Chief_Content

Hi @StephanL ! There isn't really a specific tool in the Chief Architect Software family explicitly for breaking up components from existing objects. You may be able to find different elements like feet, hardware, doors/panels, etc. in 3D Library to use to assemble new objects. Here are some catalog that have 'bits and pieces' to get you started, there are many more/other options too! Cabinet Doors Cabinet Doors No.2 Cabinet Feet Cabinet Hardware 1 Cabinet Hardware 2 There are plenty of clever Chief Architect users here who have devised ways to do more intensive modeling within Chief Architect Premier. You may find that there are some limitation in the available feature set in Home Designer Pro, however.

Hi @StephanL our software products offer a tool called "Architectural Blocks" which allows you to group and store your favorite objects as a single unit. Here are some resources that describe this tool: Chief Architect's Features: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00499/editing-architectural-blocks.html Home Designer's Features: https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/support/article/KB-00191/creating-an-architectural-block.html We'd love to see what you've made!

The content team is continuing to work towards offering more catalogs for download to expand your decor and product options. Here are some of the most recent additions, in case you haven't gotten them yet. Brands: Composit - Luxury Italian Kitchens Mercury Mosaics Nobilia Bonus: 3D Plants - Vases and Pots No.2 (check out this fun announcement video) Cabinet Doors No.2 Cabinet Hardware No.2 Exterior Fence Panels No.2 Hobbies No.1 Gardening If there are brands that you would like to see available as Chief Architect digital catalogs, please reach out to your reps. or directly through social media posts to let them know how useful downloads are for your work. You can tag @chiefarchitect when you post to include us in the conversation, and share our partner information: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/partners/catalog-partner-program.html Please send requests for bonus content to: content@chiefarchitect.com

I have seen some concerned posts regarding a 3D plant catalog we offer for sale that is not available to Chief SSA users. After some explanation, the original author decided to remove the post, so I wanted to be sure everyone else has access to this information. Please let me clarify, if you are a current SSA member, you have had access to these objects AT NO EXTRA CHARGE, for years. We have not changed that. You can get the full selection of 3D plants here: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/3d-library/index.php?r=site/detail/795 This is a large catalog of ~600 3D Plant objects. For various reasons, we restricted access to this large catalog for our Home Designer products since its initial release; one reason is performance. To better support Home Designer users, we have begun breaking the big catalog in to more manageable sized chunks, like the recently added 3D Plants - Edible Garden catalog. Home Designer users don't pay for SSA, (for Chief Architect users, SSA provides access to the majority of catalogs, plus many brand catalogs that are not available in any form to Home Designer software products). You'll see that this HOME DESIGNER ONLY catalog is not accessible via SSA for this very reason. If you are a Chief Architect SSA user, please do not purchase these HOME DESIGNER ONLY catalogs, instead, download the inclusive catalog at the link above. You'll see in the description for any catalog on the 3D Library, there is a breakdown for the products the catalogs are intended to serve. Please review these details before downloading and purchasing catalogs to ensure you are the intended audience. You can also set up a filter for your view of the 3D Library, so you aren't bothered with the noise of catalogs that are not available for your current product. The 3D Library's interface will show any catalog with its corresponding Software version number. X12/2021 is the code base that generates our most current Chief Architect Products and our Home Designer Software products (at the time this post is being written). Your best bet is to leverage the product filters so that you get the most clear view of product compatibility. A final note, as part of the process for managing this particular set of catalogs, we made some updates and improvements to our 3D Plants and the accuracy of the data. If you already have the 3D Plants catalog, remember to update your library to get the most current additions and data for these objects. Thanks! Adrean Stephenson, Content Development Manager

Hey @Designer1 it looks like @robdyck is on the right track. It appears that there is a name collision between the images referenced for this backdrop and the material in Barker Cabinets. We typically try to using a unique naming system when setting up any materials, image, and backdrop references in the catalogs we distribute, but it seems that we missed this one. As Robert mentions above, you should be able to copy the Backdrop with the trouble from the Core Catalogs, then paste it into your User Catalog. You can then edit the backdrop, and re-associate the correct image to the Backdrop in your User Catalog. In the meantime, I'll ask our team to look at this and see if it is still an issue in the X12 version of the catalogs; if so, we'll do what we can to remedy the issue in our updated catalogs. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Hey dskogg, I think this might be what you are after... https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-01203/creating-a-custom-sink-hole.html You'll need to size a CAD object for your counter top hole and block it together with your sink CAD block. Making the counter top CAD hole smaller will let you hide the flanges.

