Michael_Gia

13 hours ago, JakeFoxBuilders said:

Hi Michael - I am not understanding how to copy and paste the terrain elevation data. When I copy it over it is blank and creates a poly line box. Even after I create a terrain permitter, still only a poly box will paste. What am I missing? Thanks!

Maybe post the plan?

As long as you are pasting elevation data onto a terrain then it will behave as elevation data.

Are you grouping the elevation data as a block and pasting it, or as individual items?

2 hours ago, mrikel said:

my client would like it removed from the plan

This line shows that there is a difference of height between the floor and the ground as there should be. 
It shows the end of the house and the start of the exterior. 
Why would anyone want that line hidden?
Unless, either your patio deck continues into the house or your hardwood flooring extend onto the patio?
 

You tell that customer, from me, to… (joking)

30 minutes ago, ericepv said:

This was rendered in X14..

Really nice work. 
If I may offer a critique, your furniture seems to be floating. Look closely around the furniture legs and their lack of shadow on the floor. 
Below is a screen grab from one of René Rabbit’s videos, so it is possible to eliminate this effect in Chief. Look at the stools.
This is characteristic in a lot of renderings, and the litmus test for me when it comes to judging how well a software can render. 
Chief can do this. I wish I knew how René achieves this. Maybe he’ll chime in. 
 

8 hours ago, rgardner said:

Sounds like a challenge

I think Chief’s interior rendering ability has come a long way and on par with TM. 
Exterior rendering is still a challenge in Chief. 
 

The real problem is workflow. 
Chief’s paradigm of, open dbx, close dbx, open dbx, close dbx, is maddening. 
Just ridiculous.  
Chief needs to incorporate a “status bar” so that when you select an item you have access to the main parameters of that item. 
This way you can adjust on the fly and see the real-time effects of those changes. 
 

Especially for renderings, having sliders to adjust, colour, texture, lighting etc on materials, in real-time, as in TwinMotion, is paramount. 

1 hour ago, RobertCanada said:

How realistic can it look?

just look up René. 

4 hours ago, Meltdown00 said:

My question is why this doesn't work as expected.

Exterior walls usually have quite a few changes in exterior materials. 
 

So, it makes sense that the material in the default settings dbx does not affect every exterior wall. 
 

Unless you’re building a dog house, of course. 
 

I get your frustration, because the default material dbx is miss leading and isn’t clear about which ones affect which objects, or if they’re global or just affect the next item drawn after the change. 

To add to Chrisb222...

12 hours ago, bdub101 said:

Is there anyone that can briefly explain how to link twin motion to chief file? I may be missing something but it seems like I have to save as DAE, Open in TM, if revision is made in CA file then I must “save as” and replace  the old CA file.

- Export as either 3DS or DAE (Collada). 

- Import into TM

- Make changes to model in Chief and export as 3DS or DAE.

- Open TM and re-import. Or if you download the latest 2023 version there’s an option to update the model. Even easier. 
 

This might sound long and arduous but it’s not. I would say that this workflow is so efficient that it renders the need for a datalink between Chief and TM, moot. 
If you watch how datalink works with Archicad and Revit for TM you’ll see it’s virtually the same procedure but disguised with fancy buttons. 

1 hour ago, Berry_J said:

Does anyone out there have a 3D of a 2 Person Riding Golf Cart.?

Here's a plan (dropbox link) with a golf cart and 2 dudes so you can swap out the characters.

Golf cart is from Chief and the dudes from 3D Warehouse.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/fetw05i62vbal9g/Golf Cart for 2.plan?dl=0

Or the Collada file.

Golf cart for 2.dae

6 hours ago, Ange822 said:

I will look into Kuula

Look into Panorama Sets in Twinmotion instead. 

Only because if you ever make changes to your model you only need to re-import your model and all your panorama images will still be there. 
No need to create any new images.  Then you just re-export your panorama set to the cloud and your client can use the same link to see the updated walk through. 
Plus there are many more options available in the walk through than Kuula. Your client can walk around, change time of day etc…

and it’s free. 
 

6 hours ago, Design20 said:

I don't think I can justify it with how rarely I do walkthroughs

I think TwinMotion is still free.

Thanks for the upvote.  I’ll take the karma, whenever I can, lol. 

