HumbleChief

7820x? Curious - what is that?

NICE

A thought I just had about my current system and that it is at least 5 - 7 years old and hanging right in there for every day Chief use. It slows down with large models but I think it only makes the point about buying as much CPU as you can afford and hopefully your PC will be good for many years to come.

I might add to the great advice from Graham that it is important to know how you will use your PC now and in the future. I built a dual Xeon PC because I did a lot of RayTracing and wanted the speed improvements of multi core CPU's. Now, I hardly ever do a RayTrace so the the Dual Xeons are not that much better for everyday 3D rendering and are actually slower than some of the newer CPU's at Chief's everyday tasks. I also upgrade my video card to try and improve overall performance and saw zero real world difference between my older card and the newest 1080. So bottom line is know how you will use your PC. If it is for RayTracing ( as opposed to 3D rendering) then you need as much CPU muscle as you can afford, Intel or AMD. If you do more 3D Rendering then perhaps a mid range video card will suffice but buying as much CPU power as you can afford will always be a good investment.. Motherboards? Will you overclock? If so find a board that's easy to accomplish same otherwise just buy a mid range good quality board as they are mostly very good these days. Also look for a motherboard that can accommodate the fastest hard drives. The newest M.2 SSD's can add a LOT of performance so make sure the MB can accommodate the fastest SSD's around. The chart below is always helpful when trying to decide between relative CPU performance https://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html Best of luck and please post with your decision and performance when you get your new machine.

Plan is in first post and the last couple videos show the 12" magic happening. Thanks again for your time.

Which I have done over and over again with the same results, there's an added 12" to the stem wall minimum in the foundation defaults dbx. Coming from where? I do not know but it's repeatable. Never name rooms other than a garage so that seems like an unlikely culprit.

Thanks Graham for your time. So let's say i want to set the default stem wall height for a crawl space in my plan. What (simple?) steps would I take and why? EDIT: unless it's not supposed to be simple in which case I understand...

Thanks Johnny. Yes your video makes perfect sense but it doesn't explain the behavior of my plan. I have 12" somewhere that gets added to the minimum stem wall height.for some reason that I can't figure out. Might indeed be my template but shouldn't any plan be able to set the default stem wall height and rebuild the foundation? Where is that 12" coming from? Dunno but thanks again for your time...

Thanks Perry but I never name rooms...

Tried it with the original plan with same results. Add the minimum stem wall to 12" and you get the proper stem wall height. Perhaps that 12" is spec'd somewhere else? Dunno but thanks for the help...

Is this expected behavior?

Another simple question - does anyone else have trouble with this simple task? Or are the steps very simple for everyone else?

Not yet, thought I was just stupid. Did you see that last video? Where I added up the 2 minimums and got the stem wall height? I'll do short version.

Perhaps you are right but doesn't it still beg the question as to how to set the default stem wall height? The dbx clearly states a minimum height for a stem wall but nothing specific, just a minimum. Isn't that just a bit bizarre? I just posted a video with really unexpected behavior or least nothing I would have ever guessed would happen. I added the 2 minimums together to get the desired result. Have you ever seen that happen or knew that it would?

OK, this is blowing my mind a little bit but I THINK I figured it out. If you add the min stem wall height and the min garage height you get the overall stem wall height. But wait, that's not how Eric's plan is behaving??? Or a blank plan from my template. Very confusing.

Thanks Johnny. Yes indeed if I delete ALL of my template plan and build walls from scratch (blank plan) the 18" minimum in the foundation defaults creates an 18" stem wall. My plan defaults to 30" every time and not sure where that number is coming from....

Thanks Eric. Might be a little easier to draw after setting defaults but I have a template plan that I use and would like to reset defaults from monoslab to stem walls. Can't seem to get it to work as expected.

Thanks but can't find a setting in defaults>foundation for stem wall height. There is a setting in Floors and Rooms>Current Floor but no matter what I set it to it turns back to 30" like it's picking up the 30" from another setting I can't seem to find.

Apologies in advance for my continued ignorance and frustration with Chief's structure dbx but what should be the simplest 'structure' tasks have eluded me for almost 20 years. I am trying to set the default stem wall height for a crawl space and for some reason the foundation keeps changing from the 18" I would like to what seems like and arbitrary 30". Dumbfounded, but I attribute that to simply not being as smart as I thought I was, or least feeling stupid every time I try and figure Chief's structure paradigm out. The long time forum members know how inept I am with the structure dbx and ignoring this post would be quite understandable but any help from anyone would be greatly appreciated. On a related note, within the foundation default dbx what is meant by Minimum Garage Height? Is that garage ceiling height? Just found it in help. It is the minimum garage stem wall height. Why can't the structure dbx simply state that? Sigh... Does this setting have any bearing on the default stem wall height? I keep getting 30" and can't determine where that number is coming from... Thank you stem_wall_height.plan

BUT...I think a key note tool is considered a very basic tool that should be included in any design software pretending to be a professional tool.

+1

Suddenly started working - have no idea what I changed. Thank for all the help!!!

Hey Jintu, hope you're well. Tried that and every other setting i could think of. Just added a sun angle to the plan view and still nothing show though the windows. Still thrashing.

Thank P. Moved it every which direction and angle, must be a setting? Still stumped. The sun changes on the exterior but doesn't show through the windows. Could have sworn it always did. Can't figure it out.

...argh - hate to post such stupid questions but I've spent an hour trying to figure out how to get sunlight to show though windows with a render (not RayTrace). I can change the angle of the sun but the light just won't shine through. Too simple I am sure but I cannot figure it out. thanks VERY much in advance. Here's my default setting/splan LIGHT_PLAN_1.plan