Griffin

If you can wait a few weeks for your next build, the new Intel CoffeeLake processors might be just what you are looking for. http://wccftech.com/intel-coffee-lake-desktop-6-core-4-core-cpu-leaked/

Nice. Draw a CAD line in plan along the wall. Convert it to a 3D Molding Polyline line. Open the object and add your molding from the library.

Hi Good, You will get more responses if you upload your plan including the state, county, city, etc. Best.

I would suggest a custom molding profile. This should help: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-01144/creating-a-custom-molding-profile-for-an-exterior-door-s-casing.html

I've been trying to understand what makes Chief faster as well. Under the Windows Task Manager I can see that all cores are involved in things like regenerating elevations, so more or faster cores will make a difference. Core memory speed also helped this system after I moved to M.2 memory. 3D rendering is all about OpenGL performance as best I can determine. Ray trace rendering is CPU based using all available cores. I did a simple test on one roof panel of your plan and it took about 2 to 2.5 seconds to move this plane up 10'. Don't know if this will help but here is my build. http://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/3591094 Good luck!

Thanks David, I have attached a detailed and scaled PDF site survey with the ZIP file in case you wanted to take a look. I tried several times to import the DWG contour data from the surveyor, but in the end it was unhelpful due to the unpredictability of the terrain modeler itself. My underlying frustration is that Chief appears to spend lots of time perfecting features that demo well at trade shows (like slide-out garbage bins in kitchens, I guess), but then leaves important (income producing) core capabilities to lag behind. I'm frustrated because in so many respects Chief is an excellent program, and in other areas it just falls short. I would happily pay a little more for CA every year if it meant that I wasted fewer weekends.

Glenn, thanks for your comments. I have not been successful (or skilled) with getting terrain to map to this outside patio area. I have posted the plan in case you want to try some of your suggestions. I have tried Elevation Regions, Raised and Lowered Areas, Terrain retaining walls, the dreaded Elevation Points, etc.. The longer I work on it the more untamed it becomes. New_Compressed_(zipped)_Folder.zip

Yes, Thank you all for the responses.

Yes, they do. That's because the terrain offset algorithms in Chief have shamefully NEVER BEEN DEBUGGED. Every topo demo that I've seen is just a cartoon. Perhaps there are some good examples out there, but how many hours (days) did it take to get that? I hope that Brian "if it compiles; ship it" Beck occasionally reads this stuff. Having wasted most of my Saturday, I'm currently redoing all the terrain in SU and importing it as a symbol. "So Sad"

That is the perfect description. It doesn't take an Einstein to to know that when you set a data point in one location, having the terrain change 100 yards away is NOT A FEATURE. Just imagine a world where you dig a hole in the back yard to plant a tree, only to discover that the driveway in the front of your house has changed elevation. Welcome to the spooky world of Chief Architect Terrain.

After spending more hours with terrain today I remain unable to find any method that produces consistent and expected results. Take a large flat parcel, add a few elevation points, areas or contours, and Chief starts making up all sorts of elevations as if it ware automatically trying to manage cut and fill for the entire terrain perimeter. Is there a setting I'm missing somewhere (like Turn Insanity Mode OFF) Does anyone here have a method that works?

That's what I thought too, but when I open the object specification dialogue for the group, all I get is Layer and Drawing Group (default 25- Openings), not the other window variables. UPDATE: OK, that eventually worked. All mulled windows need to be exploded first. Thanks Solver.

I should know this, but I'm drawing a blank on the best way to change all window casement trim by floor.

Thanks for the replies everyone. Adding more elevation data helps, but does not eliminate the underlying issue which I think is a bug using data points. I ended up contacting tech support and they provided the following response. "Thank you for contacting Technical Support. There are two factors contributing to this type of unexpected terrain generation: the terrain elevation data values are quite high and there are not enough elevation data points for the program to correctly interpolate a more expected flat terrain. The larger the terrain area, the more data points would be needed, and expected, for the terrain to generate correctly. In a generally flat terrain, this shouldn't normally be a problem of course, which brings us back to issue of the elevation data itself. The values are quite high, I understand they've been entered in at sea-level heights, this isn't normally a problem either, since all Chief Architect is doing is calculating the difference between two points and the distance between, and generating terrain accordingly, as such, two terrain data points at 10,510 and 10,500 are no different than points at 510 and 500, or 10 and 0. However, because of the distance between each point, and the height of the elevation, the program is unable to properly determine how to interpolate the terrain information correctly. The simple fix is: add more Elevation Data. I've attached two screenshots, one where I've placed a Footprint converted to a flat region, as well as a few additional data points - in this scenario, if there is one less data point, the terrain goes south again. In the other screenshot, an array of points have been added at 30'40' apart, and the terrain generates normally. While this is a relatively simple fix, I have sent these plans to our development team to look into the terrain code to see if this type of behavior can be avoided in these types of scenarios. Thank you for providing these plan files, I hope this helps you proceed with completing your plan. Taylor Chief Architect Technical Support"

Thanks for the reply. I'm not even getting that far. If you look at the file I uploaded in 3D you can see the problem (no floors yet). Chief is adding some elevation data somewhere that is producing a topo several hundred feet off. Is there an offset factor somewhere that can correct this?

Help! I'm trying to enter surveyor data for a site plan and having issues with the elevation data points. The lot is 850 feet above sea level. A sample file is attached with a square terrain region and then four elevation data points with a few feet of elevation change. I would need to add thousands of points or contours to get this to behave. Using terrain regions is not an option because I need contours that show the actual MSL data. Elevation Data BUG.plan

Thanks guys. I'll give both methods a try. I was, however hoping for something more elegant as a built-in feature I was missing!

Need some help on this: Is there a best approach for showing windows on a stair landing on both floor plans (without seeing two sets of windows in elevation)?

Try this: Unlock your ridge cap layer and delete it. Then add it back if you need it for your rendering.

Nice video Solver!

This post was helpful, from Tommy1 Mike, It is usually the column width that determines the size of the images. And it is usually a long column name that causes a wide column. So, abbreviate the column name and then drag the column width narrower, the image sizes will shrink accordingly. You could also have a play with the Scale Images setting, if that is causing a problem. The attached pic shows two 2D Symbol columns. The one on the left has been dragged narrower and the named changed to just "2D".

Is there any way to generate a list of CA 2D symbols so that I can make my own schedule? What are other folks doing for symbol legends?

I thought not. Too bad though, both the 2D and 3D symbols for schedules are essentially useless as the schedule will fill a full page to have the text readable. Converting the schedule to text strips out the symbols too. Thanks Joe.

Is it possible to increase the size of a schedule's text without also increasing the size of the 2D symbol displayed? Thanks in advance for any help.

Thanks Chopsaw., that is the correct icon.