HumbleChief

So sorry to agree with you. Not sorry about the agreement but sorry that Chief will, in essence, never really be fast no matter how much hardware you are willing to throw at it. I have recently used some high end software from other vendors, in this case AutoDesk Inventor and Solidworks and you can feel the investment the programmers and by definition the company has put into the software, something I think you also feel when using Chief but in a not so good way.

I actually never had a problem with 3D performance, I just thought I did, and thought the 1080 would speed things up but it had no effect - again on 3D performance. And no doubt the 1080 tests so much better than the 780 but the 780 simply moves enough data fast enough to not see a difference in every day use for me on my system. It's most likely the single thread performance of my Xeons that is causing a bottle neck in Chief but the 3D performance has been very good to excellent, even with the older 780. One thing that owning a 1080 will do is give someone peace of mind knowing they have the fastest video card around and that can be valuable. One just has to measure that peace of mind against the actual cost/performance/value equation to have that peace of mind and whether peace of mind is an objective measure for computer video card performance. For me it's actually a toss up. I'm really happy I have the 1080 because it means I don't have to look at my video card for any performance boost. Would I take my own advice and buy a 1070 or any other lesser card next time? Dunno.

Yeah spend the $900 elsewhere to gain speed if possible.

Today's video cards are so powerful and Chief barely strains them even with large models. I my opinion $900 is a ridiculous amount of money to upgrade to a card that you will most likely not see noticeably better performance. Yes you will have a better, faster, video card and you won't have to upgrade for a while but the lesser 1070 will also last you years before you need to upgrade, and when you do, you will most likely upgrade the entire machine and every component will be better, faster and a better value. To Chop's point above I upgraded from an older 780 (I think) to the 1080 and noticed no increase in performance other than the placebo affect of knowing I had the latest and greatest video card.

That looks like exactly what I was originally looking for. How did you do that?

Thank you Eric but no, I was thinking of a way to accomplish the waterfall without a custom counter top, using just a single cabinet with a molding. I couldn't find a way to suppress and edge for moldings like can be done with a custom counter top. As soon as a custom counter top is created we are again dealing with multiple pieces. Works a treat but if you change the cabinet size, the counter top has to be changed to fit. Might as well use a couple slabs/custom counter tops for the edges as Chief (and others) have suggested. I would LOVE to be missing something.

VERY creative Eric - love the thinking outside the box. The only downside is to Johnny's point above about the lines showing in Vector view for those who care about such things. Otherwise should work in most cases. And darn, it almost works as a molding with a single cabinet but can't find a way to suppress the molding on the front side with a cabinet. Is there a way? That would be cool and quick.

Thank you for all the great replies and help and as usual Michael is always very helpful and the method he uses is good, expected and the method most obvious to most users. I was looking for a slightly different method that uses a single cabinet to create the same effect instead of the typical 3 pieces shown in the video above and most solutions. To that end there are few different techniques here, all good, all useful and all very helpful. So another thanks to all for the help.

Good option me thinks

Actually checked there first but didn't want to use that technique - wanted to use a single cabinet instead of 3 pieces which is why the question was posted as it was.

Not sure you have the right forum to figure construction costs but perhaps someone will chime in. I do not know modern construction costs.

They make an 8 x 4 x 16" block wouldn't that (13 1/2 courses) get you to 9 ft?

Like it

Interesting - I was trying to create just the waterfall counter top without any cabinets for a pretty unique situation (homeowners wanted to slide a table in and out from under the counter top) and didn't want to use 3 pieces (of anything) to do so and found a few limitations but found a way to get it done BUT, when trying to create a waterfall counter top with 'drawers' it turns out there's no way to use separate materials on 'panels' and 'drawers' so the method fails, unless you want to have a soap stone drawer front. Wonder why Chief would link panels and drawers to the same material and leave doors to their own separate material? I'll explore a little further. Custom doors/drawers separates the materials and results using just a single cabinet with panels seem acceptable.

I thought I posted something else in this thread but it got lost. Mark, I could not get this technique to work. I only got wider front filler pieces but nothing that filled all the way back like a panel.

Of course one could always place a couple of slabs (or cabinets that behave like slabs) next to a cabinet and always appreciate any input but I was looking for a way to create a waterfall counter using just a single entity, much more flexible and adjustable IMO.

Awesome Mark thanks so much!!

Thanks Mark With your plan how would you get 2" sides?

Mark how do you get the bottom piece to go away?

Thanks Kevin, I've always used p-solids as well but hate chasing 3 parts around, size resize etc. Found a way to do it with cabinets, is there a better way?

Would like to create one using a cabinet, can it be done? Slabs is easy but would like to use a cabinet if possible? Or best method perhaps?

Can you create a room where the stoop is and have the floor of that room stop the foundation wall from extending up? Post the plan for better help.

Good advice.

This is good advice though within that search hopefully you will discover why Xeons are not necessarily good for running Chief and in some cases down right bad. I have a dual Xeon system and would not go that route again.

In my opinion those 3 systems represent exactly what you get for your money these days, which each increase in cost you get that much more power. Do you need a fast computer for Chief? Do you build large models? If so and you can afford the last one it has the best components and should run Chief really well and is also a good price for what you get. I wouldn't worry about 'name brands' or whether or not someone else has heard of them as they are probably using the same components anyway.