RodCole

I don't have the time right now, but you may want to work with someone who has Premier and HD Pro and knows how to use both working in concert. If you don't mind, tell me a bit more about what you are wanting to learn and what the majority or your work is and I may be able to help out a couple of weeks from now. Send me a PM if you would like to follow up.

Paul I am intrigued by what you are proposing. I have both the construction background and the experience using Chief Architect to acquire building permits that could be beneficial to you and your projects. IM or reply here If interested. Rod Cole

Charles My work is mostly in the Portland OR area, but I do work outside of that area as well. I have a background in engineering and work with a Structural Engineering Firm in the Portland area that is licensed to work in Washington State. You mention having Home Designer and now the Architect version. I take it you mean that you are now using the Home Designer Pro program, correct? I have both the Home Designer Pro and Premiere versions of Chief Architect and can work in either version you choose. If everything is set up properly, most elements relating to architectural design can be moved between Premiere and HDP, that way you still have a working copy of your design. I would recommend using CA Premiere for the construction documents. I would be happy to talk with you regarding the list of concerns you have relating to engineering, construction, and design. If you are interested, please reply to this thread and then we can make arrangements to talk. Rod Cole

I have experienced the same issues as Michael when using round tubing for exterior handrails. I ended up importing solids that I made up in another 3D program. My bad, I had it on my list of things to report but did not report it at the time. I will follow up now. Thanks for reminding me.

Craig I might be interested in working with you if I knew a bit more about your projects. I do the type of work you appear to be looking for as I have held the position of CAD Drafter on many occasions. Freelance work is no problem for me since I have my own corporation and any benefits are my own issue. BTW, I can work with either Home Designer Pro files or Premier. Good luck on your projects.

Interesting thread. I did not read every comment in detail, but I would like to add that I use tape measures and the electronic version as well as custom grid paper for capturing measurements on paper. I have found that having a good paper reference can be very helpful since measurements in Chief will change if anything is moved. Nothing not mentioned above that I could see, but I would add that I find it very helpful to use a laser level to shoot elevations of the Floor and Ceilings as well as exterior site. I have recently purchased a telescoping tripod to make it easier to adjust the elevation of the laser level line. This is very helpful when there is a need to transfer an elevation mark from one location in a building to another location. I am also considering the idea of making a custom mounting base for the laser level that would allow for adjusting the line from side to side. This would be very handy for referencing ceiling plane ridges. I use this information to create construction lines in Chief on working layer sets and final drawings.

Love your work. Can you tell us a bit more about your work processes and the type of projects you do?

Thanks so much. I will give that a try.

I really like working with the Construction Line feature, but I have found that when I change the Line Style to say what looks like a traditional Phantom Line, then the Callout Bubble also assumes that Line Style and ends up looking broken up. There are times when I really do want to use these rather irregular, but useful, Line Styles. Just curious what others think about this and if anyone has requested a fix for this yet before I send in a request.

I have both an MSI laptop with a 3060 card and an MSI laptop with the 3070. Both are very fast, but the 3070 by design has about 10 percent better performance and better cooling. If you intend to do a lot of graphics work I would get a desktop for high end heavy duty work, but for basic work either the 3060 or the 3070 will not disappoint.

I recently put in a feature request to have Construction Lines display in a Wall Detail. Just another feature that can help framers and others visualize how the wall framing lines up to other walls in the floor plan and section views. You could do this in a section view, but there are times when the Wall Detail is a little less complicated to set up and use.

Lately I have been experimenting with lowering the backdrop intensity with generally good results. Depending on the render I sometimes bring it down to 10 or less and punch up the scene with additional lighting.

bdillard1 Do you mind following up on this render to show others what you have found that works best for this particular render? The reason I ask is that it is this type of situation that can be most helpful to others who are also trying to learn Chief's rendering tools.

Nice work Eric This will probably help quite a few other folks who are trying to learn Chief's rendering tools.

Just a bit of follow-up no what Eric said about the backdrop intensity. What I find is that at times it can be helpful to drop the backdrop intensity even below 200 in some circumstances. No specific recommendation, just lower it a bit and do a test until the image cleans up.