HumbleChief

Yeah tried a bunch of options but it always comes up short, like it's ignoring the new (higher) second floor height. Just tried it on my template plan and 'make best fit' worked fine on a 12 ft high second elevation. Didn't work on my other plan.

Thanks Eric - thought as much but thanks very much for taking your time to confirm... Looks like stairs require the same math to get right. I was bit surprised by that.

I've got one building on a lower grade and another about 40" higher on an upper plateau. Thought there was a way to set the floor heights xx" above terrain for the upper house but adding that 40" to all the floor/ceiling heights is the only way I can figure to do it. Is there a way to get the floors on separate/different terrain levels/heights to be set relative to the terrain? Or is it simply a matter of addition and subtraction? Oh yeah and 'make fit' stairs seems to ignore the additional height as well.

Thanks David - still great job. I didn't know how to solve it but do now...

Thanks David, I think if your post had said "Doing this out of windows and a door and a poly line solid in elevation view," it might have saved me a half an hour trying to do it with only windows and a door. Nice work anyway.

Nice Graham, Another great work around for the lack of simple features in Chief's PBR engine. Maybe X11 will allow a lighter sky with soft shadows and no need to darken the sky to where it's useless to get those soft shadows and no need to create textures with PhotoShop, a means to stop light leaking through exterior walls and all the other issues with PBR. Just wait another 5 - 6 months with these crippled features and they MIGHT be fixed and more usable in X11 - MIGHT.

Nice David, How was the notch created? In a window? Thanks

Yes, very well done..

exactly... taking nothing from those who have become more than proficient - and super helpful!!!

Rene you're always very helpful and I should have added I'm not really interested in fixing the things that should not need fixing....Been through the simple fix you allude to and HOURS later I got it looking OK with crazy work arounds - that simply shouldn't be needed IMO. Don't know how to put this as gently as possible but I don't want to fix it - it's not worth my time. EDIT: and why wouldn't little problems like shown above with a sky that's unusable and light leaks be addressed in X10?

Yeah PBR may not quite be 'done' but that's very standard for Chief as a company to release new features, leave important things out, and move on the next great new feature. I think PBR might be a different story as they are in the business of selling pretty pictures (that is not a knock on the company) so I can see lots of investment in same but the things that don't work currently in X10's PBR will be either ignored completely in favor of a new feature (no accusation without the basis of using Chief for 20 years) or addressed in X11. For example I was showing an Architect friend Chief's new PBR feature and the 4 x 4's in the ceiling over the kitchen turned a bright white and looked like they were luminescent. I know there's a very involved work around because I came across this before but I simply don't use PBR for this reason. It's simply not finished. Hopefully they will improve PBR in X11 - for those who use it more than I.

X-10 is done. X-11 is almost in the can as shown to users at the latest User Academy Chief will sometimes create a great feature then ignore it so hopefully PBR is different and they will continue to make more user friendly.

That's very helpful Alvar. I couldn't get the sky to behave with those harsh shadows. Wish there was another, simpler method to get a lighter sky and softer shadows.

From much earlier interactions with the company and early on in the Anno Set decision making process there was an internal debate about the complexity of Anno Sets and where that should stop and start. The decision was made to add as many options, and complexity, to the feature as possible. Of course that's both good and bad. Good in that they are very powerful, as was the intent, and not so good as you need to really dig in and understand them to make them work on a day to day basis. The other good thing is once you get yours set up they are good forever and only need occasional tweaking. And yeah the time needed to learn them hasn't changed and can be, as you say, at a premium.

Nice...

Nice work you guys. I never really tried to finish the doors but could see the challenges from the git go. I think I would just create custom symbols and be done with it but again nice work.

Nice bit of help you guys. Appreciated from afar...

Thanks Glenn, I really have no experience, nor have I had much interest in opening either a second Layout or a second session of Chief so I was simply going by the suggested steps in the previous post which were not very detailed as to how to get the task accomplished. Still not that interested, but I appreciate the more detailed steps of how open a second session if I or another user should choose to do so. Thanks again for clarifying. Just tried it again and after 5 or 6 tries using various combinations as described in Chop's link I got a second instance of Chief to open. Still have very little interest in the technique but might help down the road. Hope the OP gets some needed direction.

I (of course) gave that advice for users like myself who have never gotten 2 layouts open at once (no combination of the cntrl key and open layout allows another Layout to open on my computer). But if the OP can get it to work with the simple instructions above then by all means give it a shot...

The repeating distance applies to symbol moldings not standard moldings... Symbol Moldings Symbol Moldings are 3D symbols that are repeated along a path to form molding. Molding symbols are different from molding profiles because they are replicated 3D sumbols instead of extruded 2D shapes. Creating a Symbol Molding Begin by opening a new, blank plan and creating a single instance of the molding symbol using the Primitive Tools . See Primitive Tools. For example, to create the molding shown in the illustration above, make an object that looks like this: When you are satisfied with its appearance, convert it to a 3D symbol. See Convert to Symbol. You can also import a 3D symbol from another application. See Importing 3D Symbols. To import a molding symbol 1. Select File> Import> 3D Symbol from the menu. See Import 3D Symbol Dialog. 2. In the Import 3D Symbol dialog, specify the symbol as Molding and click the Advanced button. • If you plan to use the molding symbol more than once, check the box beside Add to Library. See Add to Library. 3. On the 3D panel of the Symbol Specification dialog, rotate the symbol as needed so that it faces you in the preview image. Symbol moldings work best if you make them symmetrical. Once created, a symbol molding can be assigned to an object or replicated along a molding polyline. See Molding Polylines. Symbol moldings are center aligned. Both ends have a 45° miter, so the end instances may appear chopped. You can specify the Repeat Distance of a symbol molding applied to an object to control the width of each instance of the symbol on the object. See Moldings Panel.

Understood, not too late to change it for future forum readers - just sayin'.

Curious, why would you not say so in your original post?

This article on custom muntins might help... https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00930/creating-custom-muntins.html But you may have to draw that custom side panel in elevation view. Tried to get custom muntins to work for the last hour with no luck so hopefully that wasn't bad advice...

Lane, You can create multiple copies of any Layout you currently have by simply using 'save as' under a different file name. You can also copy and paste notes and CAD blocks from any Layout to another but you have to close the Layout you are copying from and re-open the Layout you are copying to. So perhaps you could create a new Layout, based on an existing Layout, and copy and paste the relevant elements in to that new Layout? I actually do this a lot when I have something like a new set of plan notes from a City. I'll place the notes in the current Layout then copy those notes from that Layout, close the Layout, open my template Layout and paste them there for future use. Some folks have figured out how to have 2 Layouts open at once but I never did so I open and close Layouts for copying and pasting.

Thanks for posting this problem. It will help someone I'm sure and for me I'll keep an eye out for it though I don't seem to have noticed the problem.