Designer1

Hi, Im trying to make this a special bathroom, its the wifes special request. She just learned last week she has stage 4 cancer and has a husband and two young kids. The Drs said theres nothing they can do and she has no more then a year left. Im doing this project at no charge because I wanted to do my part to help the family enjoy the time they have left together. Today I met with them and they had a special request for a sit down vanity. Once I looked at the space I knew they weren't going to fit the vanity unless they gave up one of the two sinks and maybe a bank of drawers. The customer was saying she saw a fold down vanity that was really neat, one from the wall (im guessing from the description it was like a fold down ironing board style thing like in a laundry room???) another was a fold out and up from the lower drawers. Ive seen a lot of creative designs but never seen these two described items. Can anyone recommend anything of the sort and ideas for this? They do have a long blank wall that could fit a fold down type of vanity for make up application but not really any other space. Any ideas would be much appreciated! Thanks, Chad

Thanks for the input everyone! I still have to perfect the landings, curved winder stairs. Im still hoping in future releases they will come up with a complete customizable stair tool that is easier to use then the current custom stair way of doing it now.

Thanks for the reply. Oh man I was hoping the new stair tools would make customizing simpler. So to get the stairs that you show, basically is the same way weve done u stairs all along... start with a straight stair, start a new straight stair from the center of the first stair and press the ALT key to get it to curve? Also, if you have time... can you explain how you got the stairs to be so perfect? Every time I do a staircase like it gets messed up with uneven spaces, overlapped steps etc. So I usually just go for the straight stair with the plain landing. Thats why I was so excited because I thought we had these cool new stair customization tools.

In X9 it shows the stair tools with the option of the u shaped stairs. On that icon it shows winders. I have been trying to for a bit to figure out how to create or control the number of steps that would occur on the landing section to create winders. Does anyone know how to create the look of the u shaped staircase as shown on the u stair icon? Thanks! Chad

Thanks guys for all the input. I am completing all my other plans and the renderings are fine, so its probably just that one plan. I will go back make adjustments to the materials, make sure I have the photon mapping on and hope that it works the next round. Thanks again for all the advice!

Thanks for the reply. Ive come to the conclusion that theres a bug in the file. Im just going to do some patch work to get it to look its best and be glad to be almost done with it! I looked at the other successful raytraces in other files and they have the same exact materials and settings, so I know theres something wrong with the file. I did switch the texture to polish as it was on of the very few that werent the black shiny paint looking material that all the other ones seemed to be. Thanks again!

Hi, Im currently using X7 and for some reason one of my plans (so I know its my plan not the software) all the polished stainless steel in my raytrace is appearing completely black, like shiny black automobile paint not at all looking like stainless steel. Does anyone know why this is occuring and what selection I must be missing on the raytrace tab to be causing this to happen? Thank you! Chad PS. I closed the window before saving the raytrace and Id do another but since theres some kind of glitch it literally took almost 15 minutes just for it to appear on the screen from the checkerboard background. Thanks!

Jere, Thanks for the reply. I tried all those things and it didn't help. So I just finished for the day and closed up. Next day I turned on the computer and everything was back to normal... HUH??? Don't know why it didn't work turning on and off and restarting yesterday but today it worked. Maybe my computer was mad that I was working on a Sunday. Who knows, Im just glad its working again! Thanks again for the help.

For some reason chief is no longer acknowledging that chief blueprint is on my computer. I looked online and followed all the instructions to make sure its installed on my computer and of course it is, I have X7. I looked in my windows font folder and there it is. So why does chief keep saying missing font whenever I open a plan? It was working all this time and now it says its not on the computer. Any ideas? Thanks, Chad

Does anyone know if Chief can save a specific raytrace setting? For instance, I know you can save a setting per each plan but can you have lets say two settings, one for exteriors and one for interiors and be able to browse and select those settings for each of your raytraces regardless of what plan your working in? I was thinking about this today, as I was doing a lot of raytraces and it takes so much time adjusting the settings in each plan. Thanks in advance!

