OneChickNoHammer

Seminole and Orange Counties in Florida are pretty picky, too!

I will try the "complete break" next time and the %total_riser% function. Is there a reference guide to all of the macro functions that are available? If so, where can I find it? Thank you, DB! PS - Keep moving.... you'll be harder to find....

Thanks, Joe! I'll consider your system when I'm doing more work. Right now I'm just a hobbyist. Lisa

I think I figured out what I can do to make this work. I can do separate macros for each stair section then make another macro that puts the other macros together. I night's sleep and it came to me. Hope this helps out others. I also figured out how to change the stair section width. I missed the step once you "break line" the stair you have to "Disconnect Selected Subsection".

Hello Doug, I'm hoping you can clarify how to use the stair section method you mentioned. I've attached some screen shots to help explain what I'm trying to accomplish. I have manually drawn 2 different stair sections and moved them to where they are touching at their meeting point. I made sure that the heights are correct so they look correct in a 3D view. However, when I try to do the Text Macro for the stair information I only get the section that the arrow is attached to. I tried your method to identify a section and still only get the info related to the section that the arrow is attached to. I've done Excel macros, VBA, VB, and Arduino coding so I'm fairly familiar with what most of the code means. Is your section variable user defined? You mentioned "global" but I can't seem to find it anywhere in the program macro options when I try to create a new Text Macro. I drew the stair sections manually because I wanted the first 4 treads to be wider to accept the railing and for the railing to dead end into the wall. I thought their was a way to "break line" a stair to widen part of it in Chief from a regular straight stair but I wasn't able to figure it out. I used the macro to take the 4 risers it recognizes and added 11 in the macro to get the 15 that you see in the Text Box. Thank you for any assistance you can provide. Lisa M. Fida

Thank you, Scott for the response!

Thank you, Mr. Cooper! Yes, I believe this is the post I saw and couldn't find again. I will give that a go!

Not sure why they are not showing up. I had found another post mentioning this but can't seem to find it again. Does anyone know if Chief is planning on resolving this in X15 or do we have to wait for X16 for a resolution? Thank you, Lisa Standard View CPU Ray Trace PBR RT

Very nice. Thank you for sharing.

Hello All, Why in the heck does my tree "disappear" when other plants are placed behind it???? And is there a way to fix this? It seems to only happen with a polyline distribution path or area. Thank you, Lisa

Thank you Eric, I was wondering if that method would work. And you've proved that it does. Lisa

Another short video on how to keep curtains open when stretching a rod across a wide window or door. It was suggested to use a stretch plane, which is a quick and easy way to accomplish this task. However, the method I showed using 2 separate curtain symbols allows for more control on how wide to make the panel. This can be crucial if the walls to the side of your door/window are narrow.

Thank you Rob Dyck, I came up with solution for a design I'm working on now (and thought of the stretch plane solution then). I used Home Designer for many years and of course, those programs don't have (or didn't when I used them) stretch planes. So, I guess I was thinking more about those types of users. Also, I know someone who is on X8 and though this person is fantastic with design, custom roofs and stretch planes are a little beyond their grasp right now. I don't think we should all assume that every user has our same level of experience. Lisa

Which words would you suggest?

Yes, that was going to be my next video tip. I did this one for users who may not be comfortable with using stretch planes.

Short video of how to keep curtains pulled back when stretching curtain rod to fit wide windows/doors.

Man, I wish I has seen this awhile ago. Going to have to redo all of my screen porches now. Thanks!

DavidJPotter, Thank you for your response. I will give your suggestion a try. Lisa

robdyck, Thank you for your response. That is a neat way of doing it and won't cause problems for other stairs below this one, say for the wine cellar. I hope Chief will make it a little easier though in an update by allowing us to change the material on that particular surface. Lisa

Ah, I did see the 'height below tread' option but didn't think of using it in that way. I'll try that. Thank you.

Hello everyone, I'm working on a mediterranean style design and I would like a staircase similar to the posted picture where the drywall/plaster comes to the bottom of each tread. I'm able to do this using the custom stringer option, for the most part, but have a not so lovely line following the bottom of the stringer. Any suggestions on how to resolve this or am I stuck doing the polyline solid thing? Thank you, Lisa

Thank you Dustin for solving my issue. There is a bug in the system and Chief will be looking into it. For anyone out there having the same issue, try exporting your image as a .tif.

Then oleander image in Chief is great but I would like the flowers to be red. No problem! I'll just copy, then use Photo Paint to change the color of the flowers, copy the original symbol to my user library, then change the image file to the new image file I created. Or so I thought. The new image file has an ever so thin white outline around it when viewed in 3D. But when I use a dark background in Photo Paint behind my created image I don't see it. Can anyone explain what is happening and how to fix it??? Thank you!

@TheKitchenAbode, I did another ray trace for many more passes and noticed that the more passes the clearer it became. I've been using Chief for years, but the ray tracing is something new and am now just delving into it. This 60 passes as the image name implies. Much better than 30 passes. Thank you for your response and sorry for my delayed response. Lisa

Have you checked the resolution. Not sure where it would be found in X9, I'm on X12. When the Ray Trace Current View pop up window opens click Edit. There should be an option to change the resolution. Mine defaults to 72 dpi, which isn't that great. Hope this helps.