DeLayDesign

When a dishwasher is placed in a cabinet, the whole cabinet becomes the appliance. For the look you show in your photos, you would need to place three individual cabinets. One 42" sink base, one 24" cabinet for the dishwasher, and one 18" 3Drawer. Although I'm not familiar with what you're trying to accomplish using one cabinet, in order to offset the appliance you'll need to adjust the whole cabinet that is acting like an object... Because of how chief adds the appliance centered in the cabinet, you'll have to do some finagling to get it to look closed off, and unfortunately, I'm not sure how to get the 2D plan to replicate the change we've just made. I would also like to point out that even though you've offset the appliance, you can't 'split' the cabinet face to add items beside it... Offset Dishwasher.mp4

----------- Because I have two 27" monitors or because my signature is obnoxiously huge and I don't know it? ha ha! Either way, UPGRADE I haven't tried painting them another color, but I suppose I could try that. I still want the plants to look like plants, just not washing out like they look sometimes with sun properties.

Hey experts. I've lived in the past for too long, and the limitations with the PBR when it comes to 2D image plant files and a little free time has me trying to play around with the 3D Plant assets. That being said, I'm not a fan of how 'bright' some of the plants look when hit by sunlight, but nothing I do to adjust how they appear seems to make any difference. I notice that our plant files don't actually use Normal and Ambient Occlusion with limits the 'realism', but going into the material properties and choosing 'matte' and adjusting the diffuse to 10, 20, or 30% doesn't actually do anything to the image file that makes up the 3D plant. At least not that I can tell. Am I missing something - do you have any tips or tricks to make Chief's 3D plants works a little better, or should I just move on to the 3D marketplace and bring in new assets?

Oh! I'm sorry, I missed that you were trying to open the file in 3D viewer. Yeah. 3D viewer is trash. It only allows 50MB, which is pretty low for what you would probably be showing to a client. The way I was able to get around this is by having the client download the 'trial version' of Chief. Then simply open your plans on their PC. You would need to export it all so everything opens for them OK though.

Hey @jhoney @robdyckis correct. In order to the the wall to connect the way you'd like, it appears as though you need to adjust your wall layers. I would copy the wall you built then move your house wrap and air gap to the 'main layer' leaving only the brick as your exterior and interior layer. I recommend creating a copy of your original wall because adjusting the layers may ultimately push/ pull your walls away from where you had them unless you've changed your general wall default to lock a specific surface.

Sounds silly, but check to make sure you aren't getting an error message like missing materials. These kind of messages pause the load.

@ChiefArchitect This is new... The software then crashes.

Spoke too soon. Even after the updated Driver I'm still getting the error and a crash.

Oh! No. The graphic driver update seems to have helped. I do have other issues into them though that I'm hoping to resolve, like bay window issues for example.

@ChiefArchitect - I'm sure your team is busy working on X15; is the beta closed? I emailed your team a few times with no response. Additionally - Can we expect an update to X14 anytime soon? There are a few items I've emailed you about that still need to be resolved. Thanks!

I've recently updated my graphics card so I think it's tied to that... but is anyone else experiencing this issue error message? It's new to me, but when it comes up my X14 crashes. @ChiefArchitect - Any suggestions?

------------- Same. Maybe they were flooded with requests. I've since touched base to see if they still need testers.

Like @robdyckmentioned; Chief is fairly accurate with modeling and ultimately the quantities you may need of something. If you set up a template a head of time with accurate pricing you could ultimately create a unique experience for clients where you could give them a general idea of cost and quantities. My concern comes with additions as Chief's poly-box material calculator makes me anxious as to what I'm actually including in the material list. I've done it a few times, just for general information but most contractors will/ should rely on their own take-offs for accurate buildability. At least that's my opinion. As a designer I will never take liability for a contractor's work.

------ Actually; Chief has a few tutorials you can reference about their raytracer. @SusanC has as screen grab of the vidoes I think we all recommend; but here's the link if you have trouble finding them: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/playlists/103/ray-trace.html This one in particular may help you sort out the lighting: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/1972/ray-tracing-gpu-lighting.html?playlist=103 Keep in mind; if your graphics card doesn't have a 'raytracer' you'll be limited on how your images turn out. If this it he case your better option for renders is Chief's CPU renderer which takes a bit longer to complete but should give you a decent quality.

