portrait

Dennis, my choice for the couple's image was not a coincidence.

I have always wanted to use a third party software to enhance my renderings, too - and this time did it! I just combined the renderings of my garden design with the real pictures of the house. Not very professional, but it was still very helpful.

The secret weapon! Piranesi would be cool, unfortunately only Revit, Archicad, 3D Max, and Sketch Up supports .epx format; this is why we had to use Photoshop.

Hi Jintu, it's Chief and Photoshop.

You may design a community market with social spaces using Chief, and you don't have to use V-Ray for the rendering.

Putting all the discussion regarding the video, and the presentation technique aside, this is a great design. It was a joy to watch!

I still beg for a proper fbx export option. Collada (aka .dae) was a good step, but only optimized for Lumion, not 3D Max; 3ds file format will always have this vertex limitation (also 3D Max doesn't accept my CA generated .3ds files, saying "improper file format"), the only safe option .vrml format triangulates the surfaces, so i'm really tired of problems that Chief cause in my workflow. That was one of the main reasons that i didn't renew my subscription for the first time. Chief seniors tend to say "We can't focus on each 3rd party software you use" despite the fact that integration is everything.

Has anyone encountered the same issue with X7? I send almost every Chief plan i work to 3D Max; but this "improper file format" became a serious nightmare for me since X5.

It's really an interesting situation. This is the official link to download CS2, and get the special type of serial numbers: http://www.adobe.com/downloads/cs2_downloads/index.html When i sign-in with my Adobe ID, i see this page:

Actually it's not free, just Adobe terminated the activation servers for this version. It means that with a valid serial number, you can use it - since nobody is checking if it was already activated on anywhere else anymore. http://www.forbes.com/sites/adriankingsleyhughes/2013/01/07/download-adobe-cs2-applications-for-free/

I agree that price difference between the lite and the premier versions is small when you compare the available options between these two. But before the pricing, you should first check the suitibality of Chief for your works. I have small idea about the historic preservation projects in the States, but i'm sure that there must be very strict rules about preservation like most places in the world. My friends are working on the restoration of an ancient Greek site where some of the structures are older than 2000 years, and every small detail is critically important. I can't imagine using Chief for such a special task. So before deciding, i think you should check if Chief can easily generate the details, and the construction sets you need. Pricing is the easier part.

Having experienced this several times, i think that the best option is opening the original .rvt file in 3D Studio Max. Still there's no guarantee that Chief will be able to get all the surfaces&textures properly. If you don't have 3D Max, you can download the trial version; or get help from me or other Chiefers who have 3D Max.

I really don't understand why/how is GPU based rendering process is faster than CPU based one. I use a number of rendering engines; and aside from Lumion, i didn't see an actual benefit of the GPU rendering. Lumion is very fast, because they don't actually have complex raytracing technology which is available on Chief Architect, V-Ray, Mental Ray, Octane Render, etc. When i compare two raytracing engines V-Ray (CPU based), and Octane (GPU based), i really don't see a big difference in terms of rendering time. When the GPU based rendering was first introduced, the main claim was using the power of a cheaper computer component (video card) rather than the more expensive components: the processors. But today, a great video card with a lot of CUDA cores is not a lot cheaper than a great processor; so i can't see a real benefit. (Yes, i regret that i got a Titan card for about $1500!)

Where is Pat actually? I sometimes contact her on Facebook, but couldn't see her around for some time. I doubt she has ever joined the new forum.

I know it will destroy the magic, but would you mind to post another rendering from another POV after the contest?

You'll like this: http://xoio-air.de/category/textures/

Hi Michael, Could you please include the link of the video you're talking about? You should have forgot it.

I also think SSA is a good deal, but please keep sharing your valuable thoughts with the community. (Even if you were kidding.)

By the way, Doug could be right about 3ds format is nearly obsolute; but it's still the only option to import a Chief model into 3D Studio with untriangulated surfaces. So until a proper fbx export option is available, "3ds" export option will remain as an important feature.

I also experience the same "improper file format" problem with 3D Max. The problem began when i started to work on a new computer which has a built-in Windows 8. I was using X5 when this problem started, later switched to X6, and i still can't import 3ds files into 3D Max. The stranger part is that Autocad and Chief accepts this 3ds file, while 3D Max doesn't. This one still remains as a mystery for me, and surprised to see someone else also experiences the same problem.

Probably that's because you're trying to export your 3d model on the plan view. In order to export the 3d model in one of the available formats, you have to switch to 3d view.

Thanks Derek, your post definitely covers my questions.

Hi Scott, I always appreciate the Chief support team who are almost everytime very helpful and polite. But i don't intend to complain about anyone, since these things can always happen. A representative could be ill, angry, upset, or just not in the mood on this day. So no worries, i just hope someone from Chief sees this post, and clarify things. Also i'm from the other hemisphere where the phone calls to the US is very expensive, and my spoken English ability is not perfect. I sent them an e-mail instead of calling, because i was afraid of misunderstanding. Maybe that was the reason for a little cold and uninterested behaviour.

Same here. I thought it was $50 for the primary licenses, and $400 for the additional ones, but looks like thins changed a lot.

Hello, I consider selling my X6 additional license, the process looks a little confusing than it was before. The customer representative i contacted was not helpful at all, so i decided to ask here. 1-) Aside from the 'fantastic' $895 license transfer fee that Chief demands, does anybody know the situation of SSA? My SSA will expire on July 8th, so the new owner of the license will have to renew SSA on this date? Or this $895 includes a new SSA service, so the new owner's SSA cycle will start from the date of the purchase between him/her and me? 2-) Just want to know, what will be the total transfer fee if i sell my both seats to the same person? These are from the 'End User Lic. Agreement': (b)The transferor or transferee must pay to Chief Architect, Inc. a license transfer fee for each license transferred to complete the process of transfer of ownership; © You may permanently transfer a current, valid and eligible license for the Software, for which full price was paid. (I paid $2150 for the software, and $395 for SSA, but now SSA is not optional, so the full price is $2695. Will Chief demand 2695-2150 as the transfer fee? What's the transfer fee for this option?) (d) You may transfer an Additional License and still retain other licenses of the Software only by paying to Chief Architect, Inc. the difference in price between the full retail price of the Software and the net price paid (including discounts and rebates) for each Additional License transferred. (Okay, $895) 3-) What if the buyer already has a Chief license, and wants to buy mine as an additional seat? Is this possible, or one could purchase a discounted additional seat only from Chief Architect Inc.? Thanks...