Chief Architect's Content Team has recently released new and updated catalogs. Visit the 3D Library to download these and see what else you may have missed. Brand Catalogs: Dacor The Quarry Mill UltraCraft Cabinetry Bonus Catalogs: Accessories No.12 Family Command Center Commercial No.3 Facilities Management Design Trends No.1 Maximalism / Biophilia Door Hardware No.5 Interior Knobs Kids No.2 Kitchen Accessories No.6 Containers MEP No.7 Exhaust Fans Style Palettes

Over the years, the Content Team has been working to provide state-of-the art tools to improve your designs. In 2018 we added realism to your kitchen designs, in 2019 we helped bring super-shine to your floors. We are happy to be working on your behalf again with the release of our latest utility - Home Accessories. You'll find easy ways to quickly emphasize traits of the houses you design. Make your smart house smarter, your cottage cuter, and your southwestern more... well, western. Visit the 3D Library soon, these will only be available for a limited time!

As we wrap up 2019, we are glad to get an opportunity to look back at the catalogs we've been able to release and update for our users! Have you gone to the 3D Library and Downloaded catalogs in the last few months? If not, here are some of our recent offerings you can expect to find. Brand Catalogs: Aspire Cabinetry Barker Cabinets The Galley Woodland Cabinetry Bonus Catalogs: Accessories No.11 Signs Docks and Waterways Lighting No.14 Mirrors MEP No.6 Specialty Electrical Man Cave No.6 Sports Fanatic Man Cave No.7 Audiophile Materials Fabric / Wallpaper No.2 Tack Room We've also made updates to a variety of catalogs, make sure your use the Update Library Catalog feature to ensure you have the latest content!

Thanks for bringing this up @RobUSMC. We import RGB data sheets directly from the paint brands to create the catalogs. We'll reach out to ensure we have the most current information.

We are happy to share recent updates to the catalog content available for download! There is a selection of new catalogs and also some "New and Improved" that have been repackaged and enhanced with more granular selections of objects (see lists below). We plan to continue to add to the selection of these and other catalogs that we offer. Use the 'Update Library' command to automatically get the latest updates, and visit the 3D Library to see what's new-to-you. Our recent releases... New Bonus Catalogs: Lighting No.13 Long Chandeliers 3D Plants - Hanging Planters Exterior Roof Attachments Bathroom Fixtures No.5 Commercial Repackaged / Updated Catalogs: Man Cave No.5 Rat Pack Recreation No.4 Games Recreation No.5 Sports Recreation No.6 Playground and Park Vehicles No.1 Recreation Vehicles No.1 Utility Brand Catalogs: IAM Designs Vadara Quartz Surfaces Sensa Greenfield Cabinetry Siteline Cabinetry Bellmont Cabinet Co. Decor Cabinet Company As always, we love to hear from you! If you have suggestions for new content and branded catalogs, please get in touch: content@chiefarchitect.com

