Gawdzira

Chief has a great video on ray tracing which is focused a great deal on setting up your materials properly. I saw some major improvements in rendering after view that video. http://video.chiefarchitect.com/?search=raytracing Video # 915

If that is actually a version prior to v10 I don't believe there is any roof editing in 3d views.

Time is so precious.

To get the second floor view, go to the plan view on the second floor and hit the Orthographic Floor Overview button.

I did a quick search thinking that I was missing something and there was going to be a new and easy way to make divided lite cabinet doors. I probably spent 6 minutes searching for the info I could not find and about 5 minutes making the door in the attached file. I included the pre symbol block to examine so you can see how easy it could be to make this door a lot nicer than the simple block shapes that I used to get this one so I can get my as built drawing fairly close to what I needed. For this project the kitchen is not going to be the focus so I just wanted something to match the general look of the actual cabinet. Had this been an actual key part of the project I would have put some proper profile edges on the solids used to construct the door. The cabinet I needed this for is a 42" high upper so it is a tall door. It will resize smaller but the way it was set up the top and bottom rails will squash with the resize.

There have been a few threads showing sneak peeks recently.

Either zip the file for upload or upload to DropBox or similar.

You can attach that file, zip it and it will shrink smaller than the 25mb max limit.

How many lights do you have "on" when rendering that exterior?

Upload the .skp file to the thread. Someone will drop it into CA for you.

25 passes in 33 mins does not sound very slow. It all depends on how the raytrace settings are set up, number of lights and the complexity of objects in the scene. I usually render at around 2500p wide and for an interior shot if I can get one pass in 60 seconds that would be screaming fast on interiors.

X4 -X6 You will see some production speed up in drawing time lag. If you are doing watercolor renderings you will see a significant speed up. Your multiple monitor support works best if you have symmetrical monitors. It has been a long time since using x4 so I don't remember much. The general thing for me is I like to keep current. If there are one or two tools that increase my productivity it is always worth it. X6 kicked in the ability to have multiple keystoke hotkeys. This is huge if you are using it. If you upgrade now you will be getting the x7 upgrade with your SSA support.

For CA, almost all of my work is done in the Plan file (Model Space). Very little (or nothing) goes exclusively into the Layout file (Paper Space) that is a direct connection to the plan drawings. Therefore, text sizes are dealt with in the plan file through the annotation sets. Here is a simplification: I know I will be sending my site plan to layout at 1/8" scale so therefore my Site Plan Anno set has the text and arrows scale set for 1/8" scale. For my font I am using I have the text at 10" and the arrows at either 10" or 8" I know I will send my plan view at 1/4" scale and so my Floor Plan Anno set drives the sizes for text at 5" and arrows at 4". This way, all the text notes on the site plan and the floor plan will both read at really close to 1/8" tall actual on the printed page. The annotation sets are key for having a smooth and productive workflow.

You have 2 main layers on that wall type. Get rid of the second check mark in the wall and it dimensions to the center.

@ Keith, thanks for pointing that out. I missed that in the original post. Based on that, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

@Larry, that is not the behavior I get.

Ray, post your plan to the forum. Generally things that make no sense are easy to fix with a quick look at the plan file.

That was a screen grab from layout. Yes you can put notes to it and dimensions. I don't have time for a quick image tour but it goes something like this: 1. make a layerset for your elevation that only has the dimensions and notes present 2. with your standard vector view showing send to layout, choose the send option for "current screen" 3. Very important, don't change your camera view at all now. Now change from vector to your rendered view with shadows and send that view to layout, now "current as image" will be your only option. This now gives you matching layout box sizes. You can now snap the layout box for your rendered view to match the vector view. Now you have a rendered view at scale and you can have your notes and dimensions in just the right location (make that layout box the top layer).

You can not get shadows in a Vector view. You can get shadows in an elevation but it must be in a rendered view.

Also, be careful when searching Google for "Flashing".

I agree Robert. It would be great to have the object properties docked for easy access to changes.

Robert, I just demonstrated how do it with 3-4 clicks. Associating the color of the object by layer color is the better way to do it anyways since it makes it easier to alter a group of objects.

Here are few pics to tour the process. 1. first make some layers with the color and line style that you want to use. 2. Then click to draw a polyline box 3. Then click to change the cad drawing layer Select your layer of choice and hit Enter/Return Now draw your polyline box and you will like it.

Some pictures to fill in 1000 words...

Ignore the radius. You make the adjustment with the height of the broken arch.