glennw

Michael, I am not sure what technique you are talking about in post #20 - it could be the same. Probably easier if I just post the plan and you can look at all the setting, although I am not sure of all the options you want or need. you can change the mullion depth by using the Mullion Depth...Inside setting. A setting of zero will bring the mullions out to the inside face of the wall. A setting of 3 will take them about half way. A setting of 5 will make them very small. Glenns mullions.plan

Graham, This effect is NOT being caused by the sun, shadows, etc. It is being caused by the Shading Contrast setting which is Chief's auto shading (not shadows) in vector views. I can do the same vector view as my vid with the shadows turned on - it makes no difference to what is happening. That is what I did in my vid. What you say is correct. BUT, the light used is Chief's auto Shading Contrast setting - not the sun or any other light source. I disagree. It has nothing to do with light sources. The only way you can 100% overcome this effect is to change all the materials Shading Contrast to zero. I have no problem displaying shadows in a vector view. I can display shadows, adjust them, but it makes no difference to the root cause of this effect.

Robert, Is this getting close to what you want to control. In this pic, the mullion depth is exaggerated, but I can easily make it them any depth you want. This is only using the window parameters.

Graham, What do you mean by "between the scenes"?

I am pretty certain that what I said in post #3 is correct and this has nothing to do with shadows. It has to do with the materials Shading Contrast setting. Adjusting the sunlight in a Technical view has nothing to do with the original problem. http://screencast.com/t/vAhNUs0Lh

Hannah, I have a bit of a different take on this than Dave. I believe that it is the Shading Contrast setting that is causing the problem - in the same dbx and panel as Dave was on. This will cause different "auto shading" depending on the direction the material faces. Set the Shading Contrast to zero and you will see your white tiles with the grey grout, as they were defined. In elevation, notice the shading on the green (and white) round pendant lamp - it is darker in the middle and lighter on the left and right sides. If you use the Adjust Material Definition tool and click on the green section and open the dbx for Twill Fog, set the shading contrast to zero, you will see the effect - there is no shading applied and the color becomes uniform. Ditto for the white material. This is an automatic function that Chief uses in Vector views to distinguish faces that face different directions and have the same material. I have sent in a request to have an option to turn this "feature" off because when it is applied to colored vector view elevations, each elevation will have this auto shading applied with the result that some elevations will be lighter/darker than others. There is no other way that I know of to turn this auto shading feature off, other than to do it on a material by material basis. In your plan, it is particularly noticeable on the surfaces that face left and right. I note that you say the ones facing north and south are perfect - but I don't believe they are perfect - they are just not as bad as ones facing the other directions. Open any of those elevations and change all the materials Shading Contrast to zero and you will be surprised at the results.

They look like Point To Point dimensions to me. If so, they are Markers and are controlled by the Marker Defaults - nothing to do with the dimensions.

Or you could use Chief's Backdrop option.

Yes, turn of the layers. It looks to me like the whole thing (room and furniture) is a ray traced computer model (Chief?) with a background picture looking out the windows.

You could build a basic 3D model (including furniture) in Chief. Turn off everything except the furniture and do a 3D view that matches your room picture. Create an image from the 3D view and import it into the room picture in Photoshop

Or use the invisible line style.

Greg, That all looks normal to me. I don't believe the glasshouse view has anything to do with what you are seeing - it is the same in any 3D view type. When you build the second floor, it gets built, but the roof is stopping the walls from building up - the roofs cut the walls. If it were me, right from the start, I would turn on Auto Rebuild Roofs. Then when you build the second floor, the roofs will build correctly on top of the second floor and the ones on the level 1 will be deleted. Or, alternatively, delete the existing roofs and rebuild them after building the second floor. Or, do what you did - that way works because when you moved the roofs up, they went to the Attic level and then you built the second floor under the Attic level. Although I would normally display the roof on the floor level directly under the roofs. In this case, I would show the roof on level 2 - not on the Attic level. Good to see things are working correctly.

Lew, Can't we do that now in one Chief instance by creating a view in a new window or on another monitor?

This is how we do it in Oz (there are other countries besides the god old USA)! And please...no jokes about "upside down", etc..... http://www.build.com.au/door-handing-and-swing-direction

You can do this in layout for dimensions, but not for text. Open the Layout Box Specification dbx...General panel...Dimensions...Number Height. I think it only works for plan views though - no elevations or sections.

Larry, Build an auto dormer and then select "Eyebrow". About 5 or 6 mouse clicks I think. It should take about 4 seconds.

Johnny, In your first picture, the problem with the gable frieze is that the 2 small roofs on the ground floor are sitting out from the wall. Drag their right hand edges further to the right so that they but right up to the wall. The gable frieze above will rebuild correctly. Oh, your molding polyline at the rear of that bump out is sitting off the wall. What is meant to be at the front corner - what is the problem. Is there meant to be a corner board there. If so, you haven't drawn one. Michael got the second one. I'll keep looking and repost on the third pic if I find anything.

Preferences...General...Startup Options

Johnny, I am pretty sure that you cant snap to a dimension line. If you want to align 2 dimension lines accurately, you could use the Align/Distribute Objects tool. Say you have 2 (or more) horizontal dimension lines and you want to line them up with each other. Select both dimension lines. Select the Align/Distribute Objects tool from the Edit toolbar. If you want the lower dimension to line up with the upper dimension, check Top Edges, OK. The lower dimension line will relocate and snap to the upper dimension line. (Similar for the other options). Usually it's just easier to extend the existing dimension line, although using the above technique, you can align dimension lines with gaps between them - same as a Blank Segment which we can now do.

Rob, In Preferences, do you have Legacy Shadows checked? If so, try unchecking it.

Johnny, I don't think that's what the Op was asking...but You can sort of do that in Chief. Draw a simple room on floor 1. Build a new blank floor (floor 2) On floor 2, draw a new room off to the side and edit it's floor and ceiling heights so that they match the floor 1 room. Have a look in 3D. In the attached pic, the section on the left is on floor 1 and the section on the right is on floor 2.

Johnny, I'm not sure that is a bug. Looks to me like it is the Countertop Height setting. When you drag the copy off to the side, it is no longer relative the slab and looks like it drops down relative to the terrain. I believe the default setting is Set Height From Cabinet. If you uncheck Set Height From Cabinet, you can specify one of the other height settings. You will probably find that Absolute may be the best because then it makes difference if there is a floor, deck, terrain, etc, under the object. This setting relates to Chief's zero height - usually the first floor level. http://screencast.com/t/X1vpKHykW6h Arrgh! - lost the sound, but it becomes pretty obvious.

Alan, On Level 4, open the dbx (Structure panel) for the external walls where the problem is (the one above the sunshades) and check "Default Wall Top Height". Easy to do in a 3D view.

A lot of your second floor walls are Attic Walls, with No Room Definition. Group select all the upper floor walls and uncheck Attic Wall and No Room Definition for those walls. That should be a start and fix most of your problems. Do the above and then post if there are still more problems.

Bob, It seems like only yesterday that we were working on that house. Well done.