Renerabbitt

You should check "replace existing defaults/overwrite existing defaults" Since you are establishing a SAM .plan no sense in keeping the existing defaults as these are .plan specific only, as opposed to global program parameters/preferences/defaults. I'm going to be doing some house cleaning myself soon. I'm actually getting requests from people looking to purchase my anno sets and as such have noticed some problems in my old methods. What I'll tell you is this, down the line you may want to keep as much of the OOTB naming conventions as possible to be able to coordinate with a greater number of end-users. My existing Annos all use custom names that are a standard of practice in my jurisdiction, but pose problems when working with a global market. My two cents Good luck!

Just going to add my two cents- For this SPECIFIC scenario I personally would do as follows to ensure everything is aligned. Draw a CAD line(or point) to the corner of your structure on your reference floor Copy that line and paste-hold-position onto your 2nd floor Select all on 2nd floor(optional but not necessary-shift deselect the CAD line) Point to point move to the CAD line. That whole operation takes less than 30 seconds..When I train I always remind people the power of a making temporary, simple CAD lines...it can be used as a bump stop, reflect about line, and reference markers plus much much more.

Sent you an email, Thanks for any consideration, Rene

Are you familiar/experienced with any photo editing softwares? If you are looking to produce a still image then it is a quick process to export an image as .png with transparent background checked and drop in a backdrop behind your main layer. Spherical backdrops in CA are severely limited by conpression,...a good spherical backdrop would be 7k and CA simply won't allow it. That's why most of CAs built in backdrops are pixelated

This was 3rd party software, but you could do this with an orth-view in CA

I'd be happy to fix that beds texture mapping if you want. Just send it my way

Welcome to the boards..maybe start here: https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/videos/watch/2300/creating-angled-windows.html?playlist=200 solver's second post is certainly a good clue, and filling out signature with your computer/mac system specs and Chief Architect version helps us give more accurate device..Cheers!

I definitely have a purpose built and expensive machine, chief simply doesn't have the capabilities and would need a huge overhaul to produce such images. I still think we're a long way off from needing that in the residential Industry...very few adopters per capita. I only get a render job once a month or so.

How do you convey a sense of space to a client, what method do you use to say give a client the feeling of "flow" in their home, the traffic areas, the pinch points etc.? I do love that method for cabinet layout as shown, very clear and to the point...I have clients that simply cannot connect elevation and plan views to a sense of overall movement within the design...they need perspective imagery and to see the way the light interacts with a room. I did a rendered cabinet elevation once..kinda fun/funny:

I believe the room planner app has that capability if he uploads the .plan file and enables viewing/invites you. Might create another thread in that section of this forum.

Ahh, understood, You should introduce him to these forums, we are all friendly folk. I would suggest he learn a PBR rendering technique and adjust his active camera's default field of view settings. Then perform an image export to .png when possible. We can give him more specific help where needed if he address's any confusion here on the forums. Might prove to be a new and valued resource for him...we've got some serious experts on these boards.

In that case he should change his active camera's field of view

I would say a still rendering can get you accurate two-point perspective, or a recorded walkthrough video

First off, hey neighbor! I'm very pleased with my overall speed to render and presentation abilities with the various tools available right now! The nVidia Denoising and RTX is incredible no doubt, but with a bag full of tricks you can produce razor sharp images in a short while. Take a look: 2019-11-20 11-58-53.mp4

You're not wrong, many people interchange pony wall, knee wall, cripple wall...I align with you on this one, but definitely understood his meaning.

