Designers_Ink

Change the stem wall top to the same measurement as your floor level - 3 1/2".

 

You probably will need to hit the tab button since the first mouse click is highlighting the stairs and not the room.  Then click the Open button at the bottom of the screen to open the Room Specs dialog.

I was doing good since the update, but I got one today when I changed the rendering technique on a wall elevation to watercolor for a presentation drawing.  

 

I bought a bundle of these a few years back.  I still use them all the time.  Really good quality symbols and textures.

I did these pools in Chief.  I just used a Chief water texture, then tweaked the bump map settings to get some ripple effect.  For the waterfall, I imported a waterfall model from the 3D warehouse and stretched it to fit the area I needed.

I just turned on my Framing layers (wall and sill plate) and painted them black.  

I sometimes do something like this in Chief for a client to better visualize the space in layout form.  It is just a top view ortho with the camera changed to watercolor with lines.

Designer's Ink is a full-service building design firm based out of Stillwater, Oklahoma; however, we have worked on projects in 27 different states and 5 different countries.  We have been in business since 1993 and have 5 designers and draftsmen on staff to serve you.  We specialize in creating stunning 3D models of your building project so you can see exactly what the building will look like before you build.  This significantly reduces the costs of change orders during construction.  Many of our clients have told us they saved more in construction costs using our services than they paid for our services due to reduced change orders and value engineering during the design.

 

Once your 3D model is completed, we then produce easy to read construction documents.   We take a lot of pride in our construction documents which we customize for each client's specific needs.  Our goal is to produce our construction documents in such a way that the folks on the ground building the project have everything they need, and in a format they can use efficiently.  

 

With over half of our clients being from out of state, we have been working remotely with clients for years.  With the current restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, already having a system in place to communicate with our clients remotely is essential.  We have been using our system for years, so we know it works well.  We also offer one-on-one tutoring services for both Chief Architect and Home Designer Pro.  We have been using Chief Architect for 16 years.

 

Please take a moment to look at our website at www.designersink.us for more information about our company.  If you would like to set up a free, no-obligation initial consultation, contact us to schedule a time that works for you.  We look forward to EXCEEDING your expectations. 

 

Jeff Dillon - Owner / Designer

 

In X11 you can hold the Ctrl key down and open another session of Chief Architect.  Keep the Ctrl key held down until the 2nd session opens.  This allows you to open two layouts at the same time.  You can then copy and paste between the two layout files.  In X12, you can just open two layouts at the same time.  

In PBR, I lower the sunlight to about 600 lux.  It usually works well for me.

We had one computer that Chief just closed out of the blue on 3 times after the update today.  The other licenses have not had the issue even after the update.

 

 

Once mulled, you should be able to open the mulled unit and turn the sills back on.

 

We would love an opportunity to work with you on your project.  We have used Chief Architect for about 12 years and have projects in 23 different states and several foreign countries.  You can visit our website to learn more about us and see some examples of our work.  www.designersink.us.  We offer a free, no obligation initial consultation.  We look forward to hearing from you.

 

 

With over 20 years of experience, we have designed homes all over the United States and several foreign countries (Map).  Our design philosophy is to get to know our clients by listening to their needs very carefully.  We can then produce a design that fits both their functional needs, as well as their style.  We also work with other design professionals when they need assistance meeting a deadline, are having trouble with a complex design, or just have too much work and not enough time.  We can even assist you with online tutoring sessions to show you how to use Chief Architect to its fullest potential.  Please take the time to view our website at www.designersink.us to learn more about our firm.  We can also send you examples of recently completed construction document plans sets upon request.  It is always our goal to EXCEED our client's expectations.  We look forward to an opportunity to exceed yours!!  Give us a call, toll free at 866-354-7526.