General Updates Update 7-20-2023 Removed the Beta tag from all the builders and put the Chief Architect tag in the file. Tile_Builder Parameters Here are some of the options you can adjust within the Tile_Builder_Beta. Output Size: Drop down lists with resolution sizes. Random Seed: Click the Randomize button to get different material images and tile layouts. Shape: Choose the shape of your tile. Tile Layout: Choose how you want your color and material types laid out. Offset: Adjust the horizontal offset of your tile. Tile Edge: Adjust the sharpness and size of your edge profile. Grout Width: Sets your grout width. Grout Color: Choose the color of your grout. Tile Material: Selects different materials for your tile. Tile Material Scale: Scales your material to make it larger or smaller. Tile Color: Choose the color of your tile. Tile Color Variation: Randomly adds variation to get non-uniform color. Tile Finish: Drops down to different finish/glazing options. Tile Roughness: Controls how shiny or matte your tile looks. Tile Hue: Changes the hue of your color, good for fine tuning. Tile Saturation: Changes the amount of color in your tile. Tile Lightness: Changes how light or dark your tile is. Update 11-26-2019 Tile Builder -Dropped Beta tag -Added a resolution drop down "Output Size" for bigger/smaller texture options Higher resolutions will let you get smoother edges on non-square tile patterns and the added pixel count will allow for thinner grout lines. Higher resolutions can also clog up your machine and Chief if you use a lot of them, so unless you aren’t getting the look you need, I’d stick with 512 or 1024 output sizes. Map responsibly. -Added Picket Tile and Penny tile to the shape drop down -Changed “thin tile” to 4:1 tile -Added a slider for Grout width. Again, if you need thinner grout then what’s being shown, you’ll need to up your resolution under Output Size. -Added a color selector for tile color, behaves just like the grout color options. If you want an eyedropper, open the color selector and hit “pick.” Color Hue is still included for fine tune adjustments. Keep an eye on your hue if you eyedrop to another color and it’s not matching, more times than not your color is being skewed by the hue slider. -Added a color variation slider to get some non-uniform color. Randomly darkens some tiles to varying degrees. -Added a finish drop down for hand glaze options. Update 10-21-2020 -Added some new Shape options Changed Large Tile to 1:1 large Tile Added a 2:1 large Tile Triangle Patter Elongated Hex Elongated Diamond -Added image inputs on each material drop down You should see a slot to add your image when selecting ~image input in the “Tile X Material” dropdown -Added a Material Invert for those that want white marble with grey veining instead of Black marble with White veining, etc Update 1-20-2021 -Added a "Material Scale" slider to each tile type Scale can be set anywhere from 0% to 500% Update 10-31-2022 -Added more tiles to the 1:1, 2:1, etc so a 1/3 and 1/2 offset both work without breaking the seam. Update 6-22-2023 -Added an "~Image Input RAW" as a material selection that will let you feed in an image and keep its color. This selection bypasses the color picker and inverter control but everything else (hue/saturation/lightness/variation/etc) should work properly. Wood_Builder_Beta Parameters Here are some of the options you can adjust within the Wood_Builder_Beta. Random Seed: Click the Randomize button to get different material images and tile layouts. Wood_Species: Select the species of wood you’d like to work with. Cut: Select what kind of pattern you’d like to make. Hue, Saturation, Lightness: Adjusts the color of your wood. Board_Color_Variation: Varies the colors of the wood along cut lines to help show the pattern and ad variety. Roughness: Controls the roughness or polish level of your floor. Image_Input: Added a slot to enter your own wood images and slice/adjust them as needed. Wood_Species needs to be set at "~Image Input" at the top in order for the image to show. UPDATE 4-29-2020 Wood Builder -Cleaned up a lot of the Knotty/Rustic options. They were bad, they should now be less bad. -Added an image input. WoodSpecies needs to be set at "~Image Input" and you can load whatever image you want into the builder. I recommend using seamless images, otherwise you might get some strange edges in your boards. -Added a shiplap option in teh "Cut" dropdown UPDATE 10-26-2020 -Added Resolution selection -Added an Orientation selector -Added "Weathering" effects sliders Single_Color_Fabric and Multi_Color_Fabric Parameters Here are some of the options you can adjust within the Wood_Builder_Beta. Random Seed: Click the Randomize button to get different material images and tile layouts. Fabric Type: Selects different types of fabric. Color: Selects your fabrics color Color Hue: Changes the hue of your color, good for fine tuning. Color Saturation: Changes the amount of color in your fabric. Color Lightness: Changes how light or dark your fabric is. Masonry_and_Stone_Builder Parameters Here are some of the options you can adjust within the Masonry_and_Stone_Builder. Output Size: Drop down lists with resolution sizes. Random Seed: Click the Randomize button to get different material images and tile layouts. Shape: Choose the shape of your stones. Pattern Layout: Choose how you want your color and material types laid out. Stone Cleavage: Roughs up the face of the stone with more stone character. Stone Roundness: Rounds off the edges of the stone. Wany Edge: divides and warps the lip of the stone for more uneven looks. Offset: Adjust the horizontal offset of your tile. -Only on offset-able shapes. Margin Fill: What shows between the stones. Margin Width: how much space shows between stones. Margin Hue: Changes the hue of your color, good for fine tuning. Margin Saturation: Changes the amount of color in your Margin. Margin Lightness: Changes how light or dark your Margin is. Stone Material: Types of Stone. Stone Roughness: Roughness of the Stone. Stone Material Scale: Changes the scale of the character on the stune. Stone Invert: Inverts the Stone Character. Stone Color: Color of the Stone. Stone Color Variation: Adds random variance to the Stone for variety. Stone Hue: Changes the hue of your color, good for fine tuning. Stone Saturation: Changes the amount of color in your Stone. Stone Lightness: Changes how light or dark your Stone is.

