Seafield

A good utility program to have is CLEAN MY MAC. I use it all the time to clean up my hard drive from junk files it has accumulated. It will also remove applications you no longer need or want, especially including all the 'bits & pieces' of the application hiding in various hard drive folders. Deleting from the application folder alone is not enough. Cheers.

OK, now it is VERY clear how much I have to learn. Back to the Thea manual and videos once more, I guess......:) Thanks, Rene.

I use SKP all the time as an adjunct to CA. However, now I realize I could try to find SKP plugins that soften edges and do so to a CA model in SKP prior to rendering. Good 'heads up'. Thanks. David

I went on the Thea forum and took a screen capture of the particular thread in regard to the unavailability of Thea Studio. Happy to defer, Rene, if I got things wrong. - Very sophisticated thinking to be concerned about CA edges in renderings. Something more for me to learn about and factor in, for sure.....! Cheers. David

THEA RENDER (not KerkyThea) no longer has a studio version, just plugins. If you have Sketchup, then the Thea plugin will work through it. Another renderer is VRAY, also as a plugin for Sktechup, as well as a little gem called RAYLECTRON (simple and very powerful). TWILIGHT RENDER too, is also a plugin for Sketchup. 3DS is the best way to transfer a model to Sketchup, in my experience. ARTLANTIS can be accessed directly through 3DS, as well as MAXWELL RENDER and SIMLAB COMPOSER (affordable and quite clean). As I mentioned to you earlier today, UNITY3D or UNREAL ENGINE 4 are real-time engines, and unlike LUMION, are free. Realtime seems to be where the industry is going, including OCTANE for Unity. As is very clear on current forum threads, materials are a very big deal to get right---along with light. In the case of all 3rd party renderers, sky HDRI's are essential (Peter Guthrie/HDRMAPS), and there are huge sources available for 3D entourage (LAUBWERK, XFROG, etc.) I am just starting myself, so I agree, lots to learn about rendering....:) PS. I modelled the house in CA, modelled and brought in the hood from SKP, took the completed model over to SKP (via 3ds), put in shrubs by LAUBWERK and then rendered in THEA. I used an early morning sky from HDRMAPS. CA geometry is solid: just great to work with.

Excellent. I guessed on the square cut depth/width and the width of the plank. If you need it more precise, let me know. You are right: it is a lovely design element for a more spare classical detail. Cheers. D.

Thanks Mick. Much appreciated. David

On this one, the groove is 1/8" deep and 1/4" wide. The planks are 5" wide. The texture is white seamless. Only if this helps. Cheers.

Amaliya & Derek, I and still learning the process, but I am experimenting with taking my CHIEF models into UNITY (3ds, FBX or DAE--still trying to figure out the best translator), set up the entourage and PBR texturing there and then (as soon as available for MAC) will be buying the OCTANE plugin for Unity. It is now out, I believe, for the PC (unity.otoy.com). If one has been careful and precise, the geometry in CHIEF models is very good for porting over. Cheers.

Blender just came out with a real-time renderer called EEVEE. INSTANT LIGHT is also just coming out, and TOOLBAG always looks superb. TWINMOTION 2018 is coming out shortly with UE4 as its engine. It could be the perfect mix--with the following observations (which I am still trying to understand): ....."there is a difference [between the two], and it's mainly in the way the light behaves. II was really interested in Unreal engine, a while ago, looking at theses videos (vineyard challenge from ronen bekerman), but I discovered, while trying it, that the really good-filming-look came from a complex system of baked lighting. If you want to achieve the photoralistic result shown in the first part of the video, you have to carefully build your model, unwrap many things, check the way your objects are construct, and then wait quite a long time for the baking to be done. Then, you often have to go back and restart if some of the lightmap is not perfect. So, to my opinion, on the second part of the video, which is realtime inside Twinmotion, they seems let aside this lightmap system, to be fully realtime. My guess is that it's much more simple to use that way (but a quite inferior in term of photoreal look). Actually, the pseudo GI in realtime (I think it's something called lightmass in unreal), give rather good results, with a nice color bleeding." "For the moment we [TwinMotion] have taken all the real time side, so you will not yet have the quality that can be reached with the lightmass, it was far too expensive in ram and especially extremely long to generate. We have for the time being made this compromise, if not for the rest we have all of which lpv to simulate a global illumination in real time."

Hello Greg, I appreciate getting the image instructions. I have never really understood those settings--no matter how many times I read the manual...... As with Solver's comments, I will work through these explanations to further understand the roof tool and how to better use it for the present house design. With my thanks.

Hello solver, I will look at what you have done with care, but I see how it works much better than what I was attempting to do with the roof planes. Thank you for taking the time to do this for me.

I know I am doing a whole series of things wrong in mixing automatic and manual roofs on both main and 2nd floor. When I rebuild roofs I get an absolute mess of roof planes on both levels. Any insights on how to not only clean up my roofs, but figure out the right process moving forward (for the relationships between walls, rooms, roofs---and roof groups) would be very much appreciated. House high grade-2.plan

Hello Mr. Hall. I really appreciate you doing the video to help me understand, let alone resolve the fundamental problem I was facing with this terrain. I have to watch it a (quite) a few more times to see what I am doing wrong and how then to get rid of enough 'jaggies' in the terrain to smooth out existing roads and sidewalks, let alone any new hardscpe I have to put in. And as stated by Drawzilla and Mr. Sweeney, it is a great video. Many thanks. David Sorensen PS. An accurate observation: yes, it took me forever to give a height to each contour......

Hello. These images are from my first substantial project packaged into CA as one file for presentation purposes to our local jurisdiction for approval. I designed 6 house models, purged them of as many faces as I could, introduced some warm lights where they would come through in an elevation, then dropped them randomly into a 3 acre terrain as 35 symbols, w. road, 3D trees,shrubs, and (3D) flower boxes. I have also adapted textures and materials. I enjoyed playing with the sun, its angle, compass bearing, and colour. Very nice. I have a long way to go on my essential learning curve----even after a year of lurking here, many, many, pockets of ignorance are left to address....., but I am more than delighted with what I am beginning to sense is the real power and deep intelligence of this great program. Kudos to everyone at CA......! Critiques would indeed be helpful. David Sorensen PS. My many thanks to Jim Lawes, Kathleen Moore, Aaron ****, and Val Florio: they are as generous with their knowledge as they have been with their time. I am most appreciative.

Hello. Your kind offer is appreciated Mr. Hall. The file is attached along with a PDF showing the proposed concept layout in 2D. I was quite careful (I hope) in cleaning up the layers in the original file prior to bringing the dwg into CA. You will see the contour lines at their proper heights plus all the other lines of the survey showing the roads, sidewalks and buildings I need to put in. I am wanting to learn how to place a road on this file and make sure it runs smoothly across the terrian. This will also apply to sloping parking lots, etc. With my thanks. David Sorensen

Good day Folks. I was able to bring contour lines into CA and have created an accurate terrain for a new project I am working on. I would welcome any ideas as to how I can smooth out the terrain under existing roads and sidewalks (sloping)---and from there, how I can create (with cut and fill) smoothly new sloping parking lots and sidewalks, etc. With my thanks. David Sorensen I have X6 on the Mac.