows, and fewer opportunities for user error.

Edited Tuesday at 08:57 PM by Renerabbitt

[SHCanada2]

2 hours ago, Renerabbitt said:

For example, I can now automatically annotate wall elevations just by dropping in notes or text annotations that are driven from project information. I really like how this reduces user error and lowers the potential liability that comes from having the same information entered in multiple places.

you could do this before with text macros, I believe. I think the advantage now is there is a nice gui so the user experience is much nicer than going through the TMM dialog.. AFAIK, there is no functionality difference between text macros and project information wrt disseminating information in the plan. Although additionally one can import and export text macros.

 

my favorites are the show/no show labels, and the hold down the s key to skip dimension points while pulling dimensions

Edited Tuesday at 11:01 PM by SHCanada2

[tundra_dweller]

Layer based fills is by far the new feature I am using the most thus far, I haven't had a chance to dive too deep into anything else yet. Looking at Rene's list I'm looking forward to checking the rest out when I can.

 

Another thing I am super excited about is the As-Built app. Costco had a good sale on I-pad pros last week so I picked one up and tried the app at my house this morning. It was more accurate than I expected and even if I have to do a few check-dimensions it's still going to save me a ton of time over my old way of doing as-builts, which was mostly pen/laser & paper.

 

X18 is a really great release. Is there room for improvement? Always. But in a world where enshittification is now the normal trend for almost every product and service I've relied on over the years, I'm extremely happy that Chief is one of the few who are still listening to their users and don't seem to look at pure profit as the end-all/be-all to their business model.

[mtldesigns]

4 hours ago, Joe_Carrick said:

3D Moldings - Mission Tile Roofing, Shingles, Shakes, etc.

Wow, no more material regions for board and batten?  That will save a lot of time, since ~50% of the homes here get B&B.  The molding on shingles and other materials will be nice too.

 

4 hours ago, Joe_Carrick said:

• Room Labels with controls for what is displayed for various view types
• Wall Intersection editing & Wall Layer Fills

Very nice....

 

3 hours ago, Renerabbitt said:

Overall, X18 feels like a very strong release to me. Some of the changes are flashy, but a lot of my favorite improvements are the ones that remove friction from everyday work: speed, better display control, better annotation systems, better library workflows, and fewer opportunities for user error.

I don't participate in the beta testing, so I am eager to see all these new enhancements.   

[mthd97]

Oh yeah ! 3D cladding, another step in the right direction for CA to create more accurate and realistic renderings. I am hoping for automatic flashings to be provided in the future too. I am happy to use the manual method for now. I remember way back when we got auto ridge capping included. That was greatly appreciated.

[TCB_BdnMY]

16 hours ago, SHCanada2 said:

and the hold down the s key to skip dimension points while pulling dimensions

wait what... gotta try this out today. 

 

edit. this seems super handy after playing with it for a bit. neat little QOL improvement.

Edited yesterday at 02:41 PM by TCB_BdnMY

[glennw]

Just a heads up that the S key has been available for many years as a hot key to disable Object Snaps and Extension Anchors.

It looks like they have extended the functionality to dimensions.