I would second Jim's suggestion and add that changing from a point light to a spot would give you additional control with cut off angle and drop off rate

"field of view" is the closest thing we have to focal length which resides in your active camera defaults. maybe play around with this. Additionally I offer rendering services where you can adjust focal length within a range directly in an active(vs passive) VR presentation: https://kuula.co/post/7vl1J/collection/7lYBx the nature of VR has some inherent fish-bowling because it is an image wrapped around a sphere. try zooming in on the linked VR

Most of the time, as seems to be the norm in Michael's neck of the woods, I personally design around prescriptive code requirements for architectural features...I won't put in a window that will cause me problems with wall bracing as I do not want hold downs in my building if I can help it.(I'm in earthquake territory). I calc my own bracing, spec my own envelope from foundation to ridge. My own nailing, strapping at reentrant corners, etc....its all right there for the learning in your building code book. If I need an engineer it usually means my county building engineer has a problem with my understanding and application of the prescriptive building code...which is totally fine. Else if I have an east facing wall I want to be all windows I'm most $efinately going to be at the mercy of an engineer. Rob's local counties/municipalities seem to be far more stringent from conversations I've had with him. Seems like it varies a lot . Damn Canadians

ah great point...also thinking about it, openings probably won't behave either. Thanks!

I've got a set of PDF's I'll be converting for a house that has 8 different elevations of stone/brick veneer. I was going to go the CA pony wall route, but thought twice and now I'm thinking maybe for this project a wall material region would be much faster. Haven't given it much thought but are their any known cons to going the material region route? I will not be needing the foundation to be accurate as I know the frustration of trying to wrangle the stem walls into submission will drive me to a cad detail/p-solid method.

Offering budget virtual walkthrough's for your high end clients. Take a look: https://www.behance.net/gallery/88211809/BUDGET-WALKTHROUGH-EXAMPLE

I laughed at this, I only used that plan as an example because it was scanned horribly, I'm not a big fan either..actually not a fan of any of chief arrows but we can't make our own that I know of. I definitely get your point, I've certainly heard the argument before, I use my personality, site meetings, hand drawn sketches, mood boards to, design albums to bring the personal touch to my client coupled with whatever fun I can bring in between...then my work product when it hits their desk is a resounding reminder of my core skill-sets...I feel a sans-serif font best represent the feeling I mean to evoke...definitely depends on your client base right? I'm working on a project that will likely take me years as it is for my own home...I plan on making it a graphically masterpiece...I want it to read like a graphic novel...I may end up hand lettering it myself.

So here's my issue, that 3D CAD is still just vectors, it carries no information..its dumb, like a sculpture. I still have to go trace over it. Yes its amazing, yes I'm super impressed and it's got everyone pitching..but, Instead of looking at the scribble on my page that says 3068 I have to pull a 3d view and dimension tool to scale a 3' door opening, c'mon...that's not fast, I don't care who is telling me it is. Until the software can be node based so I drop a designation into geometry and have it generate an assembly...how the heck is it going to help me for a 2000 sq ft home that I'm adding 499 sq. ft to?(California anyone?) Next part that they are forgetting to mention..the interstitial setup, calling a scanning contractor/renting the device, scheduling the contractor, coordinating with the client, having the scan processed on their servers, uploading to my software, interpreting the building...not to mention that their is time wasted when you have access to too much information...I'd venture a guess that 10's of 1000's of hours were wasted by drafters trying to figure out how to create prettier renders this last year with all the new PBR tools...myself included. I can walk out of my office at 9 am to go measure/draft and have an as-built by mid afternoon. 4 walls is 4 mouse clicks, I'm drawing square rooms..even if the walls were out of plumb I wouldn't care unless it was a wall I was touching. County doesn't require you to have a 100% accurate home to illustrate an addition in the backyard....Can't remember the last time I saw an accurate as-built plan on record. It's just not necessary, in fact, I could probably get most of my plan-sets through on a blank piece of paper, honestly, I draft sometimes out of routine when I really could just walk into the counter and tell them I want to put some dropoff counters in this church I'm working with.

I just realized your local to me and that might've been a legitimate question, haha. That one was a throwaway but would typically incorporate it in as built drawings if required. Saved the client a ton as the structure confirmed my instinct. Simple point load from a California roof could be hung from a new beam with a short span to make a great room..also discovered a drop ceiling that was dropped for no reason. No way a scanner is picking up details like that. A scanner also can't point out possible dryrot or a door that's binding or a leaky faucet etc. So many reasons to get someone you trust with eyes on site measurements.

Depends on what I did to deserve to be up there.