Kbird1

Thanks Graham , those settings under your the Images Properties Post work really well when all lights are off , the Bonus of course is that you don't need to be an expert in CA Lighting Techniques and anyone (I) can still get good results in about 5mins . this is one I ran earlier , trying settings though I used Rene's 230,230,230 , and I had previously played with some of the material properties , like emmisiveness etc. Bloom was not on as for me, it makes the Image too soft for my liking. If you have any thoughts on improving the image after looking at it please let me know. Thanks again for your Help. M.

Hi, Thanks Graham , that is great info , I am still playing with drop off Rates etc but a couple of questions from your last post... Direct Lighting Intensity (Sun?) is 50.0 not 5.0 correct ? and If you don't use "Camera Settings from View" , what colour light are you using instead ? 230.230.230 per Rene's suggested numbers or pure white ? (255.255.255) and From being a Photography Enthusiast for many years I know F8.0 is a pretty shallow depth of field , does it work the same way in CA X9? as I am not usually carefully placing the focal point when I draw out a Camera View. and Do you enable Bloom ? if so what Radius and weight do you use? Oh...much nicer ....just ran a RT On the Zero Sum Kitchen I've been fiddling with as I have time, using your settings above as I typed this reply but I left my lighting as it was (on), 10 passes ran in 5mins on my old machine which is pretty good considering it is an older i7-950 @3.6 . ( I'm upgrading my Newer X99 CAD machine with a 980ti and reinstalling Win10 Tonight as well.) Only thing I'm not liking is the puck lights , I think it is, in the cabinets either side of the rangehood , they look like they are both 12" dia. Dome lights hanging down , since I guess I missed them when playing with the light Data ? or I need to Turn Off ALL interior lights as you suggested? Thanks Mick. .

all good then , I thought you had downloaded the File thinking you had gotten the Fireplace

Sorry Jintu , just hadn't seen you post in a while , and I have always followed your RT advice in the Past , so I was hoping you'd "drop by" this thread and post some tips for us mere mortals to use

The Pic of the fireplace is just showing the Ceiling Registers ...which are the symbols for download.... but I agree it is a nice Fireplace

Ohhh...didn't mean it that way actually ...I think you are both right..... I did not catch the 1/16th offset when I looked at... changing that helps clean it up, I just didn't want the OP to think Glenn wasn't correct too, however I'm uncertain if the wall should go inside the CAD Line or Outside it, hence my advice... M.

On that Corner he pictured yes , the framing was at 3 9/16? but further over in the drawing the walls are not snapped/snapping to the red CAD line and one wall is reversed too (inside out- drawn in the wrong direction?) at the bump out... which is where Glen's advice comes in.. with Alt-Q

Have not tried that Shortcut specifically but X9 crashes on me sometimes in the Save Dialog as well ...so far the only advice has been to save the File and rename it as soon as you open it , so it starts Auto Archiving it. And then hit Save every 3-5 mins as you work. Or program Save to a mouse button... I find CA crashes on me in the Library too sometimes , not sure if that is related to me clicking through items quickly to see a quick preview or not ?

Hi , glad to help..... I find it best to leave Auto Build Roofs on most of the time unless things are really Complex, Chief is really good at simple roofs , if they are set up right in the Defaults and then on the Wall's Roof Tab. AutoBuild will also cause the Gable walls , trim etc to be rebuilt at the same time , which is where I think you maybe running into issues. Either that or get very used to going upto Roofs and hitting Rebuild all the time. just remember like all general rules you will need to disable Autobuild sometimes and do things manually but manually done Roof planes can be saved in a rebuild too, but when all else fails revert to Auto Build and start again....

Depends if your Red CAD line is the Framing line or the Drywall line? , if the drywall line Glenn is correct , use Surface, if its the Interior side of the Framing then set it to Main Layer Inside instead ...or Main Layer Outside if the RED Cad Line is the Outside of Framing.

I noticed after the last post , that the rebuilding of Roofs had caused two roofs to be built, one under the other, over the Porch side of the house , so I have fixed that , and added a Slab to the porch floor too ....not sure if it wasn't there Or I broke it somehow earlier... And since it's for you Dad I thought we'd upgrade him to Cedar as well on the Outbuilding.... M. DadHouse_KB.plan

this more like it ? at least now it isn't floating 9' above your terrain you forgot to set the new floor and ceiling heights to match the Terrain to fix the roof once I set the floor height , I switched all walls back to hip and rebuilt them all , they turned on the gables again and rebuilt again ... then changed the walls to a "Railing" , with Post to Beam , with 4" Newels and Rail width on Autosize or turned off like in this pic....

