vikiw_bend

New laptop. Installed X16, copied my user library, templates, hotkeys, toolbars, textures, and everything else I thought was important from my desktop to the laptop. My user library contains many, many materials copied from manufacturer and bonus libraries, as well as some linked from the core libraries. (trying to minimize how many catalogs I have onboard). Now, on the laptop, these copied materials in my user library do not have their textures. I've tried downloading the relevant catalogs again, and in many cases, the material has no texture, even in the catalog's file. The warning of missing files references a folder in the Chief program file (referenced files) that doesn't exist on the laptop OR the desktop. I am at a loss. The laptop only has a C drive, and all documents, etc. go to OneDrive, including the Chief X16 data file. Is that part of the problem? If so, how do you go about creating a partition for a D: drive? I'm obviously in over my head, here, and could sure use some help.

Thanks!!

Hi, now that I have a desktop AND a laptop, I don't remember how to transfer Chief between the two depending on which computer I want to use at the time. Can someone help me out?

Please talk to the James Hardie people to update their Chief catalog. They have new products and new colors that I'm sure others besides myself are eager to use. There is an entire Artisan Siding collection and an Architectural Panel collection that have been on the market for over a year.

Is a plan database worth the effort? I keep plans in folders and subfolders on my hard drive (and cloud backup), It's easy in Windows Explorer to find a plan based on its category, subcategory, etc. I haven't used the plan database feature and wonder if it's worth a try. Can anyone speak of advantages/disadvantages of it compared with what I'm doing now?TIA.

Thanks for all the input. I've decided to get a 4090 for my desktop and juice it up, and for a laptop, get one that has the minimum to run Chief, figuring I will use the desktop for rendering, not the laptop.

Following. I also need a new laptop.

Joey, your elevations are beautiful. How do the different elements look when printed in B&W? I have a bit of time today to play with my elevation camera layer set, so thanks, Joey and Michael for the push.

But if I don't, the elevation is all too dark and heavy and doesn't read well. What I do instead is draw a polyline box around the foundation and hatch it, all using white, so the foundation looks like dashed lines. Guess I'll keep doing it that way.

Michael, There is no linestyle choice on the Edge Line Defaults, just line weight and color. Even in the plan, changing the linestyle on the foundation walls/footings/foundation does not change the camera view. I'm baffled.

Michael, you were right. But, I don't like the way the elevations look if I do not use Edge Line Defaults. So I'll figure something else out.

I have set the camera to show the below grade lines as dashed, but when I send the elevation to layout, the lines are solid again and have lost the weight and color I assigned. Since that's theoretically not supposed to happen, what am I missing?

I am embarking on selling stock plans and will need to offer a CAD package. I have never exported a CA plan or layout to .dwg and could use some helpful advice. First, I won't have any idea what version of ACAD the person is using. Second, do I turn all my layers on and select "all floors" - that would be the same mess I get when I import a .dwg. Or, do I open each plan view and cross section or CAD file and export each one as a separate .dwg? Or is it possible to export from the layout page to a .dwg? If so, will the person be able to isolate the different views in order to work on them? As you can tell, I'm completely clueless on this topic. Also, since I don't have ACAD, I'll send a sample plan to a friend who does to see if it comes through ok. Or, is there a cheap or free program that let's me look at the .dwg file as it will be to the end user? Thanks in advance.

That's really nice!

Hi Stephen, I checked out the other post as well, and you have some great ideas. I'm going to try them out. This has been frustrating, because I need to be designing and drawing stock plans, not spending so much time trying to learn another program (Twinmotion). I can pay for a few renderings, but until I start selling plans, I can't have professional renderings for each one of them. Chicken and egg situation, since the renderings are so important in grabbing the potential buyer, but I can't pay for renderings unless those potential buyers sign on I appreciate your input and the other input I've received from the Forum members. You guys all rock.

I pretty much tried to do that, but for me it wasn't as easy as you make it sound - Haha. Trying to get accustomed to the UI, figuring out what did what and then oops! didn't mean to do that. The usual rank beginner stuff. Now I'm back in Chief adding grass regions, learning to create bumpmaps of textures, to see if I can improve the rendering without having to learn an entirely different program. I'll muddle through one way or the other.

I can post the one I'm trying to work on right now. As for what I'm trying to achieve, whatever are the best looking ones on any of the plan websites, like e-plans.com, homeplans.com Zonda folks mostly didn't like the quality of the landscaping.

Robert, as I mentioned in my post, the folks at Zonda Media have declared my renderings (in Chief) to be unsatisfactory. I may be able to up my game in Chief, but it is the houses with actual photographs or photo-realistic renderings that sell the best, according to Zonda.

Thanks. Rene is brilliant.

At IBS recently, I talked with one of the stock plan people at Zonda Media, since my goal is to get into that market. I brought some examples, with Chief X15 PBR renderings touched up in Photoshop. They do not pass muster at Zonda, which dominates the stock plan market with several websites. I was told the renderings need to be more photo-realistic. Chief's rendering capabilities are better than ever, and are excellent for showing clients, contractors, putting on your website, etc. But apparently, if you want to sell plans on the market, you have to go a step further. Consequently I downloaded Twinmotion (they still have a free version with abbreviated functions) and I'm trying to learn it. Eventually I will need to hire out the rendering to people far more skilled than I, but I at least want to run a rendering past my contact at Zonda to see if it is more acceptable. Anyone have input on learning Twinmotion? Recommended tutorials? I keep making mistakes that aren't covered in the tutorial I've been watching. Frustrating.

Joe, that would be great. But I'm just looking to have external blinds over the full lite doors, as we have at our own house. I'm going to try Susan's method.

Mark - that's awfully complicated to accomplish something that Chief could add to the program as an option for doors. I think I'll stick to Susan's method.

Thank you Susan. I will try that. However, it is worth a suggestion to Chief to include that feature in a future release.

Hi, I'm ready to do a rendering of a new plan and both the guest suite and the primary bedroom have full-lite doors. Does anyone know of a way to place blinds over the glass area, as you can do with windows?

I changed the name of the file, rebooted the computer, and now there are no files in that C folder, but at least I'm not getting the critical error message now.