HumbleChief

http://www.chiefarchitect.com/products/samples.html#plans

Scott there is no 'Indoor High Quality' Setting per se. There is one that comes stock with Chief but has been altered a lot in my usage. However within that setting are 'settings' that we could duplicate but we would need a screen shot of the settings your are using. What setting is 'lots of focal blur'? Also wouldn't running the RT for "no more than 1 hour" just give us an RT that ran for the same amount of time? How about a number of passes instead? Then we could compare times instead of all having the same time?

That's random roof underlayment. Try messing with the roof planes in no particular way, just pull them in a couple different directions and see if you can get it to go away.

Scott, A couple questions for you. What coolers are you using, and if you don't mid telling what did you pay for your system. Oh yeah what file are you using for the time you posted?

Graham I believe Scott's time is 1:45:00. 1 hour 45 minutes 00 seconds but can't really be sure.

Which version of Win 8 do you have? The lower versions only support one processor. EDIT: Not sure that's true do more research. http://superuser.com/questions/495105/how-many-physical-processors-does-windows-8-support http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-hardware/can-someone-point-me-to-a-clear-and-coherent/01bf018e-c1c4-4cb5-99fe-3091731080c9

No time right now Scott but if it were me I'd google the problem and see what fixes there are out there. Here's a start. https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=only+1+xeon+processor+showing

My dual 6 core Xeon processor system shows 24 cores and when I Ray Trace all 24 are pegged at 100%. Maybe there's a bios setting to increase cores/usage?

That should do the trick.

Attic wall behavior was changed in X6 and X7. You actually have to delete the attic wall twice to get it to auto-rebuild. X5 would auto-rebuild instantly. http://www.screencast.com/t/bBOzMboP8db

Doesn't look like either piece of advice is correct. I always thought that attic walls rebuilt themselves when they were deleted. Can't get that to happen. Selecting 'gable wall' still creates an attic wall - at least here it does. Really bizarre. Can't get attic walls to auto re-build. Thought that was a no brainer. Oh well. Basil you can always go to the attic level and move that attic wall into position. There's also a small icon that aligns wall above and below. You can also check 'balloon through ceiling above' in the structure tab of the lower wall if you want to eliminate the attic wall.

That's pretty impressive Joe. Nice work.

That gable wall is an attic wall. Just delete it, it should regenerate properly. If not hit At Q and make sure rebuild attic walls is checked

Thank Perry That's my usual MO as well unless I need/want to change a ceiling height and can't because of that message. This 3 story house had that message coming and going and I was/am dumbfounded as to why it occurs sometimes. I went to the garage to change heights and couldn't because of that message. Went to the floor above and quadruple checked the floor heights and couldn't find any that 'varied'. Just muscled my way through and I THINK I have it dialed in now but am not sure when it will change again, or why.

The mind is an amazing thing and mine no less so. I have been reading and re-reading this message over and over again (for almost 15 years) and somehow never REALLY read it. "Ceiling values may not be changed as the FLOOR above this room has varying heights." Somehow I read 'rooms' into the phrase, but many times a 'floor' will have many rooms which could each have a different floor height. I still wonder how, with a simple single floor, one could get that message other than what you pointed out Basil. I always get it fixed, usually by selecting un-selecting those items you showed but will continue to explore and see if I can truly understand it one day. The biggest issue is when it appears out of nowhere during plan development as it did the other day. Plan was perfect all defaults set up just right. Sections and all heights perfect then bam, something happens to cause that and the garage ceiling height can't be changed. Check the floor above and can't see any variations in height in any room or the defaults and the games begin. Appreciate you taking your time to explore this.

Double click a wall, go to wall types and select your wall, go to define and you'll see the wall definition dbx, Your main layers are set up there. Better yet what are trying to do? What do you want it to look/build like?

Thanks Joey. Same here but I'm trying understand the why.

Check your main layer in wall definitions.

Thanks Basil. I actually have no problem with single story structures and can build a garage with a slab without much problem but the issue was earlier in the day with a 3 story structure where that message would appear at random intervals and without any knowledge on my part as to what brought it on or what the cure was. The interesting part was it happened very early in the default setup stages where there would be a large single room on let's say the third floor. The message was that there were 'rooms' with varying heights but of course there was only one room in this case so the message is inherently confusing with no clear direction on how to remedy the message. I got it fixed as I always do but with much experimentation and changing every parameter I could think of. Typically when I get that message I usually look for a 'room' that has a different 'height' than others on that floor and that can happen through plan development and is pretty easy to discover and fix. But when I had an entire floor that was only one room, then got the message it stumped me and had really no where to look, similar to the simple garage I posted. Again the interesting part and the reason I posted the simple garage was that it would occur seemingly at random and when it does I don't always know where to look for the cure. I'm sure the problem lies within my brain and my inability to understand the intent of the message because the message can't literally be correct as, in my world at least, there can't be 'rooms' with varying heights if there is only one 'room'. So I'm missing what the message is really saying and that's what I really need help with and I thought the simple garage was a good example to explain that intent. I searched the web and will again this morning for some more clues and maybe the idea will sink into my thick skull. Thanks for taking the time to post a reply, I greatly appreciate it.

Sorry Basil, I can't help you. I used Corel Draw for many years and drawing curves, like Illustrator, is simple and very straight forward. I struggle with all the curves in Chief and have no solution for you. There is a drive way spline tool with very limited options and no way I could find to add a node or any other method to make the tool truly useful. Others may be able to lend a hand but I gave up a long time ago and just struggle through the process.

Wrestled with this all day on a 3 story home and was simply too embarrassed to post more questions regarding the structure dbx. But I was drawing a simple garage and got the message with only one room on the floor and am genuinely perplexed. Does anyone really understand it? http://www.screencast.com/t/emnDprvxQ plan vary heights 1.plan

Good idea Perry but I avoid decks like the plague. I hate the framing disappearing and other odd 'deck' behavior. Maybe I can call them a kitchen or bedroom and set the default as you suggest? May end up there but for now the 3D looks perfect and for the initial concept looks pretty good.

Those are embedded plot maps that came from those previous files. Not needed in this file but thanks for the heads up.

Not to worry, thanks

I think I answered all those question in the second vid and your observations were correct.