BKEn10c

I would really like to see this feature improved too. 

5 minutes ago, Alaskan_Son said:

Here's a third take on the subject showing how to...

 

1. Use the new "Gable/Roof Line" tool
2. Set things up so this situation can be built correctly without any manual modifications
3. Set things up in such a way that allows us to leave Auto Rebuild Roofs toggled ON.

 

Hope it helps someone...

 

Very slick! Thanks for sharing!

On 1/24/2017 at 10:45 AM, TheKitchenAbode said:

Scott - Here's a 3 renderings of the exact same scene. This is just a test room I use to play with things so excuse the odd mix of items. If you flip through them you can see that the differences are minor. Yes, the 75 pass one is better but you can see that the improvement is just in a slightly less grainy appearance, most notably in the painted wall surface by the TV.

 

What you should be using your computers power for is to run higher resolution pics. The sample you posted was run at 2400 X 1024, the equivalent of a 2 mega pixel camera. If you want to zoom in on your pics then you need a bigger camera. My last posted scene was run at 4800 X 2284, the equivalent of an 11 mega pixel camera. Although it is only a 10 pass run it looks sharper than the 75 pass 3rd scene and you can zoom in to see more detail. However as you can see, running many passes or at much higher resolution does not significantly change the overall look of the scene, this is dictated by the lighting set-up, materials and their properties.

 

These are 1200 X 571, photon mapping "on".

 

1st scene - 10 passes, 2 min.

2nd scene - 35 passes, 7 min.

3rd scene - 75 passes, 15 min.

4th scene - 10 passes, 30 min, 4800 X 2284

 

 

Graham

Great practical advice, thanks!

8 hours ago, Chopsaw said:

 

https://3dlibrary.chiefarchitect.com/index.php?r=site/detail/895

Thanks Chopsaw - good to know that is there. I have a project coming up where I need one. 

16 hours ago, rlackore said:

When I have to add a custom door to the schedule, I create a "Doors, Hidden" layer, draw a wall off to the side of my plan, then insert a hinged door and edit the Components so the schedule reads correctly. I've found this a useful method for shoji screens, barn doors, over-head coil doors, etc.

Great work-around. Maybe CA will give us barn doors? They are becoming increasingly popular. 

12 hours ago, SusanC said:

Is anyone interested in having Subzero and Wolf included in Chief Architect's library?

If this is something you would use, please send Subzero a note saying that you would like to see them in Chief Architect's catalog.  

marketingideas@subzero.com

 

 

I will support this effort - thank you for initiating this!

1 hour ago, payettedesigns said:

Hey Guys:

 

Look Chief Tutor and Chief Experts are incredible I use them both. I am not in the  inner sanctum sanctorum of the Chief Architect Gods Squad but as a business man I would be pretty pissed of if  someone used my forum to promote or sell others products. Does Chief promote Chief Experts, Chief Tutor ( which again are incredible resources for sure) ? What is the relationship here so I understand. I am sitting over here wondering.

 

I  have found that  Chief Help Documents and Videos  are more than enough to learn the program. However Dan Bauman  and Michael's programs are like the icing on the cake and both of them are very passionate at what they do and surprisingly available when you need them the most. They both have unique ways of explaining things which helps immensely . Okay so I just promoted them but should we be doing that here?

 

David

Thanks for the additional recommendation of these resources. 

I could be wrong - but I believe CA may view these resources as ambassadors for their product, and not as competitors?

14 hours ago, DavidJPotter said:

I recommend Dan Baumann's Chiefexperts.com as well as chieftutor.com and for personalized help, one on one I recommend me. I would start with your free 
"Users Guide" absolutely first and use the "Help" files and free "Reference Manual"

 

DJP

Hi David - I looked up your website- I may take you up on your offer!

2 hours ago, lbuttery said:

Last resort should be this forum.   It's great, but it should not be your go to source in my opinion

 

Michael:

 

I agree that asking questions here should be "last resort"

 

however, I do recommend reading "every" post in "every" thread

 

this forum is a great educational tool

 

while you may not understand or need what is being discussed

it is good to make a mental note about it for future needs

 

If time allows I would even recommend going back to the postings starting March 2016 when X8 was released

and skimming most of them

 

I did this prior to buying Chief in 2004

I have been readin "everything" ever since until I retired in 2012

now I pick and choose which posts to read

 

Lew

Thanks Lew - I agree that this forum is a huge learning asset. 

Just now, DRAWZILLA said:

ok ,after all that, just do it.

1 minute ago, RodCole said:

Please provide a bit more background on the type of projects you are interested in using Chief for, and your particular field of interest.

 

I would also recommend Terry Munson's books on Chief Architect.  Check out his web site.

Thanks RodCole. This is my website: www.TheRedCottage.com 

I do residential. A lot of higher end work. I have a huge investment in REVIT, it just is not progressive in Residential. 

I will look at Terry's website. Thanks again!

5 minutes ago, Kenoeightspot said:

Go to "Chiefexperts.com" , Dan goes through step by step about everything you will need.

I will look at this some more. I have come across a couple of his tutorials, just googling things.

7 minutes ago, HumbleChief said:

My advice - run - don't walk to Chieftutor.com pay to join and dive in.

I think I will do this, $100 seems fair. 

13 minutes ago, GeneDavis said:

Every time you learn something from the HELP files, a training video, or a trainer, do it yourself in a test model.  And when doing it, if it involves specification dialogs, examine all the alternates in those dialogs and how they affect things.

Thanks for the practical advice to increase retention and understanding!

8 minutes ago, dshall said:

 

Absolutely,  have you ever heard penny wise,  pound foolish?  If you are new out of the box,  I would invest in a minimum of 16 hours of training time with an experienced user.  That 16 hours will probably be worth 80 hours worth of your time.