Our Content Development Team has been churning out new PBR friendly materials over the past few releases. These are materials that include a combination of Normal Maps, AO Maps, Roughness Maps, and Metal Maps. We use a software specifically designed to generate custom materials for 3D Rendering called Substance Designer. The program leverages parametric values to control sizing, colors, pattern, and other elements to generate unique tile-able texture maps along with automatically producing the other relevant maps need to create the effects that you expect to see in PBR (GPU Ray Trace) and CPU Ray Trace views. Our process includes generating individual materials then importing them into Chief Architect and distributing the catalogs that you download and use. This converts the parametric materials into static images that aren't as flexible as those that are created in the Substance Designer Program. Much like the Client Viewer and 3D Viewer products that are available for use with Chief Architect, Substance offers a product that allows others to leverage the parametric files to create their own custom materials... without needing to be an expert of the full-fledged program. We would like to invite you to try it out and create your own custom materials from the file we've set up for Tile. How does it work? First of all, a healthy understanding of how materials work inside of Chief Architect is a good starting point, and we just happen to have a couple primer videos ready for you here. Once you understand how Chief Architect behaves with different properties and maps, you can dig right in and make your own maps using Substance Player (a free download) and these source files we've set up to generate materials. Just download the Substance player from the link below and use it to open the builder SBSAR files you wish to work with. To assist, we have a quick video showing how to use Substance Player to get your custom maps into Chief Architect: Substance Player (Download) Chief_Architect_Tile_Builder.sbsar Chief_Architect_Wood_Builder.sbsar Chief_Architect_Masonry_and_Stone_Builder.sbsar Chief_Architect_Single_Color_Fabric.sbsar Chief_Architect_Multi_Color_Fabric.sbsar Chief_Architect_Ornament_Builder.sbsar We'd love to hear what you think. Is this useful? Are there other material types you'd like to try with the Substance Player tool? Voice any requests or questions here, or via e-mail to content@chiefarchitect.com . Chief Architect is not affiliated in any way with the Substance Designer or Substance Player software programs. Chief Architect will not be able to offer any support for the Substance software products or files. Using the program and files is completely voluntary. Substance compatible files are provided simply as a gesture, with no guarantees, extended to give access to more material options for those who are interested.

Thanks Kbird! We are revamping this catalog and will be breaking it into some sub-pieces while adding more variety of similar objects to the new groupings. I've paused service for new downloads on this older version of the catalog in anticipation of transitioning to the updated catalog in the next few months.