5/8 is 16mm but I wouldn't be surprised if it is actually 15mm Mark , here's a handy chart for you.... metric-inch-dec.inch conversion.pdf

I was a bit surprised myself actually ...I thought it might be a "Home Designer" Plan at 1st , I didn't notice in X9 it was on 0 , as I don't expect to see structures on 0, but at least the fix was simple this time around..... Not sure why that has changed in X9 ....some "Power User" must of requested it

Frameless is also called European by alot of people and the Doors/drawers are all Full Overlay (with 1/16 reveal) Framed Cabinets can have Inset or Full/Partial Overlay Doors and Drawers as Java Tom mentioned Frameless and Inset are not usually used together in Kitchen or Bathroom Cabinets unless you are trying to replicate a Furniture Type piece where this is quite often done...

Hi, I Opened your plan in X9 , and as others said Trusses Frame just fine , but since you have now posted that you are using X7 still, I opened it in X7 and found exactly as you did that Trusses do not work ..... this is because you built the "outbuilding" on Level 0 (zero) which is used for Foundations only (usually) . To fix it while on level 0 goto Build>Floor>insert Floor and you should now be able to Build/draw trusses.... at least I can here.... PS it's a go idea to goto to the top RH corner and click on your User Names and goto Account Settings>Signature and Add your Name , Version etc to your Signature like most of us have done as different versions required different answers..

He has David and they couldn't help him.... wasn't there others with issues , with slow downs on Xeon based systems? Larry maybe? Perhaps try a different Nvidia Card if you have one available? but maybe time for a new Computer and Windows 10....

Thanks Rene , more good info for me to pick away at this Ray Tracing thing with. I have not seen Jintu (Chiefer) post much lately, not sure why, his RT's were/are excellent. .

there is a Making Custom Line Style tutorial in the KB https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-01019/creating-a-custom-line-style.html and perhaps try turning on Print Preview mode (Alt+F2)

Oh good , it's not just me that thinks the Ref. Manual is not very comprehensive on these matters . It might also partly explain why so many have issues with RayTracing and coming up with decent images without 6hr Raytraces .... it's why I am so interested in your techniques , they look good and are done in a decent time frame.....be a bit different if you could run 2 copies of CA and have one computer Raytracing while you worked on another .... personally I'd rather not have to learn (or buy) Thea Render or one of those other programs to do that , when CA is capable enough once you "figure it out" to produce nice RT's like yours.

Hi , yes, I guess it is the light intensity, cut-off, drop off etc . and their combined use that I need to learn and don't seem to be picking up , that's why I was hoping to see an example plan. Never been much good on "book theory" and all that dry reading doesn't seem to sink in , but seeing realworld examples and just trying stuff out seems too... so with your hints above I will play some more tonight. thanks again.

Its because CA uses the Room Polyline for that Calc. and that Polyline sits on the surface of the Drywall on the walls so it is not included though for some reason the Ceiling is.....just another CA "Quirk", use the Material from Area or Materials Polyline to drag your own "Area" over the walls too. M.

It seems we posted at almost the same time earlier , I noticed most of the models on 3Dware house were made by Simpson S. (it looks like someone took the Simpson Strongtie User name for one model ) so I looked for the Simpson S. Collection thinking they must be doing their Own catalogue

I've done it like Scott suggested by adding 3 layers to the Floor finish ...rigid foam, 2x6 joist (could be less or more) and 3/4" ply...

Thanks Graham , some more nice Renders , I will have to watch all the Chief RayTracing Videos i guess, as I still can't figure out what you are doing with the lighting to make it look so good, as just making the Point lights into Spots makes the Scene way too dark. Can you elaborate on your lighting tricks or post your Zero Sum Plan for Others like me to look at? , thanks. I think someone at Chief has seen your Point light advice as i see in the 5-12 Kitchen Plan (2017) all the Recessed lights are now Spots, unlike the Zero Sum Kitchen from 2013 and most are Points , it's also possible the materials like Stainless have been upgraded since 2013 too ,since CA was aware they didn't Render well...I made my own back then as I didn't even like them in Standard Views.