vikiw_bend

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.

Eric, when you say rename the file, you mean the online authorization file, yes?

I've been getting a Critical Error message and can't resolve it. I have full permissions, I can get to the file in question, but then what? Windows has been acting weird. So I wonder if doing a reset would be a good idea? Reset keeps your data files but removes programs. Does anyone know if it saves your .exe files, or does it delete those too? Anyone have a good solution for this Critical Error? The knowledge base didn't help enough. Criticall Error message details.psd

Our current Hardie library does not have the Architectural Collection products. Will whoever does such stuff please request an update from them? I'm eager to use some of these new Hardie materials

DH7777, it seems that most of the Chief expert users that I know of are now using the 4090. If that helps.

Hey Joe - what went wrong with the X14 plans you brought in to X15? I brought a couple plans in but haven't checked them out thoroughly. Were the problems obvious?

Perry, if we ever meet in person, I'll buy you a beer!

Perry! That worked!!! Thanks. Even Chief hadn't thought of that yet. You are awesome!

Hi Rob, It's been a while, hasn't it? I think I will try Perry's suggestion first before I open up the case. CA support and I are still trying various things, too. So far, nothing has made a difference.

I am running the latest update of X15, build 25.2.0.5.3, Windows 64 bit. The Nvidia driver is 535.98. Searching online, I learned that many people are having flickering issues with that driver, which was actually just released late last month. Just yesterday Nvidia put out a bug fix, 536.09. I downloaded and installed it, but it didn't fix the dashed line issue. I also went backwards to 531.41, that didn't help either. I tried unplugging each of my monitors in turn and trying Chief again, that had no effect.

HI Rene, Tech Support and I have been exchanging thoughts and questions and trying different things. The problem does not come up on their computer. So far, no solution. I hope they find an answer. That card cost a chunk of change! I also have a hard time believing such a quality card could be defective, but it's possible, no?

Also, in Chief, when you do something like export a .jpg of a plan view with lines that are supposed to be dashed, they come out just straight lines.

Yes, I updated the driver. In Chief, dashed lines aren't showing up dashed unless you zoom in, both in plans and in layouts. In general, while I'm typing text some of the letters momentarily disappear as though I haven't typed them, then they come back. There have been flickering issues with this driver, so I downloaded the bug fix that was released yesterday, but it didn't help, so I went back. I also rolled back to a previous driver version, that didn't help either. That's why I'm thinking something might be wrong with the card itself.