Renerabbitt

a good example of real world caustics, I was just curious if you had it turned on or off. I know that the windows add a pretty serious hit to raytrace times just like lights do, the less of either, the faster the times. maybe throwing the windows that arent in the scene onto an invisible layer may pay dividends. I'd actually be curious to see what would happen if you changed the ones in the scene to pass throughs..what would change for the lighting

Made this post specifically for Kbird1 and a PM discussion we were having. Post an image and myself or others will do our best to get you the corresponding Normals map..Here are a few to start:

try upping the line weight, like to 10

If exporting to sketchfab, the texture files can be easier to manage if you use placemarker textures...Always use the stock chief textures and then change the texture to your custom ones when in sketchfab..this will ensure your success on the import

agreed, Graham can a spot light be setup up for general exterior light but then a parallel light for rays coming into a room? Also do you have caustics turned on with your last trace?

very nice, giving cred

just shoot me a PM and I can do it for you..yes it's easy in photoshop for some, takes practice is all..have to make a black and white gradient map for the recessed features and blank out everything that is on an even plane, then create the Normals map

Okay here's a first pass render, 53 min to download the plan, export 3ds, setup lights, apply materials, make a couple normals maps and render at a low sampling rate. the graininess would go away if I upped it from a 13 min render to a 26 or even 39 minute ALSO, and this is a BIG ALSO...when I setup scenes like this for myself, I always set corner clipping on my cabinets to 1/16" and apply an eased edge to the countertop as well as leaving the waterfall edge a 1/32" up from the floor...there are no razor sharp edges in real life, there shouldn't be in your rendering either. Definitely makes a difference

nice, you'll have to post the plan, interested to see what you work out. scene is rendering in thea right now, 10 min left, in the meantime here's a Normals map for the tile backsplash I just made

The only thing I see this rendering needing is shadows around the waterfall edge and chairs, its as if they are floating off of the ground...maybe too many light sources or too strong ambient light? It's really getting close. are you using photon mapping or is this still on point with production renders? I remember the original topic was about speed, which for the speed this render is very well done. Downloading the plans now to play with, post back in a few

Ok so the Brick sill works with the curb wall, but I am having trouble applying this to an existing plan Here's the plan: https://1drv.ms/u/s!ArIPOe8v1Srkgvg6I0RPWFXPbtq63g This plan has been chopped up quite a bit and I am attempting to repair it, the plan was to excavate 36"'s to create an ADU on the bottom floor. Which is why the bottom floor is set at -36" from the as built set. In future I would probably just drop the elevation of the terrain from the subfloor height 36" and set the floor at 0 Everytime I try your method for creating the curb, the furniture and soffits and moldings all jump up or float. So if you feel like playing with it be my guest. The method I used when I first posted seems to be working, especially since there are certain walls that have a 36" retaining wall with drywall at the interior

When you go to print from layout it will show properly, chief does this to save computer resources...you can also update the view with the spinning wheel(Update view) in the bottom tool bar when you select the view

You're the MAN, going to play with this and post-back, Also, how do you get fill on the mono in a sectional elevation?

So how did you get the curb in as a mono, You drew in foundation walls and set the slab floor to -6?

After digging around and watching vids from D.Scott and Perry, I put together a plan to try and create this footing with curb: Problem is that chief doesn't seem to allow for this without some serious work-arounds as far as I know, happy to take suggestions. If you set the room to be a garage you can mimic the detail, problem being that Chief sees the garage floor height as the height of the curb, so all reference measurements are from the taller curb and not the slab. So I used a pony wall with concrete main layer and drywall interior which works well. Automatic framing will generate at the height of the pony wall. If you need a 3d visual representation then create a room molding polyline using a concrete texture and uncheck extrude inside...which give you this: With this method the elevation shows up correct as well, with the exception of the slab and curb not being monolithic: The only other issue I have ran into is that if you want to cut and step your stucco on the outside wall to match terrain, this drags the framing down to the level of the slab. You have to generate framing first and then uncheck auto generate before adjusting exterior finishes. Here is the plan for reference: Curb Example Plan.plan

Add me to the list please! rene@daoustdc.com 925 300 7004 Samples:

Add these two image files to Chiefs subway tile texture under the texture tab in bump and normals maps to get proper reflections and depth

Jenny Repaired final.plan split your outside dividing walls at the intersection of the split level clng. then ctrl+e to open the dividing walls and set to balloon through cl'g abv.

