Room Definition

[Dermot Dempsey]

The trial versions are usually updated at or near the same time the Premier version is updated. Sometimes there are delays because we have a number of products and we don't always update them at the same time because of all of the testing and verification that needs to happen before they are released.

Unfortunately, we don't post "patches" for the trial versions. This means that if you want to see if a problem has been fixed in the latest version that you will need to uninstall your current trial version and then download and install the newer version.

If you have an older version and you find a problem, you can always try it in the latest trial version to see if the problem has been fixed. If the problem has been fixed, then you can decide whether or not this helps when making decisions about upgrading. If the problem has not been fixed, then please feel free to report this to tech support along with all of the relevant information from your version (like plans and pictures). You can also include in your description of the problem the fact that you tried it in the latest version and it is still a problem. You can even let us know how important the problem is to you and whether or not it would affect your decision to upgrade or purchase in the future.

[Sledge]

Thanks again,

All points taken on board - Will have a look again at the latest Trial download.

[Dermot Dempsey]

"Somehow CA needs to review their database of 4000+ issues and concentrate on those that have been around for more than a few releases."

We have over 4000 separate feature requests in our internal database and this number is constantly growing. It would be impossible for us to implement all of these in only a few releases.

We review these requests every version to determine their priority for our development work. The age of the request is a relatively minor factor when trying to determine the priority. There are much more important considerations, such as how often it has been requested, how expensive it is to implement, how useful it is to the majority of our customers, how many new customers we might get if we were to implement it, and many others.

The oldest feature request currently open in our database is to modify the edit area tool so that it can "stretch" all objects. Currently, when you use this tool to move an area of your plan, we will stretch some objects but not all of them. For example, we can stretch things like walls, roofs, and polylines but we don't stretch things like cabinets, cad blocks or framing members. Stretching a cabinet does not seem very useful but being able to stretch framing probably would be.

Although this feature request was originally logged in 1998, it has only been officially requested 3 times. We have also had a couple of related requests to add a "stretch" tool that works similar to autocad's version. Over the years we have added stretching to some things that were not stretched when it was originally requested (like roof planes). I would argue that at this point this feature request is not nearly as important as many of the other 4000 items. It is still a valid request though and hopefully over time we will add more obejcts to the list of ones that can be stretched.

[lbuttery]

Dermot:

Understood

Lew

[adamjedgar]

you why cant they simply create a really complicated solution to this (as it is obviously hugely complicated for cheif programmers to fix this bloody pain in the arse of a problem).

give us a room definition tool!

btw, why not just use an adjustable thickness wall and set its width to minimum (like 1mm)

hey,
hang on a minute...i dont have the problem you mention. what the...!!!!


this problem must only happen in certain situations.

[dshall]

hey,
hang on a minute...i dont have the problem you mention. what the...!!!!

LOL, Adam is back!

[adamjedgar]

ahahahha, your the man scott!

for some reason, when i submitted my last post, in which the answer seemed plainly obvious to me (ie set wall thickness to minimum), i jumped over the rest of the muck in earlier posts...and missed the same solution given by another person (sorry about that).

In any case, im vindicated....the goats would appear to be the Chief developers in this case!

having said all that, i completely agree with Doug...if the bloody auto tools arent working, which we all know, most of the time they dont provide us with the exact result we are after... get more sleep and drink less alcohol (scott, you are allowed coffee, but not too much)...put the remaining undamaged grey matter in your head to work...and bloodwell do it manually!

[lbuttery]

put the remaining undamaged grey matter in your head to work...and bloodwell do it manually


Adam:

I agree 100%

but would like CA to study the workaround and try to fix the coding so that its not necessary

sometimes I think CA decides that since there is a workaround they can lower the priority of that issue

I think, that in most cases it should raise the priority

If Chief is capable of doing the task with the workaround then it should be capable of doing the task with the proper coding

Lew

[adamjedgar]

Lew, you are a person whom i respect greatly,
and all comedy aside...i do agree with you.
its time they (the chief developers) sorted this one out!

[attwater]

All, and especially Chief,

Is anyone keeping a list of problems with workarounds posted on Chieftalk? (I have asked Chief to do this for SSA subscribers, and it seems appropriate for them to keep such a list, especially for those reported bugs that they do not intend to fix, and that do have workarounds.) (This raises another question: are the contributors who figure out the workarounds giving Chief an excuse to NOT fix their code?)

Could be a moneymaker for somebody, publishing a subscription based CA workaround list, culled from Chieftalk.

Mark Powell

[attwater]

No, I don't have the time to do it myself!

Mark Powell

[Allen Brown]

Why don't we collaborate? I'll start a 'workaround' thread, and we can all post some issues we have had problems with, and what the workaround is.

BTW, I have been on the Chief beta team for the last 3 versions, and I know for a fact that the Chief engineers do not use the known workarounds as an excuse not to fix something.