Renerabbitt

I imagine that the main purpose for this is that many people wont take the time to properly light an entire model when they are scoping one room. Automatic exposure can certain effect an underexposed scene but it wont allow you to blow out the scene. This is similar to actually shooting in real life on a DSLR in auto-exposure and metering. I understand that you prefer the manual exposure It certainly represent something, haha, I imagine that is is scalar to radiance per pixel on the HDRI and that number is a mean of the provided HDRI's in the catalog to show proper luminance in a scene. I do not believe that there is any internal build of chief that does photometric analysis, or at least none that I have heard of. If you don't mind I am going to answer these questions to Ryan. Sometimes its hard to bring him back as many of the devs dont look here that often or so they say. I agree this is confusing, but it is just to distinguish area lights from punctual lights by classification. It's just to say that punctual lights work in all views and area lights do not, which leads into the help menus. Especially important for those bringing in their own fixtures and not setting their punctual lights z offset for instance and wondering why their PBR looks great but there standard view has weird shadows. but then we would not be able to set lumens or color values which the area light can derive its settings from only when "Use Area Lights" is checked, which I agree is confusing Yes it will, but the light will not be on and will not be emitting any light nor will it appear to be on or creating bloom in the Light Set called Default Light Set. This would only affect any camera that is using the Default Light Set

They are not being used in conjunction in GPU raytrace views. It's one or the other. The Area Light can inherit the lumen value from your punctual lights and it does seem that the value is in lumens vs "brightness" from the material itself In terms of lumen output, manual exposure I believe is just taking an average of your scene's pixel values and then adjusting from there. In other words, I don't believe that this is a static approach in any given view, it depends on the pixel illumination of the shot when considering ambient light etc. So your lumen output in terms of exposure doesn't really mean anything at all. Lumen values on backdrop A at intensity of 12000 is going to look different than backdrop B at 12000. his would be a question for Ryan or Dan most likely. Maybe Trent knows as well.

why don't you use automatic exposure? in terms of it not looking correct, it shouldn't look correct, you would have to fake the geometry that would create your ies profile. We do not have any Ies profile compatibility so the actual geometry of the light would need to be produced in a way to fake the effect of proper beam spread, hot spotting, falloff etc. That's a tall order. Would switch to another software like thea if you are looking for that level of accuracy. Area lights are just taking the surface normal direction and if I were to guess, it probably takes the average surface normal direction as an equation to trace the path of light. Since usually we just have a mesh that is a flat plan such as a can light, the surface normal is straight down, so its not creating a cone at all. There is a lot more to this conversation but the short of it is that I would plan on editing in post or messing with manual exposure if you want more finite control

Assuming you have automatic exposure, your "metering" is being changed, so either change the automatic exposure setting or switch to manual. With automatic, as you turn lumens up, it will be adapting to the overall light in your shot.

Thanks @robdyck for mentioning me. Chuck you likely don't need anyone. Just use Simpson Deck Planner(Dont put in your angles or cantilever so that the engineering is correct. deflection really shouldnt amount to anything on that cantilever but if your deck is above 8' it needed 6x6 posts: report.pdf

Backdrop Intensity is the only thing that effects your backdrop, though with automatic exposure, your sun settings effect(percieved) it as well

I think I understand what you are asking for..is this what you are talking about: 250414 (3).mp4 The Chief architect manual has a section on Ruby Scripting and there is a tutorial in the software as well that I suggest you work through. You can also use some sort of Ai to help you with scripting. I did write a Chief Specific Ai bot into my website at https://www.rabbittdesign.net/macros that you can try out, but like with any Ai it can be a fight to get what you want, this example worked out. For custom macros there are a number of users here that can write stuff for you including myself, Michael B Alaskan Son, Joe Carrick, BrownTiger, Solver, and more

took me a second as well. I think he is trying to use the section arrow as a pointed arrow to the posts...which I would respond that this is very confusing as I am with Michael and assume that this is showing me a section cut where the arrow's line is instead of a pointer. Plan checker could kick this back as well, this is not standard.

