Steve_Nyhof

I was reading this thread and not finding my answer. However, I had started my own thread and I found what I was looking for - maybe this was already assumed here, but I missed it... Maybe this will help someone else who stayed with X12 to move onto X14. 

1 hour ago, Renerabbitt said:

the building itself still lacks the secondary maps that would make it realistic

Ah! That is making sense to me now. I'm assuming the maps can be applied to my materials, like siding?
And I will look more into the backdrops - at the moment I am using the sky images
I plan on messing with it more tomorrow. I would like to get the grass down too

3 minutes ago, Renerabbitt said:

You are getting this look because you are not using supportive maps in twinmotion, such as normal/roughness/displacement/metal maps. I would also suggest using generated grass as opposed to a grass texture

Yes, little by little I am learning... I feel like I am getting a lot closer now... See posts just above
Thank you again for your help. 

Ok, so this is my final background at this point. I think it will serve my purposes very well. It should give anyone wanting to produce a nicer rendering than CA and possibly charge a nice $400+ , could be a nice way to make a few extra bucks. 
 

Video that explains some details and steps...

https://my-plan.stevenyhofdesigns.com/v/PokgzScay1fDf6NbeLD4

Here is the link to both the background.tm and the Grade folder... (will need to be unzipped - see detail in above post for more details)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RsesiBodBiwYzdtgY6il1r1eqF9ubjK1/view?usp=sharing

Dark siding house example without any changes to controls - just dropped in from CA with 3DS file - no grade


White siding house example without any changes to controls - just dropped in from CA with 3DS file - no grade


You still have access to many of Twinmotion tools to control lighting inside and out, add landscaping and material for your drive and sidewalk as needed.
 

Here is a little more that I am learning in Twinmotion...

https://my-plan.stevenyhofdesigns.com/v/aR1gwtogDEy6awDUQBKE

I've been messing with this and imported a white house, and for the life of me, I cannot get the house model and exterior trees, etc details to match. Meaning, the house just looks translucent, and no mater what I try to reduce the translucence it in twinmotion I cannot get what I want. Maybe someone at some point will have some work arounds. 

Here are the written steps to set this up... Video below
 

• Background1-One Story.tm has a little shorter trees so they do not over dominate the house
• Background1-Two Story.tm has a taller trees so they still show up in the background
• I am including the Grade.zip file in the new post - Unzip and put the Grade folder into the same folder as the .tm files. Make sure to keep copies of these files. Because I am in the East, I do not have southern trees.
  Example:
  > Your computer folder
  > > Grade folder (some images the .tm file will look for)
  > > Background1-One Story.tm (You can rename this to what your want)
  Example:
  > C:\Houseplans\Myhouse (folder)
  > > C:\Houseplans\Myhouse\Grade (folder)
  > > C:\Houseplans\Myhouse\Background1-One Story.tm (file)
• I have a small gray square that faces the front of the grade and a large circle where your house will land.
• Open one of the .tm files and hit Ctrl+I to import your 3DS model file - it should land right on the circle. All CA models are typically drawn in the center of the paper, and therefore the same coordinates should drop the model on the grade in the same place.
  Note that you may need to lower or raise your model to sit correctly on the grade
• The background trees can be manipulated with the Vegetation paint tool
• The foreground trees are individually placed and can be manipulated and moved

If someone gives it a try, let me know if it worked. It should give you a quick base to create fast renderings.

Here is a video that shows the steps

https://my-plan.stevenyhofdesigns.com/v/z9UMeq8JCC21eFkarg2U

See above for more context

Here is a quick run through to add your model to Twinmotion

https://my-plan.stevenyhofdesigns.com/v/z9UMeq8JCC21eFkarg2U
 

1 minute ago, Renerabbitt said:

This is true, as you are introducing new light sources..just like a camera you would need to play with settings to achieve your desired effect.
 