-------------------- Hey there! This is a layers issue. Something I wish @ChiefArchitect would address in future released. It would be awesome, to have the ability to offset walls in specific applications. One wall type I often run into is the split wall for a walk-out for example. Concrete at the base and framed siding but the way I have my typical framed siding wall set up the 'align main layers' will put the exterior face of my framing in line with the concrete; which isn't how we build it here in Illinois (we typically build with the exterior face of the plywood aligned with the exterior face of the concrete wall.) Because of this, I have to create a copy of my 2x framing siding wall and move the plywood down, into the 'main layer' category'. Creating a copy makes sure my other walls build the way I want them to and don't get adjusted per the new walls perimeters. The align main layer function will then work properly. Although your situation is a little different, I wonder if it's a similar situation with your wall layers.

-------------- My Solution is to use two cabinets, but requires you turn off the 'Create Automatic Blind Corner Cabinets' option. I am unaware of another way to keep Chief from wanting to fill in the interacting surfaces. Check out the video below. Open Corner Cabinet.mp4

------------- Short answer - Yes. Long answer it's annoying. @ChiefArchitect should start giving us more freedom when it comes to construction elements. Obviously limitations are important to keep building 'accurate', but things like sill sizes shouldn't have limitations. My solution for this is to create a custom molding. You'll need to make sure your wall is built correctly first. I quickly created a 2x8 wood stud w/ stucco exterior (3" thick stucco) wall for this example. Adjust your layers and thicknesses if you need the window to be recessed deeper. Each molding you create to use as a sill will need to be adjusted to the correct height you need first. I am unaware of away to adjust the height of a sill while inside the window dialog box. For my example I created a angled molding that was 24" tall and 4" at the base. Although you can't adjust the height of the sill, you can adjust it's recess so If you make it deeper than your exterior finish you should be able to recess it as needed. Once you've created the shape you need, simply add it to your library and name it. From there you can open the window dialog box and select your new molding from the library under the sill option. The benefit to doing it this way is the molding is then in your library to be used on any windows you have in your plan. (Sorry for the poor quality, I had to save it in 480P) Custom Sill.mp4

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.

Hey Experts. I'm trying to rearrange a cabinet schedule so all base cabinets are together, all wall cabinets are together and all tall cabinets are together. I can't seem to find a way to tell the schedule to do this - is it possible? I know you can move items individually in the schedule.

If you've used every avenue of the software for at least a few years, You probably don't need to do much studying. They did throw something at me that I don't often use which is plat line specifications. Normally I import a PDF of the Plat, scale it, then trace the perimeter... so I had to teach my self pretty quickly how it's done while nearing the end of my 4 hours they give you for the exam. Overall. It wasn't too difficult, but be sure to read and reread what they are asking you for. Some of it wasn't written very clearly.

Hi @stager386 You and I are living similar lives. I had the same though and recently took the CA certification. If you have your SSA it's really not that expensive, and you get a retake if you 'fail'. The 'exam' was relatively straight forward too, but they need an update in my opinion. I took my exam a few months ago with X13, but I'm fairly certain the plan I needed to duplicate were from X5 or older. Either way - it can't hurt.

Gotcha! Yeah I run into that issue with layers when I try to delete a layer I no longer want to use. It would be great to know where it's tied to.

I also use Google Drive. I have a suite account which gives me 2TB of storage with my monthly plan. I will warn you. Google Drive won't work with the safety options available with Chief Architect stopping you from opening a plan while someone else is in it. So you'll want to communicate thoroughly with your new employee on who's in what plan and when.

@TopagnaOverlookI'm not sure I understand your question. You should be able to just open up the wall you want to change by double clicking on the wall then going to wall type and then define. Or if you have a wall schedule set up, you could access the wall by right clicking the wall schedule and opening the object in schedule.