I only use TM for exteriors, myself.  No difference from Chief for interiors, really. 
 

Cheers!

Solver’s video on number formatting. 
 

“it’s like ordering a hamburger”… lol 

One might be standard render view and the other vector render view, with the pattern at a 90° angle from the texture in the define material dbx. 

16 hours ago, amddrafting said:

The main plate height for the whole house is 9'  I raised the front porch to be 10'

In Chief, this is the equivalent to dividing by 0 on a calculator. 
 

I think the first image gets you almost there, so you just have to manually draw in your porch roof. 

10 hours ago, buzzsaw204 said:

How about Room Name Label in Section View!!!!!!

From René Rabbit’s site here’s a nifty solution to that…

https://www.rabbittdesign.net/s/Rabs-Room-Label-Sphere.calibz

On 3/21/2023 at 8:34 AM, Archnot-Boltz said:

This issue relates to all things wrong with the ongoing porch slab, porch room

Just as an alternative approach to what everyone is saying here…

The way I do these is the same approach as how one would do a flat roof with a parapet wall.

(If you’re familiar with that workflow).

if not, here it is:

-Use concrete walls to create your porch and set the rough height of the room to be the finished floor height of your porch. 
(Example around 10”)

-If you’re poring a 5-1/2” slab in the field, then set the floor finish at 5-1/2” concrete and the floor structure to be 4-1/2” air space. (10” - 5-1/2” = 4-1/2”)

-Now your floor slab is flush with the top of your 10” walls and there won’t be any z-fighting. 
-Add a moulding to create the overhang. 
-Add your columns and roof. 

This might sound convoluted but it’s very controllable and it does reflect how these things are actually built. 
Your carpenter will create a form for the floor and a little section of wall to pour your porch and connect down to the foundation walls. 

You might try playing around with small sections of room dividers to get the desired look. 
 

2 hours ago, ericepv said:

 

I finally had some time to play with the new grass tool on X15. What a great improvement!

 

Agreed. I think the new grass region tool is the star of X-15 along with the extend terrain feature. 
 

By the way, you should check out Chief Expert's brick library….

https://www.chiefexpertsacademy.com/brick-library-for-chief-architect

Holy cow, these plans are a work of art!

Chief sample plans are always well done but I think these win 1st prize. 

I don’t think Chief’s walkthough and in general video tools are where they should be yet compared to its other capabilities. 

Not to mention, the still inadequate 3D Viewer. 

If your goal is to share videos and models with clients your best option right now is Twinmotion.  It’s free and much faster than Chief for video walk throughs, even if you include the time it takes to export your model to Twinmotion. 

29 minutes ago, someguy said:

Is there a command that will keep all the walls connected so I don’t have to go back and clean every wall up?

Menu -> Edit -> Edit Area

learn this command. 
 

A lot of times we come from other software and miss a certain tool or workflow and we spend too much time trying to make the current software behave like the other.  Often it’s just a matter of getting used to a different workflow with the tolls we have at our disposal. 
It’s not better or worse, just different. 

2 hours ago, SabGroup said:

I can export to a dae file with no issues.

Yes, you can export with DAE and it’s even quicker than 3DS and can even handle bigger models than 3DS, but you won’t be able to control an individual object like a gutter with DAE. 

53 minutes ago, SabGroup said:

If you are exporting to twinmotion, you need to toggle on "two sided" for the gutter material.

Or in Chief you can create a 3d gutter and then export.

And for this to work the model has to be 3DS. 

3 hours ago, Chris50 said:

Hello, does anyone know how to make a sign to go on the side of a building?

There’s 3D lettering in a bonus catalogue. 
 

Slap those on a p-solid. 

15 minutes ago, DRAWZILLA said:

I just wish it were in the edit toolbar instead having to open a DBX and find it.

This touches on a general program wide problem with Chief. 
 

Opening a dbx takes a while, I’m assuming, because there is so many parameters and tabs in a dbx, so I can’t fault the lag on the software for that.

However, if Chief had a “status bar” in the toolbar for any object that is selected, and this status bar had just a few parameters, like length, width, height, height off floor and object type, then these main parameters could be changed on the fly without having to open a heavily loaded dbx. 

It’s not a revolutionary idea.