I love working this way because it allows me to visualize rooms in full dimension, and clients love it too. We can walk through a space, make color adjustments, and get approvals faster. I sync my files locally with Google Drive so I always have everything backed up.
But, as with most things, there’s a downside. These models can have tons of vector data points, which take time to render and can really bog down your computer. My MacBook Pro, which I bought in January, struggled with this .plan file. Whenever I opened a 3D view, it would run out of memory within minutes, causing the dreaded color wheel of death and eventually crashing my entire laptop. It felt like I was back in a college computer lab in 1998. I was so stressed. One night, while updating final paint colors, the program not only crashed but wiped the file I had been working on. I had just saved, but when I reopened the file, it was reduced to “Zero bytes” with no backup.
Despite Chief Architect’s powerful new rendering capabilities, adjusting settings did nothing to solve the issue. I could barely work on the file.
In desperation, I almost bought a new desktop machine, but first, I made a last-ditch call to a friend who runs a creative business and handles large video files. He asked about my workflow and immediately said, “It’s Google Drive.” I explained that I work locally and sync later, but he explained that Drive was still the problem because of the way it buffers and compresses data. It just can’t handle large, complex files like these. He suggested I test it by moving my large Chief Architect file to an external drive, and sure enough, the file performed perfectly. I called him back to say his favorite words: “You were right.”
He helped me set up a new, more stable workflow. So, in case this might help you in a similar situation, here’s what I’m doing now:
New Gear:
Workflow:
- All active Chief Architect projects are now stored on a RAID external hard drive in my home office. The RAID setup mirrors the data on two 6TB drives, so if one drive fails, I have a backup. If a drive goes bad, it can be swapped it out.
- When I’m working away from home, I transfer necessary files to the SSD and work from that. My friend insisted on using a solid-state drive (SSD) for better stability.
- Once a project is complete, I will save a zipped backup file (in Chief Architect: File > Backup Entire Plan) to Google Drive for archiving.
So far, this system is running smoothly. I still get memory warnings occasionally if I have too much open while working on large Chief Architect files but so far its functional. I may need to upgrade to a laptop with more memory (I only bought 16GB, which was a mistake), but for now, things are stable, and I can work without fear of losing everything! ????
-Rebecca