250414 (2).mp4

You can get to this automatically which I think is closer to what you are looking for? Some clean up with the subfloor needed

Having built assets myself, I understand the challenges of a development cycle—especially when users expect to be wowed by new features, but there's no guarantee of sales. You’re often left guessing how much you can justify spending on development hours. That’s why I really believe people need to try running this kind of business themselves to fully grasp why the subscription model isn’t just ethical—it’s essential. It allows a brand to sustain itself, especially during economic downturns, while still focusing on improving the core product. At the end of the day, they’re just trying to figure out how much value they can consistently deliver to keep customers happy and the business viable. I struggle every year hoping that my sales can sustain the amount of hours I put into development. It's tough to make everyone happy and still maintain a business

This groups things be commanality in column designations. I would add some data to a field that reports to schedule to help you group things by sorting by that dilineating row

For anyone finding this: When setting up a new Windows 11 installation, users are prompted to back up files to OneDrive by default. This automatically redirects system folders like Documents to OneDrive, which causes problems with applications like Chief Architect that work with live data files. OneDrive Sync Behavior with Locked Files: When Chief Architect opens a file (e.g., user_library.calib), Windows enforces an exclusive write lock on the file. This prevents other processes (including OneDrive) from modifying it while in use. OneDrive's sync process: - Detects changes via USN Journal or file system watcher - Attempts Delta Sync (uploading only modified blocks) - When encountering a locked file: - Uses opportunistic locking (oplock) to check availability - If still locked after 5-10 minutes, creates conflict copy OneDrive's problematic solution: 1. Creates temporary shadow copy (via VSS if enabled) 2. Fails to commit changes due to lock 3. Generates conflict copy with numeric suffix (user_library_1.calib) Why this breaks Chief Architect: - Only looks for exact filenames (user_library.calib) - Cannot use numbered copies (user_library_1.calib) - Binary files can't merge conflicts like text files Dropbox handles this better by: - Longer retry periods (up to 30 mins) - Better VSS integration - LAN sync prioritization Recommended solution: 1. Remove OneDrive interference: %windir%\System32\OneDriveSetup.exe /uninstall 2. Store live files locally: C:\CA_Local\user_library.calib 3. Manual backups to Dropbox: robocopy "C:\CA_Local" "D:\Dropbox\CA_Backups" /MIR /Z /W:5 /R:1 Folder Structure: Dropbox cloud storage: Dropbox ├── Assets │ ├── Automation │ ├── Catalogs │ ├── Cover Art │ ├── Downloads (with ScreenClippings) │ ├── Hotkeys │ ├── Images │ ├── Materials │ ├── Models │ ├── My Documents │ ├── My Pictures │ ├── My Videos │ └── Work and Website └── Projects Local-only folders: C: ├── Chief Architect Libraries │ ├── user_library.calib │ └── other files └── Users └── [YourProfile] ├── Documents └── Downloads Additional setup: - Redirected ScreenClippings via registry edit - Pinned key folders to Quick Access - Scheduled backups when files are closed

Macros don't make programmatic changes. Have you just tried sending your master note schedules title and row headings to layout then cropping to the section of the schedule that is applicable for that elevation. This would be a lot faster than building out new note types and schedules per view. Alternatively I belive when you convert text to notes it gives you the option to set a new note type and then those notes should prompt you to generate a schedule with an exclamation mark.. This would be a fast way of doing it per view. I would argue that building out a system for this and having it in your template with pre-saved views would be a lot faster

This one was fun to make. A realistic looking pool with cove moldings and caps with expansion joints and realistic textures built from rooms and customized wall assemblies

Do it with a room. Set the room ceiling height and floor accordingly so that is sunken, add a cove molding for the base of the pool, add a pool deck molding and feature molding. Use the ceiling surface as your pool water. Save it as a default room type or style palette

you're showing us the room dialog for some other room, as clearly there is no ceiling in the room you are showing in the backtground since it is vaulted and your dbx says flat ceiling

I did make a video for this but people dont like when I post my paywalled content here. You can open the cabinet I supplied in the previous post and check out the settings on the foot and match them. you can even add the foot to library from the cabinet so you can see how its made

surprised tech support wouldnt catch this, you have the material class of your window set to translucent not transparent

cabinet with custom toe kick: Base Cabinet With Custom Toe Kick.calibz The profile will be on the back face but usually doesn't matter

You can do this with a custom toe kick which you can model with solids pretty easily

more ai for ya: The original shot was so blurry I couldnt even tell what was going on with the staircase so its no surprise it was screwing that up and a few other things. I find it easier to patch with Ai if the source resolution is high. Then also I just know what to look for before I start using Ai. This all takes photoshop skills though. tagging you dnd just cuz it was your pic

That was what my slapping the wrist comment was meant for though his rendering does match his photo, haha. Both of which a pro photographer would give him hell for . the cartoonish comment did not come from me. I also did quite a bit of masking and replacement and filters after the Ai for things it messes up...and it always messes something up. Ai especially gets confused with tight parallel lines and a few other things that you start to recognize and prep for ahead of time. For instance, Ai washed out the inset taper on the window in the above rendering