Designers_Ink

The new Speedtree Library is a great addition in X17 if you are into doing high end exterior renderings. In our office, we work on projects as a team, so file sharing easily is important to us. The way our existing file storage and sharing process works in our office (Dropbox), I haven't figured out a way to use the managed project part of this upgrade without adding too many steps from what we do now. Hopefully, with more research, we will figure out a way to integrate our workflow with the new system and it work as smoothly as our current system. I just haven't figured it out yet. I think the splitting of schedules is a great addition. Being able to save roof labels in the defaults will save me some time on each project. Everyone uses the software differently, so the "important things" are going to be different for everyone. There has been years a lot of my "important things" got upgrades and some years where other users' "important things" got upgrades that didn't really affect me much. This is probably one of those years from what I have seen so far with it, but overall I think the software continues to get better and is worth what I pay for it.

I just did an 8' wide X 8' tall doorway, then created this symbol with 3D solids to insert in the opening. You can explode it and adjust as needed. Hope that helps. 8' Vertical Bi-fold Door.calibz

See if that version will let you import it in Collada format. Bed+round+4.dae

For users of Sketchup, the new release of 2025 Sketchup Pro has premium access to some live symbols in the 3D Warehouse. They are like typical 3D Warehouse symbols which easily can be imported into Chief, but since they are live, you can easily change the symbol dynamically before you download them. For example, they have a corner shower unit. They have live toggles and slide bars to dynamically change the shape and size of the unit, the number of shelves in the unit, the type of shower head, etc. before sending it to Chief. They have have a drop ceiling which dynamically change the ceiling tile pattern bases on your room size and has configurable air vents, sprinkler heads, etc. They also have doors, windows and a bunch of other commonly used symbols. You can size to fit the room in your particular model before you import it into Chief. There are also a lot of new textures and even 360 degree panoramics you can download. I get a ton of free symbols from 3D Warehouse for my models, but these premium, live symbols will be a great addition. I got access with my Sketchup 2025 Pro subscription. I don't know if you can access any other way or not.

https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00893/creating-a-window-well-for-an-egress.html

I would suggest just doing a 4" wide sidewalk, then multi-copying it about 16" apart. Then copy and reflect it so that you get the pattern you need. This would give you the 3D grass, and it would follow the terrain.

Give this a look. The attic wall type did not match up to the upper exterior (stucco) wall, so there was an offset. It was an interior wall with drywall. The roof plane cut into the wall, so I turned off the special snapping in the dbx for that lower roof plan. That allows you to move that edge of the roof plane over so it doesn't cut the wall. Keep in mind, your upper wall is a thicker wall (2X6 stucco) than the thinner interior wall below it, so that thicker wall will be partially unsupported unless you do a 2X6 interior wall below it. If you do a 2X4 stucco attic wall to fill in that triangle, you would have to shift that 2X4 interior wall over 2" so it would line up. Hope this helps. https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/tv1cxmisjou58jmqxh1qd/Custom-Home-4-modified.plan?rlkey=fwhhca3f9bjyzs1llljuqb3bq&dl=0

Under Light Settings, change it from Automatic to Light Set. This will allow for lights to be turned on independent of if the lights are in different rooms or different floors.

Go to the 3D warehouse (https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/) and download whatever you want. Just import the .skp file into Chief. Some of the items have a large file size and can slow your system down, but there are tons of free symbols to download. You can also go to https://www.chieftutor.net/ and they have some really good symbols if you pay a one-time membership fee. Well worth the money. You can purchase Rene Rabbitt's stuff from his website https://www.rabbittdesign.net/shop Hope that helps.

Go to the Tools menu, then select Floor/Reference Display On the line you have "Reference Display Layer under Layer Set, make sure the Plan Name is the same as the one below it. Then make sure that line is on Automatic and XOR is checked. (See above) Click OK, then go from the first floor to the foundation floor and it should show you the 1st floor reference in red.

If you are good with the road and parking lot being the same material, I typically start with a polyline road and draw out the complete perimeter of the parking area and roads connecting it. Then I add medians as needed for islands. For example, if you parking lot goes all the way around your building, then the building will be on a large median. Your median may even form once side of a road depending on how your parking lot is configured.

Use the rainbow tool on the screen material. Then go to Properties and make sure your Emissive is set to 0. It might just barely have any, but set it to zero. You can then adjust the transparency in the same tab to fit what look you are going for. See if that helps any.

Can you post the .plan file so we an see your lighting, sun and camera settings?

I only have that in an X16 version, but you are welcome to it if you can use it. Custom Mantel.calibz