 

You would need to put them in a container and save the container. You can also save painter groups which is what I wouldve been using to generate the tree line
 

Very good! I will look into that - thank you

I found another post where users were trying to find better ways to generate more realistic grass, and further conversation brought me to Twinmotion to help me render elevations quickly.
Here is a link to what I learned and shared on setting up an environment with grade and trees that is ready to import your CA model...

https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/topic/24205-how-to-create-life-like-grass/?do=findComment&comment=284826

Here is the link to both the background.tm and the Grade folder... (will need to be unzipped - see detail in above post for more details)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RsesiBodBiwYzdtgY6il1r1eqF9ubjK1/view?usp=sharing
UPDATE: Updated background files and details at the end of this thread.

See steps in posts below to set up.
FYI, I have been overwriting the background as I have improved it - it now has grass added from Twinmotion.

50 minutes ago, Kbird1 said:

 

Haven't yet , been some time since I played with TM , but this might give me a head start if I find some time to play.

 

It is a pity Chief didn't adopt the UE5 Engine as TM looks pretty good these days.....

 

* you might want to copy these Posts to the Tips Forum , instead of leaving them buried here in a Grass thread .... hopefully others will add other Tips and Templates too then.

 

M.

Here is the link to the Tips forum

8 minutes ago, Renerabbitt said:

You can generate your own HDR skydomes so that you dont need to change the weather to generate clouds if you want them. You can also save different tree arrangements to your library

 

When I tested the skydomes, my shadows and effects did not seem to apply the same. Like it was covering the dynamics set by the tools. I have only just dug into this so learning as I go along. 

I also tried to make some grouping of plants, select the group in the right column and save to library, but it only takes my last plant selected in the list. That would be a great time saver for setting up fast landscaping, although I do not plan to do much. 

Thank you once again, directly and indirectly helping me get into rendering.

Steve

Here is a short video with Twinmotion in action...
https://myplan.stevenyhofdesigns.com/nOu1Pjk8

The Grade.zip files for the above .tm grades

Grade.zip

If you like. I have included two File with grade and trees.

• Background1-One Story.tm has a little shorter trees so they do not over dominate the house
• Background1-Two Story.tm has a taller trees so they still show up in the background
• I am including the Grade.zip file in the new post - Unzip and put the Grade folder into the same folder as the .tm files. Make sure to keep copies of these files. Because I am in the East, I do not have southern trees.
  Example:
  > Your computer folder
  > > Grade folder (some images the .tm file will look for)
  > > Background1-One Story.tm (You can rename this to what your want)
  Example:
  > C:\Houseplans\Myhouse (folder)
  > > C:\Houseplans\Myhouse\Grade (folder)
  > > C:\Houseplans\Myhouse\Background1-One Story.tm (file)
• I have a small gray square that faces the front of the grade and a large circle where you house will land.
• Open one of the .tm files and hit Ctrl+I to import your 3DS model file - it should land right on the circle. All CA models are typically drawn in the center of the paper, and therefore the same coordinates should drop the model on the grade in the same place.
  Note that you may need to lower or raise your model to sit correctly on the grade
• The background trees can be manipulated with the Vegetation paint tool
• The foreground trees are individually placed and can be manipulated and moved

If someone gives it a try, let me know if it worked. It should give you a quick base to create fast renderings.

Here is a video that shows the steps
https://my-plan.stevenyhofdesigns.com/v/z9UMeq8JCC21eFkarg2U

Background1-One Story.zip Background1-Two Story.zip

Many thanks to everyone in this thread to inspire me to step into Rendering my elevations beyond CA. Twinmotion was the key, and to answer the question of grass, yes, you can spend the time to make things even more real, but Twinmotion has a grass material with some options for roughness and striping that I think works great. Along with adding some trees to offer shade is a great look.

