Kbird1

The default Sun settings are way too high in general and they seem to balance themselves off the other lighting in the scene somehow , so one setting for all situations does not work in PBR. Another thing to note with PBR is that the light will pick up a Colour Cast from the backdrop image , ie green if alot of trees , orange if a sunset etc , a Sky Backdrop like Sky3 works fairly well but can make the scene a little "cool" being the backdrop is mostly blue... Might be good to edit the 1st post and tag it with PBR and Raytrace too , so others can find the info in this Thread M.

Try Picket Railing , I found this one....

There have been posts on this in the past Larry and it was doable , though I have never used that style myself so I didn't read to far into it , so hopefully someone familiar with one of those threads will tell you how or link you to it. M.

I am not sure what happened there , not sure if it was something to do with the Zipfile when you made it or something on my system ? ( maybe mine if no one else saw it?) In the past I have had issues with Materials no having unique names or the same name as a default CA made material as CA will find those images 1st in it's folders before it looks elsewhere for them. I usually use PBR now (lighting is easier with instant feedback) but when I was doing more RTs I was usually using 1280 pixels x ( aspect ratio set by window size) as I mostly Email them to Clients and aren't printing them , and as Graham mentioned this fixes the DPI pretty much it seems and file sizes are small which is good for email or even sending to Layout.

Graham's settings work pretty well ( as expected ) , I made a few small changes for my view but found the Couches were using an image of a fireplace front with flames for the materials in the 1st RT , so I made a few other changes and reshot it. It actually looks good in PBR too ...see saved camera plan below. MHD_Example with decor.plan

Usually if you click about 6 " away from the exterior wall you will get the Exterior Room if the Walls are closed.... everything is ok in your plan , it only took two clicks to get it to show..... One other way is if you get the wall 1st is just to use TAB or the next button until you see the Exterior Room like in blue in the Pic below.... there Idea does work Pedro ...here I used the Gutter I made last week from your profile..... make sure to uncheck the Extrude Inside Polyline box in the Room Molding Polyline DBX to get the gutter facing the right way .................. the plan file..............Plot3V9_with Gutter.plan

Kirk linked you to the KB Tutorial this morning about that , post no# 8? approx..... it's in the Material Definition on the Textures tab, I mentioned that in post no#3 If you turn down ambient occulsion in the Camera Properties to about 20 instead of 100% you won't get the weird shadow in the Corners too M.

You have Added 3D lights in the Plan , they are no Cans (Potlights) in the Plan but they are pretty bright...... try 500 lumens If you have turned them all off that is about what I would expect to see as it is lit from the Windows only....

It will put everything in the plan in the Zip file , all the materials , images, pdfs etc , anything related to the plan so Others will see what you see when they open it.

Do a File>Backup Entire Plan it will create a Zip file with all the Textures and the plan in it that you can attach instead since it looks like you have Custom textures....

I didn't see Joe's post ( link? ) but am thinking he keeps the Details in a Single plan File so they stay "live" and sends them to his Layout Template from there ... He maybe doing the same as Scott Harris in the Lake Point Videos I watched recently though....... The whole Video is worth watching and there is a sample Details plan in the Lake Point Download here : https://www.chiefarchitect.com/products/samples.html https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/6193/construction-drawings-tips-and-techniques-lake-point-project.html?playlist=151 https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/6183/plan-management-and-work-flow-lake-point-project.html?playlist=151

No Problem Bob , hope they help...

Assuming X10 ( your Sig. isn't done yet ) you can now use Pony Walls I believe to place the Railing on top of the retaining Wall structure. As David said post the Plan as I have no idea how you made the Railing float like that from the pics...... Also, it's good to have your Forum Signature filled in, especially with the Software Version, and of course a real Name is nice too .............. See mine below in Blue for how to do that. If you don't see my Signature then you have them turned off for the Forum so you need to Toggle it on by going to the Upper RH Corner of this Forum Window and Clicking on your Username and making sure Signature are enabled (green) and then Add your Own Sig. too : UserName> Account > Signatures

This is CA's Video on PBR , https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/2412/3d-rendering-features-added-in-x10.html They use the Settings some of us discovered while trying to fix issues in the Earlier versions of X10 , these can be set in your Camera defaults , the Use Enhanced lighting and setting max lights to 100 is important otherwise you can get White-outs or Black-outs in the PBR Camera. The Who thread is on PBR when you have time to look at it...

Thanks for the reply...... I was following your Tutorial but could not equate the Histogram Slider in Gimp/PS to something Similar in Awesome Bump but I haven't played with it much yet. M.