Thanks for all the input, I will give both types of 3d and regular trees a try again.

Michael, Thanks for the recommendation.. Do you know how to get the trees and plants to respond with the shadows as well? I can see the house and everything else has shadows just not the trees or plants. Thanks!

Is there a way to view shadows from trees in a raytrace preview before starting a raytrace? My issue is I keep starting raytrace and it prepares and runs for about 4 minutes before I see where the shadows are. Then I have to shut it down and move the trees again to get the shadows from the trees where I want them. There has to be an easier way to see this. Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks in advance.

Thanks guys for all the advice!

Does anyone know what selection on the build roofs tab would add a board between the exposed rafters so that you aren't viewing all the way up into the roof? This doesn't appear to build correctly even for exposed rafters so Im wondering if perhaps I forgot to check a box to get the cover board above the stucco wall and between the exposed rafters. Thanks in advance! Chad

Hi thanks for all the replys. Shane I don't have a full product plan to show Im working on the most challenging part first for the schematic design and roofing is where Im stuck at. Cheryl and Robert, I guess the challenge is when you have four units, most the time the roof planes formulate as one and then the individual roof planes cant be easily divided with the dividing tool. I guess this is good Im working on this project because I never have had to be so creative with different roof planes, materials and the like and have them all work together all in one building and look good. This exercise shows me that I need to spend more time with multiple materials and roof pitches/planes more because I don't have much experience in chief using these varieties within the same project. Thanks again!

Currently Im working on a townhouse project that includes four townhomes. I want to have four different architecture styles for each townhome, similar to old style row homes in the east coast. How is it possible in chief to accomplish four different roof pitches ie:ones flat (modern), ones at about 4 in 12 for Spanish style and the English and French styles are both around 8 in 12. Im finding it very challenging to be able to get different roof materials, tile and shingle etc and different pitches unless I click on each individual roof plane. I noticed coupling up the two 8 in 12 roofs then having the modern flat then the Spanish roof at the end seems best but the roof materials etc are an issue. Any ideas?? Thanks in advance!

Thanks Alan!

Does anyone know how to access or export a chief texture so you can adjust or make a bump map in a third party software? I tried accessing the grass texture but can't seem to export it. I know how to get materials imported to become textures but exporting the chief grass textures I can't seem to figure out. Thanks for any help!

Jintu, very interesting suggestions, I really like that. I never thought about rendering the house and then taking the rendering into photoshop. I will mull over some of these new ideas, thanks so much for sharing. It would be nice if chief could learn some of the ways revit/3d max has their renderings software and implemented that into chief, it would definitely save everyone time. Thanks again!

Jintu, I know we have talked a lot in the past about rendering settings etc...do you use a third party software to do textures like the one you posted with the link or do you use a completely different program like artlantis or something like that to do renderings with better textures? I noticed on your website you have lot of renderings with more realistic grass textures, did you use chief or import specialized textures you made? This whole grass things has me stumped. Everything else textures in chief you can improve the look to make it appear realistic whether trees, marble, wood floors but grasses seem to be lacking a realistic look. Thanks!

Thanks Jon and Jintu! Jon, I will check that process out and give it a try. Jintu, your right that program looks great. Is it something you download or just upload a picture? It says donate, so I wasnt sure if its freeware or? Looks very interesting at the very least!

Jon, thanks for the reply. Do you have any advice on how to create bump maps in a third party software to get good results? Lets say for a grass texture? I haven't had to make one before so, Id like to get your advice on this since you have experience doing this. Thanks!

I have seen over the years adding bump maps to textures makes them more realistic looking in raytraces. Does chief have bump maps in the libraries somewhere or do you have to make them yourself? If you do it yourself, does anyone have any experience making them? Thanks, Chad

Thanks for the input!