As 2018 came to a close, so did many updates and additions of X10 Catalogs! If you haven't gotten the latest versions for your designs, I implore you to make this one of the easiest New Year's Resolutions to check off of your list. Use the Update Library command to automatically get the latest updates, and visit the 3D Library to see what's new-to-you. Our recent releases... Bonus Catalogs: Accessories No.10 Bells and Chimes Corbels and Brackets No.2 Shelving Corbels and Brackets No.3 Gable Country Primitives / Farmhouse No.1 Country Primitives / Farmhouse No.2 Door Hardware No.4 Doorbells Home Essentials No.3 Security Man Cave No.1 Outdoorsman Man Cave No.2 Hot Rod Man Cave No.3 Gamer Man Cave No.4 Brew Master MEP No.4 Fire Sprinklers Storage No.6 Shelving Units Brand Catalogs: Homecrest Cabinetry Kemper Cabinets Omega Cabinetry Schrock Cabinetry PentalTek As always, we love to hear from you! If you have suggestions for new content and branded catalogs, please get in touch: content@chiefarchitect.com

Hi Friends, We've released another update to Core Materials! From the Library Menu, choose Update Library Catalogs to get the latest changes. In this revision, we've improved the materials in the following areas... expect to see some new selections and improvements to existing items. Lava Rock Naturals Stained Concrete Framing PSL and LSL Materials Additionally, we've made enhancements to the Buechel Stone catalog, including better scaling and more Normal Maps. We also made improvements to the Materials Metal Bonus catalog. This catalog was originally intended for the Home Designer crowd, who don't have access to the Ray Trace and PBR Rendering Technique. The improvements in Material Properties on these look pretty nice in PBR for professional users too! AND... Stay tuned for the next Bonus Catalog release... this should be available very soon, and has even more selections of materials to leverage in your designs. As always, please share with us what you would like to see in future catalogs (content@chiefarchitect.com), and help us connect with your favorite brands. Tag "@chiefarchitect" along with the brand in your posts on Facebook, Instagram, and "@chiefsoftware" on Twitter.

Yes, we do! You can download these catalogs in Chief Architect format directly from the 3D Library. https://3dlibrary.chiefarchitect.com

Mark, it is so awesome that you did this work and shared it! It's bee a while, but for those who haven't seen the announcement elsewhere, these catalogs are now available in the Chief Architect format! You can download them and other catalogs from the 3D Library.

These catalogs are now available for download from Chief Architect's 3D Library!

These catalogs are now available for download from the 3D Library. If you haven't yet, check them out! https://3dlibrary.chiefarchitect.com/index.php?r=site/detail/1070 https://3dlibrary.chiefarchitect.com/index.php?r=site/detail/1071

Susan, thanks so much for your efforts with the Sub-Zero and Wolf catalogs... they paid off! If anyone hasn't gotten a chance to download them yet, these catalogs are available for download from the 3D Library. Your voices are powerful, what's next?

We are happy to share that the Brizo and Delta catalogs are now also available for download from the 3D Library. These objects are set to work as Chief Architect objects, and will import into the "Manufacturer Catalogs" area of your Library Browser.

Delta's and Brizo's catalogs are now available for download from the 3D Library! It appears that we don't have the complete catalog from Delta (it primarily contains faucets), but we hope to have access to the entire product line in a future update. A GE catalog is currently in development. We hope to be able to share it with you soon!

Sub-Zero and Wolf catalogs are now available for download on the 3D Library! We've also added Brizo's catalog, and Delta's Faucet line as well! We are currently working with GE to generate a catalog download, this one has taken a little longer than expected to complete, but we hope to have something available in the coming weeks. Please continue to connect with your favorite brands and to share with them how important it is to have access to Chief Architect compatible catalogs. Thank you to those who continue to pursue this!

Hi kauai7 - The Lahara Lavatory Faucets are available in the Delta catalog available for download from the 3D Library. https://3dlibrary.chiefarchitect.com/index.php?r=site/detail/1077 We don't currently have the shower hardware available in this catalog, it is possible that Delta has not yet generated the 3D Models for these components. Hopefully more will come in a future update!