I spent a few hours watching videos, and then a view hours making up a few templates in Twinmotion. Now I can just import a 3DS format model into Twinmotion and it can be done - as shown in my example below (with no landscaping). Today I'm going to be working on some landscaping, and maybe coming up with a number of plants I like that I can save into the template and just move and copy into place.

Note that I imported my Terrain by itself as a larger grade slab into Twinmotion and painted that with the grass material (not the grass in the landscaping section). The I painted selected "random" trees to some depth so you cannot see through them, and then added specific trees to where and how I like them to look. I also set it up so that I can view the house model from the front, the left or the right and the background still works as expected. 

A big thanks to Renerabbitt! While I did not use his grass suggestions, I learned a great deal from his videos because they were more directed and relatable to CA. One big thing is to add to your model before export is some materials, slabs, etc that you want to paint in Twinmotion. I'm going to be working on this today for my dirt and landscaping areas. Enjoy the sun location and north (and other tools) to find the perfect look and shadows. Morning and evening shots with lighting inside the home are particularly satisficing.

One rule of thumb in a picture that just looks right, even though the sky seems to be less important than the other parts of a picture, we see more sky in our peripheral view. If you pay attention to most art of outdoors, landscapes, sunsets, etc. you will note that the horizon is at half or lower toward the bottom of the picture showing more sky.

On 11/10/2022 at 6:06 PM, madcowscarnival said:

I had not tried that, but will try and see what happens.  I did just find out that those tools work in "ortho" independently of what "plan" floor they are on.  Very nice.  It seems like it solves the problem pretty well, but maybe not with the correct method.

You just move them up or down to make your joins, then move them back to the floor where you want them to display in your plan.

3 hours ago, robdyck said:

Try this: turn on the display of the Walkthrough Preview. Move it to a secondary monitor so it is completely undocked from Chief. Adjust side windows as desired.

Close the Walkthrough Preview. Close Chief. Open Chief and review position of side windows.

Hi Rob,

I tried this in the exact steps, but it is still doing the same thing as the video shows.

Steve

I did just send this to support, but wanted to know if anyone else was running into this - perhaps unwittingly...

https://myplan.stevenyhofdesigns.com/ApuD7lOR

Ok, just to finish this... Resolved

I called Support and they had me click on the View > Toolbars button. And that worked.

However, for the record, that is the first thing I tried when I first ran into the issue, and nothing happened. But I did not check this button after I reset my toolbar in the Configuration - shown above on the first post.

To conclude, after setting the Active Configuration that you want to use, make sure to go back and click on the View > Toolbars button to make sure it is active

Thank you,

Steve

I just ran the Repair and that didn't help.

I have the list of toolbars showing, they just don't exist on my screen

I ran into this once before, where I open my CA and there are no toolbars on the top and side.

I found that my saved configuration was missing so I added it back in and set it default [ Switch To ]

Nothing happens. 

I even reset my toolbars and still nothing.

Any idea how to get my toolbars back?

Thank you,

Steve

1 hour ago, DeLayDesign said:

Hey @stevenyhof

I apologize if you've already received your answer.

If I'm understanding correctly; you're trying to create a custom object that you can then use as a shutter on your windows using the shutter feature in the window itself.

If so, simply building the object and adding it to your library may not be enough.

You'll need to create it as a 'symbol' first.  Luckily the newer version of Chief have made this much easier.

Once the object is made, Block it together, then simply right click the blocked object and in the dropdown select 'convert selected to symbol'.  It doesn't matter what you import it as (there use to be a specific shutter option), but once it's imported as a symbol you can access it in the window dialog box as a shutter.

Thank you. A friend reached out to me to show me how. Thank you 

1 hour ago, solver said:

 

Yes. Here is a dishwasher front used as a shutter, and a couple of chair shutters.

 

 

 

Think about how they would look/work when closed.

I think the DW is a good idea. That way you save space inside the house and bring them in when you need to load and empty them. 

I knew it wouldn't take much to get some good feedback here! Best forum on the net!