 

And here is the best advice I can give you.  Learn about anno/layer/ref sets and then learn how to use either the TEMPLATE METHOD or the SAM METHOD.  If you do not know what they are,  do a search.

 

 

Thank you!

Brian

29 minutes ago, Alaskan_Son said:

Make heavy use of the Help Files when questions arise.  You can usually find the answers you are looking for within a few minutes  and as a bonus, you will usually learn something else new in the process as well.

 

Pay for some professional training if you were having a tough time figuring things out.   I've seen time and time again where people spends hours, even days trying to muddle through things that could have been easily cleared up in a few minutes in a one on one training session. 

 

After the above two things, I would recommend you watch some good training videos  as the need arises. 

 

Last resort should be this forum.   It's great, but it should not be your go to source in my opinion. 

Thanks Alaskan_Son,

I agree with your sentiments. I do not want to 'spam' this forum with new person questions. Thus far, I have done extensive research before posting questions. I am interested in the training. Would a trainer work with me on a real project, thereby helping to defer cost? Is that the best/recommended  method? Thanks again

I am transitioning from REVIT to CA.

If you had a new guy starting in your office - and you wanted to get him up to speed quickly, what advice would you give him?

For example:

1) You need to watch this series of videos???

2) You need to subscribe/buy these libraries???

thanks in advance for the advice!

Brian

18 minutes ago, GeneDavis said:

I don't have X9 yet, but X8 and some earlier versions require the use of the pony wall feature to do a brick ledge in a stemwall foundation.  See the pic, attached, clipped from the Help in Chief.

 

When displaying pony walls in 2D planview, X8 and earlier give us the option of showing either the upper wall or the lower, but not both.  You want both, and you want the ledge face shown as a dashed line.  You cannot have both, but you can get what you want by controlling how the upper wall displays in plan view.

 

Look carefully at the snips, attached.  Your wall definition for your upper part (the ledge part) of your pony-wall stemwall will need to be edited to get the 2D display you want.  I did the example to show a dashed line at the ledge face (line weight 18) and heavy lines (35 weight) at the inside and outside faces of the stemwalls.  I changed the fill of the brick layer to be concrete.  You'll want to change the fill of the air gap (drainage gap) to be concrete, also.  Fiddle with it until you get what you want.

 

And of course, check so that you are displaying the upper part of the pony wall in planview.

 

For stepped brickledges as for a house built on a downslope lot, you can go to elevation views of foundation walls and edit the height break where the ledge is to be.

Thank you Gene Davis, for a thorough explanation along with the fine screen shots. I will implement this today. 

When I was researching CA, (after many years with REVIT - which I am still tied to because of 100's of completed projects)  it was the active user forum that made me willing to venture into this new software. What a great community here! Thanks again

3 hours ago, DRAWZILLA said:

Beware adjusting anything in cad will not show in 3d. I never use a cad detail for sections or adjust anything there.. There are several ways to do what you want in 3d, it would probably be best to adjust the brick ledge depth, that is new for X9 ( it was there, just didn't work for stem walls) and the simplest way in my view for 3d if you want that. Try to have everything live, it's just better.

I agree - it is definitely best to have everything live/accurate in 3D. As soon as you start 'fixing' things in 2d CAD, your chance for errors, and the need for redundant work increases. This goes back to my original post: if my wall looks / works correctly in 3D, it seems that I should be able to have a foundation plan that accurately conveys the brick ledge. 

It sounds like I need to make a brick ledge deeper than 8" to show up properly on the foundation plan? If that is so - I have lost accuracy in my 3D model. 

3 minutes ago, Joe_Carrick said:

You are probably going to have to just use a CAD Box for that.  Chief just doesn't have that fine a control over what "headers" show.  For Reflected Ceiling Plans I use a Room Polyline that I put on a "Ceiling Boundary" layer.

Thanks Joe. Wow - that seems like such a basic drawing need. Wouldn't we always want to show a dashed line to signify openings in our floor plans?

56 minutes ago, DRAWZILLA said:

I turn off room labels and use a macro for the room labels, I have more control that way. I also use a header macro label for openings. Search macro's here on this forum.

I searched Macros - and I am contacting Joe Carrick to purchase macros from him. HOWEVER - I have not figured out how that will assist me with my main goal: How can I get the headers to show on doorways, without having headers show on every door? THANKS in ADVANCE!

2 minutes ago, SNestor said:

You can adjust the "fills" that auto detail places in the wall. sections so that the line is hidden.  Or use a CAD BLOCK from the library.  I've attached the plan again...detailed.  Open the section and you will see what I did.

Foundation Pony Wall.plan

Excellent! Those are both fast options. Thanks again!

3 minutes ago, SNestor said:

Is the foundation wall a "pony wall"?  If so...then will you also need a "veneer" sitting on the brick ledge...such as brick or stone?  This needs to be defined in the. foundation pony wall.  

 

Take a look at my attached plan...the foundation is a pony wall.  Hope it helps.

Foundation Pony Wall.plan

Thanks SNestor! I was starting to experiment with that. So, in your cross section, even when you 'auto detail', you have an undesirable horizontal line where the pony wall from the foundation meets the veneer from the first floor framing wall. May I ask: How do you handle that? Thanks again!

3 minutes ago, DRAWZILLA said:

change the material to brick and adjust the "Brick ledge depth" in the wall DBX to what you want.

Thanks! My brick ledge is where I want it for now. 8". The 'pony wall' above has the brick extending down 8", therefore it looks good in elevation & section. I guess I just neeed to figure out how to change the material of the ledge. I will work in it some more. Thanks again!

Thanks - I will learn about macros - I appreciate the fast response!