McQueen3D

I used to get plans either printed out or in PDF form. For a custom home that size with several custom features, I want to say 24 hours for the model, basic cabinets, basic terrain. Then it might be 6 additional hours for cabinet detail if I get cabinet elevations, and 6 additional hours for terrain elevation, retaining walls, landscaping, etc. Add about another day for walkthroughs, renderings, special floor plan views, etc. I think the turnaround used to be around two weeks.

Updated the NVIDIA driver and still has the same issue. Turning shadows off helped but it's like going back to version 9. I set it to Win8 compatibility mode and it started faster, but no help for the graphics. By the way, my 3D games are performing as well as under Win8, there is no difference.

I've updated to Windows 10 and the 3D performance on my Chief X7 fell through the floor. This in addition for the app taking several minutes to start. Before, everything was quick and snappy. Anyone else experience this?

Yeah, me too, but if finances require a second job/business, it needs to be one the wife wants to do with me.

If someone needs it I am willing to sell my CA X7 Premier license. SSA is active until December. Asking $2000 (includes transfer fee). If not I'll probably just let it expire. Probably will downgrade to HD Pro for hobby use, my wife and I plan to change to a business that produces a physical product.

Little tidbits of things here and there that you may not look at a lot but may need to refer to, I put in a \Development\Methods folder. That way I have captured the knowledge and can get it later if I need it. For example, what code block to use to make a Chief VRML export truly "walkable".

LOL. Chief got that door because I gave it to them. I built it. I might have done it with V10 or X1. They don't deserve the blame I do. The weird extra lines may have something to do with the fact that it was made from a slab with holes cut into it. Not sure why it did that there and not on the bottom panels.

You need to crop that down... no need to see acres of empty Chiefturf. But it does look a lot better.

I used to get my music from a company called "Opuzz"... they sell generic background music for a reasonable price. I have 2 CD's worth. I used to rip a track to combine with my walk-through video and my title slides in Windows Movie Maker or Pinnacle Studio. I'd still do it for a few bucks each.

Not that they're as nice as what I just saw, but I have some new renderings on Houzz (see link in signature). Has anyone come up with a good grass texture/rendering method yet for Phoebe?

In that price range you should be able to get a very fast i7 processor and a very fast single nVIDIA card for Chief. That's pretty much all Chief needs to rock. Then, what YOU might need to rock is a decent capacity SSD (totally puts major zing in your bootup and your Windows) a comfy mouse and keyboard with programmable buttons, and the biggest monitor (or monitors) that will either fit on your desk or can be seen with your eyeballs. If I had $4K to spend I could still get myself a whole new dadgum desk and a kick-butt boss chair.

Full parametric 3D modeling of chimneys/fireplaces with the ability to specify chimney cap, fire brick in firebox (or insert), hearth cap thickness and material, mantel type or thickness and material. It should be able to produce a technically accurate cross-section and floor plan view. The current tool dates back to before version 7 and is now visually pointless compared to the rest of the program.

If you have a fan running rough you can try to clean it and see if that helps. If there is room you could add another fan to the case. If you think one might be going out even after cleaning it you can replace it, they are not expensive relative the the components they protect. My CPU has a closed loop liquid cooling system, but I do have a few fans in the case and one of them does spin up when the CPU works harder because the computer generates more heat. I have control over the others via a set of knobs on the front of the case. There is also a little free app called Core Temp which will tell you your CPU speed and temp. I use this to let me know how hard the machine is working. It's most useful if you're an overclocker. I also use Intel CPUs which for several generations have had a feature which will shut the computer down before the CPU fries itself. They are also very reliable, and many are specifically designed to be capable of overclocking (running faster than its typical spec limit) which means in normal use there is some overhead. If you have or had built your system to run Chief and had good quality components installed, you may run your raytrace as long as it takes to get a good result. I've had older computers crank on them overnight at full bore and have never had any problems.

I don't remember if auto dormers have a wall type spec dbx, but if they do you can copy a wall definition and change its appearance in plan. That is also how I do cheek walls on manual dormers.