Brad_M

Hi Kirill, When rope lights were implemented in X11, we were concerned with performance issues caused by rendering many, many light sources and rendering the shadow map for each light source. So, we added limitations to the light sources created from rope lights that would handle the more common use cases that Gene Davis mentions while minimizing the impact on performance: Unfortunately, these limitations currently prevent rope lights from being used as primary light sources in a scene, but that may change with the lighting improvements we're planning for X16.

Lighting can be better controlled in walkthroughs by setting up a light set with the lights you want on and setting the default full camera to use that light set. Be aware that having many lights on will adversely affect rendering performance.

Correct, the patch didn't make any changes to lighting when recording a walkthrough along a path. However, lighting can be set up for walkthrough paths by adjusting the light set in the Full Camera Defaults dialog. Other rendering effects can be changed by modifying other Full Camera defaults and Rendering Techniques defaults. While there is no way to get the same behavior as toggling sunlight off in walkthroughs, you can simulate a night view by changing the intensity and color of sunlight in the Generic Sun defaults or a sun angle in the plan.

Chief doesn't set up some camera parameters properly when creating panorama images. If objects behind the camera are much further away than the objects in front of it, some objects may be clipped. For now, you can work around this problem by rotating the camera to face the clipped objects before exporting as a panorama. If this doesn't fix the problem or you run into similar issues, please contact Technical Support.

The ray trace problem you're seeing is likely caused by a symbol in the plan that has bad geometry. Post the plan here or contact tech support if you'd like help tracking down the symbol. If the symbol is from one of Chief's libraries, please let us know so that it can be fixed.

To improve draw times in this plan, try turning off the living area label through the plan defaults dialog. You can also get a decent speed up by removing the concrete wall fill. Please report all performance issues through the Online Support Center: https://support.chiefarchitect.com.

Hi Tim, Black patches often appear in ray traces when there is an issue with the geometry of an object in the scene, usually a symbol that has been imported into Chief. I'd try removing objects that were created in other programs from the scene and see if the problem goes away. If you have trouble finding the object or suspect that Chief created the object, please feel free to post a ticket in our Online Support Center: https://support.chiefarchitect.com.

Scroll bars were added to ray trace views in X6. You are correct. If the aspect ratio of the 3D view is wider than that of the ray trace image, then the right and left sides of the 3D view will be cut off. Resizing the Chief window so that the aspect ratios are similar and adjusting the camera is probably the easiest way to avoid having too much of your 3D view cut off.

I was surprised by how little I needed to move the camera before these artifacts started showing on my machine. In other plans, the camera usually needs to be much further away before there are problems, and you start seeing typical Z-fighting issues before these shadows. Legacy shadows shouldn't have these artifacts.

This is a self-shadowing problem non-legacy shadows have that is related to z-fighting. How far is the camera from the model? These shadow artifacts will occur when the camera is far from the model, and since zooming using the scroll wheel doesn't move the camera, you may not realize how far the camera is from the model.

If "Zoom Using Field of View" is unchecked, you can use "Fill Window" to reset the zoom in 3D views. I think its default hotkey is F6. This is how I prefer to undo zooms in 3D views since zooming in and out using the scroll wheel tends to cause distortion.

I've found two ways to view the first unread post of a thread. In any section (General Q & A, Suggestions, etc.) there will be a circle or star next to the thread titles with unread posts and clicking it will take you to the first unread post. Also, just above reply area at the bottom of a thread, there will be some text that says "Next Unread Topic" if there are any unread posts in your current section. Clicking will take you to the first unread post in one of those threads.

What video card and driver version are you using? Have you updated your video card drivers recently?