Michael_Gia

That error on a Mac is usually because you are doing a "save as" while a layout file is open and already referring to that file. close any layouts first so that only that plan file is open and then do a, "save as"

Shitf+Select the stair you need to change. If you just click the staircase without SHIFT then you will be editing both sections at the same time. Also lookup drawing in the railings independently of the staircase because it is useful in certain cases.

I disagree. If I were a client and looking at your Chief standard render I would not want to live in that and I would already be starting to think that maybe I chose the wrong draftsman/designer/architect. With Gemini render, I personally would love to live in that myself. I can see myself smoking a cigar on the front porch and enjoying the scenery. What you did in, I'm guessing 20 seconds in Gemini?... Would not be possible in Chief and even with the help of TwinMotion would take hours and hours and never come close. Nice job!

1st image = Chief Standard view, all out of the box no PBR. Gemini (free, no account) Prompt = "Increase photorealism of this image. Improve lighting, global illumination, reflections, shadows, and material texture resolution. Preserve the exact architecture, materials, proportions, windows, doors, and camera perspective. Do not modify the design in any way—only enhance realism and render quality. " Chat GPT = make above rendering a winter scene but do not alter architecture or materials.

Howdie partner, I missed this, so I'm curious how it's performing? especially pbr speed

Here is about 12 seconds in Gemini. Standard render in Chief vs Gemini enhanced render. This is my prompt: "Increase photorealism of this image. Improve lighting, global illumination, reflections, shadows, and material texture resolution. Preserve the exact architecture, materials, proportions, windows, doors, and camera perspective. Do not modify the design in any way—only enhance realism and render quality."

Apple will not help you here even if you waited for the M50000000000 Pro Max Super Ultra. If you want quicker and better pbr from a Mac then just incorporate AI into your workflow to achieve that. AI in 20 seconds will improve the quality of your renderings way more than out of the box Chief pbr. Or get a pc. I would rather stay with MacOs personally.

I’m talking from the perspective of sharing and/or collaborating. Like it or not it’s an autocad world. And even when I tell those same acad jockeys to simply import my pdf construction documents and scale them they either don’t know how, are too lazy or as a policy feel this is over reaching. Which I can’t blame them for.

dimensions also come out really screwy from Chief into AutoCAD. I’m really considering the workflow of designing the home with my clients in Chief, but once the 3-D model is complete, I export the plans, elevations and sections into AutoCAD to do my construction documents. I’ll collaborate easier with the engineers and other architects. It might be a little more work but I’ll have universally accepted plans with proper annotations and dimensions.

When I order trusses or floor systems I usually send a pdf of the plans generated in Chief. I want to change that and instead send an AutoCAD layout file instead of a PDF. This is to avoid errors of miscommunications when for example a dimension is missing etc. If they have the AutoCAD file then they can measure whatever they want. Anyone else do this?

Delete that 4” slab in the “floor structure”

Are there any sneak peek videos out there yet? Is it too much to ask? Or at least a chocolate easter bunny?

Apparently, the M5 max has hardware accelerated raytracing. That's a first for Apple, I think?

Have you tested PBR capabilities on both machines? That would be the only benchmark I would be interested in. That is how fast can each machine perform 100 samples of the same PBR view?

Not sure if this helps, but I took a page out of Revit’s hotkey philosophy. That is I mostly use a two letter system. You’ll instantly get more combinations and it’s a lot easier to string together 2 keys that make sense. examples: m,r for material region t,m tape measure d,e end to end dimension d,a angle dimension d,m manual dimension it’s endless.

The roof above the garage is just a room with the ceiling height set to the height you want your parapet walls. Add a cap on those walls, your floor finish is EPDM and you can even use the automatically generated baseboards as the flashing by adjusting their heights and material. You can use the same principle for your balcony on the right and just set your walls to the railing type you’re looking for. What René said for the canapé roof over the door on the left, or just cheat with 3D solids. (If you’re not cheating, you’re not trying) Of course, use proper detail drawings to illustrate these features and not some 3D generated section. My opinion of course.

Situations like the one below are a problem in Chief. Sometimes they will disconnect randomly or move and resnap arbitrarily. Dimensions will un-attach randomly no matter how many times you reconnect them etc... I usually "solve" this by creating a thinner version of the wall which seems to work most of the time, but Chief still behaves weirdly around small offsets. What do you guys do?

It's the door opening indicators that are really missing to achieve this look.

To use Chief terms, the Elevation marker on the right measuring the Floor at -118 1/8" always measures to what you have as "Floor Structure" which can be set in the floor defaults or on a room by room basis. Don't think, concrete or any other material, because your floor structure may contain more than one material depending on your plan. Up here in the great white north, my basement Floor Structure has, 2 inches styrofoam, polyethylene, and 4 inches of concrete (total 6"). This way it shows up and calculates proper heights according to code up here.

The same stuff that didn't work properly in X13 still doesn't work properly in X17. Lots of neat new features but with even more bugs. Visually better though.

you know you're a redneck, when your detail plans have a gun rack... (sorry, couldn't help myself)

X17 is the buggiest version in a long while. I really hope they fix all the crap under the hood in the next iteration.

I see what you did there...

beautiful! You got it to improve the lighting, landscape, perspective all while preserving your structure and design elements. well done, human.

This is worth a 10 minute look…