Yes thanks to everyone that has been contributing Mark, for me, the renderings are built into the product..95 percent of the work is complete in the design stage within CA, so the last 5 is worth the Media it produces for our online presence. I don't even do palette design in chief anymore, I put color blocks in chief because my catalog in Thea has grown to be quite large. Thea now has live update rendering as you are dragging and dropping materials..I don't even setup lights anymore, I just drag a light to CA's "white light" texture and the scene is set. I can setup a full house in just a few hours time, certainly worth the time for my company. Additionally Thea renders with the ability to relight the scene as well as recolor textures post rendering in COLIMO! which means I can let a client pick their own finishes and choose what time of day it is without me having to do another rendering. Not to mention it provides an alpha channel to drag and drop a picture of the clients backyard in behind the rendering so the views are true. In fact, I can take a photo with my DSLR and note the height and angles as well as the camera settings and completely copy those settings into my rendering, then set longitude and latitude of the property, the date of the year, and Thea will produce accurate sun settings for that shot. The client reaction is worth every penny spent in the production, they RAVE about the service. They get VR renderings, stills, day and night shots, and live walkthroughs with team viewer all for the production cost of a few hours spent in setup and a days worth of letting my slave computer process the shots. screen-sharing Walkthroughs are instant. Not to mention it always promotes a change in layout, a better product, and additional revenue..all from a happy client. My long winded two-cents. CA knows all of this, that's why they are heading that direction, and collaborating with the client really leaves nothing to chance in the build, and high resolution visuals do so much to iron the details out.

Def lookin good Mick I was playing around with some new textures I've been making...4 min rough render for giggles

When saving I often times create a new folder within the save dialogue by hitting windows shortcut ctrl+shift+n, this has worked on all previous versions of chief but not in x9 more often than not. It freezes CA and then I lose my work up to the point of the archived saves

with photon mapping on you should be able to turn down "ambient occlusion maximum" in raytrace settings instead of adjusting your light parameters

Graham as always, great input and posts, and nice work..hard work..kudos, gave you a thumbs up. Ambient Occlusion is a major player in raytraces, it provides a host of fixes to 3d objects and how they react to light sources while maintaining the integrity of the model. Even if a scene is blown out and overexposed, ambient occlusion can save the shadows. I've attached a clay render showing ambient occlusion at a low setting with no lights in the scene vs ambient occlusion's minimums turned up. You can see with ambient occlusion turned up you can produce a well-lit daylight scene without the need for point lights. The main benefit of point lights is to produce the metal effect in CA as the ray trace engine needs a direct light source to mimic the anisotropic effect of the metal Additionally, it's a good idea to set color to your lighting so you can see what it is doing as you adjust it. Graham, it looks like you have caustics and photon mapping turned off as well soft shadows turned off on all lights...I'd be curious to see what kind've speeds and realism you can work out with your methods with some of the better computational methods turned on.... You've proven the inverse works well. A note to everyone, you can go into the 3d/3d view defaults and turn up interior ambient which will automatically set interior ambient in raytrace if you plan on eliminating lights. Photon mapping and caustics need to find a light source, a good LARGE light source, but too many lights and the scene will be complicated. In a scene where you want to setup photon mapping and use as few lights as possible but still have the brushed metal its best to place a light opposite your camera angle...the same way you know a driver can see you if you can see his eyes in the sideview mirror. Also white lights set to color mapping at 255,255,255 are harder to compute using photon mapping, set lighting to 230,230,230. I think I remember a user named Jintu being pretty stellar with tricking CA.

I'm with Lew ! I use this PLS with detector but only for the purpose of the lot elevations...if I need absolute sea level elevations we hire someone

Lumion,Thea,Artlantis all have similar workflows, it took me a day to start producing rendering's in Thea, they have a very thorough manual and a few test scenes to reverse engineer the process and figure the program out. Just like any program it will take a while to learn all of the tips and tricks. Like Mr Scott Hall and Perry said, if your client needs some basic visuals chief will do the job, else contract someone to do it. Myself and a handful of others on these forums offer a variety of different render packages. ...Back on point to the topic heading, Thea is one of the only rendering company's that utilizes both the CPU and GFX card...even with liquid cooling I am constantly checking in on my system during a 6 hour render