It's a good series , and looks at the ConDocs side of CA rather than the EyeCandy Elements and it being done in X10 was my other interest as I still don't use Plan Views like I should be. Scott's Video's are always good to watch I find , lots of small tips and He explains things well I find , it would be a good series for those New to CA too I think. M.

Thanks Kirk , are you aware of Awesome Bump ? it's a Free Open Source Bump Map Program I found recently on GitHub , latest version is 5.1 ,it is a portable Qt based program so nothing to install , just unzip the Folder. I'd be interested in what a 3D Artist has to say about it as it's not exactly my field of expertise. https://github.com/kmkolasinski/AwesomeBump/releases/tag/Winx32v5.1 One Note about Awesome Bump , I found I had to Open the 3 Config files and change the Font Size to 12 to make it all more readable for me , not sure which one is controlling what so I changed them all ...The Author must have good eyes as it is set at 8. Main folder : Config.ini Configs Folder : gui.ini and 48_AwesomeBump.ini

Do you have a Foundation and Roof Built ? both are usually required for proper lighting to work in my experience..... Are there Potlights (R.Cans) or added 3D lights in the Red Sofa Room? , not sure why there is 4 light blotches otherwise. lowering the roughness of the Floor material to 10-15% should give it some shine at least that works in PBR but the settings don't always translate, but make sure you are using the latest Updated X10 Material Libraries too ( Library>Catalog Update) CA older Wood textures don't work well in X10 and have all been now updated. M.

@Evolution Hi Bob, I thought of your post here while watching Scott Harris's Video on Construction Documents today , I'd suggest downloading the Sample Lake Point House Plan Set 1st ,so you have the Files. https://www.chiefarchitect.com/products/samples.html The whole Video is worth watching but in particular from about 15 mins on, in regard to your questions about using Plan views and Cropping Layout boxes etc. https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/6193/construction-drawings-tips-and-techniques-lake-point-project.html?playlist=151 If you like his Annotations / Layer Sets etc in the Video , he basically tells you in this one how to make the included Sample Files your Own in this Video which I had watched 1st. https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/6183/plan-management-and-work-flow-lake-point-project.html?playlist=151 M.

Logitech Mice and Trackballs with the Options Software eg the M510 or MX2 have the reverse Function but Older Mice and Trackballs using the SetPoint Software do not. ( At least on my systems ) Been a few years since I used AutoHotKey but am surprised you can't run scripts from the StartUp Folder. M.

Perhaps as Eric said start your Own thread with the Tutorial Plan attached for others to try..... Save the Camera view etc so others will see what you see.... Make sure Plan is closed in CA before you attach it to the Post or it won't attach as CA locks the File when Open.

Start the X10 Tutorial again in the Full X10 version , I think you are missing Options as the Plan was started in HD (Pro?) which doesn't have Annotation Sets AFAIK. get the X10 Docs here https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/documentation.html

CA's documentation tends to lag behind on new features , so they are not always mentioned in the Manual or Help, Bump Maps are assigned on the Texture tab of the material's definition but for many many materials they are not supplied by CA , so you would need to make you own in Photoshop or Gimp or perhaps an online converter? M.

If you mean Speckly not sparkly , then my 1st guess would be you need to run the Ray Trace for a longer number of Passes (or time) and that usually decreases. *Most people are mostly using PBR View now as it is quicker and easier to setup lighting in..... set your maximum lights to 100 in those views. Check out the "Let Ray Trace Thread Graham (KitchenAbode) started for lots of good info : Also, it's good to have your Forum Signature filled in, especially with the Software Version, and of course a real Name is nice too .............. See mine below in Blue for how to do that. If you don't see my Signature then you have them turned off for the Forum so you need to Toggle it on by going to the Upper RH Corner of this Forum Window and Clicking on your Username and making sure Signature are enabled (green) and then Add your Own Sig. too : UserName> Account > Signatures M.

If you mean Speckly not sparkly , then my 1st guess would be you need to run the Ray Trace for a longer number of Passes (or time) and that usually decreases. The Mouse Orbit Tool should let you spin or adjust/move the Cube , teapot etc You should also be able to swap view type STD/Vector/PBR/RT Also, it's good to have your Forum Signature filled in, especially with the Software Version, and of course a real Name is nice too .............. See mine below in Blue for how to do that. If you don't see my Signature then you have them turned off for the Forum so you need to Toggle it on by going to the Upper RH Corner of this Forum Window and Clicking on your Username and making sure Signature are enabled (green) and then Add your Own Sig. too : UserName> Account > Signatures M.