Here are some non-360 pano shots of the same room using the same Physically Based Rendering settings as above.  They are saved at 3000 x 1534 at 600 dpi as a .png file just using the export command.  When I did a raytrace on these before, it took about 8 hours to get about 15 passes due to the details and lights.  These took about 90 seconds to save.  Huge time savings, especially if you want to show clients a few different options quickly.    

 

  

 

Here is the same 360 pano in the Chief 360 Panoramic Viewer.

 

 

 

Yes.  8192 X 4096 was the setting I used.  I then uploaded the 360 image to sky.easypano.com.  When you upload the file to the Chief Cloud to view in their viewer, it distorts the image directly above and below the camera.  www.sky.easypano.com is free to use.

The only real changes I made to the default was to turn off Bloom and reduce the Ambient Occlusion to about 60%.  I have found that the sunlight is way too bright until I reduce it down to about 2000 Lux.  In some scenes, I have had to reduce it down to as low as 500 lux.  Checking the "Improve Lighting Quality" box in the Rendering Technique Options DBX makes a big difference in getting rid of the green tint.  Remember to also up the number of lights in the scene to make sure all of the lights you have on show up.  The Default is to just show 8 lights.  

Here is a 360 panoramic view of an office utilizing only Chief Architect X10 using the Physically Based Rendering feature.  It took about 90 seconds to render this to 360 pano.  

 

http://sky.easypano.com/panoramic-images/Panoramic-Image-118608.html  

With over 20 years of experience, we have designed homes all over the United States (Map).  Our design philosophy is to get to know our clients by listening to their needs very carefully.  We can then produce a design that fits both their functional needs, as well as their style.  We also work with other design professionals when they need assistance meeting a deadline, are having trouble with a complex design, or just have too much work and not enough time.  We can even assist you with online tutoring sessions to show you how to use Chief Architect to its fullest potential.  Please take the time to view our website at www.designersink.us to learn more about our firm.  We can also send you examples of recently completed construction document plans sets upon request.  It is always our goal to EXCEED our client's expectations.  We look forward to an opportunity to exceed yours!!

I don't to many of these, but they have come in handy for some brochures and other ads for clients.

Designer's Ink is a rapidly growing design firm based in Stillwater, Oklahoma.  We have clients all over the United States.  We are currently accepting resumes from those interested in joining our company as a CAD Operator / Drafter.  This person will primarily be responsible for taking designs created by our staff designers and creating construction documents from them using Chief Architect X8.  This includes taking floor plans and adding dimensions and notes, creating interior and exterior elevations, plot plans, electrical plans, foundation plans, and roof plans as well as cabinet, door and window schedules.  This position is open to those wishing to work in our offices or remotely from anywhere in the country.  This is a part-time position and hours will vary based on project volume, but we anticipate about 20-30 hours per week.  Pay is negotiable based on experience and training.  

 

Those interested should have a good understanding of Chief Architect's abilities to create construction documents, current building codes, and they should have a good work ethic.  We are looking for a long-term member of our team, and there will be room to advance within the company to a Designer position for the right person.  You can check out our website at www.designersink.us for more information about our company.  

 

Those interested should send their resume along with examples of their work to hiring@designersink.us.  You can also submit any questions you might have to that same address.

Make sure you have the layer turned on.  Usually the driveway will be on "Roads" layer.

https://www.brick.com/architect/tools.htm  Download the Masonry Designer from Acme Brick.  You can create exactly what you want, save it as a seamless texture, and import it into Chief.  

I know I use Chief Architect for more than residential design, and I think based on the examples of commercial buildings on your website, you don't really sell the software as strictly a "residential design" software.  I think the biggest concern is that you may be opening up a door that most users see will cost them money later.  If for example, you decide to add storm shelters to your library (which are very popular in the south part of the country), will you say they are only for a special group so even SSA users have to purchase them?  If your arguments is that only a very few people would want these "speciality" libraries, you are going to make very little money by charging for them.  I would think your pay off compared to the cost of upsetting existing customers does not compute as a good business decision unless as most suspect, you plan on expanding it in the future.