VisualDandD

Yep...that water is super nice....AND super easy. No kids at all. Married couple mid 40's both professionals. 4000sf house Very nice people though. As nice as they come.. Been a pleasure to work with. We are just finishing up the foundation right now and hoping to wrap it for Thanksgiving!

At first I was going to export as a symbol....but instead I just did two separate models and exported .DAE and combined in lumion. I detailed a little further....here is what I am going to present to client. I still need to go back and try it in case I wanted to do it all in chief. The idea of pool surface, I have had a lot of good luck with using transparent fills when I do raytraces on window. I put a skyline pick with some trees and it makes for great "reflections". I think you could use a water picture (semi transparent) and find the right bump map. I think you could do some cool things with the right bump, but I dont do a lot of ray trace these days. Takes too much time. I detailed a little further....here is what I am going to present to client. I could go further, but this has accurate summer sun....and will give them all the ideas they need.

I actually thought of you when I did it! Your ability to think outside the box is one I admire. I just sat here for a few minutes thinking....and it was fun when the idea came to me. Thanks for the inspiration to think outside the box. You have made me look at chief in a different manner when it comes to making it do what I want at time. Thanks man!

You are right! Try this 16-4-5 pool (2).zip

I use Lumion Here is the plan file if anyone wants to play around and see what I did. I could get a little more elegant and use solids with subtraction...etc. My only concern is that it look good from the top though. The sloping radius bottom was the challenge. First I tried 3d moulding polyline....but that was too fussy. The road with curb definition worked great! Pool was drawn on 2nd floor by accident FYI Fixed file! 16-4-5 pool (2).zip

I have a client who wanted a simple pool and I decided to see if I could model in chief. At first I scratched my head a little, but then I figured out it could be done without much issue. I created a terrain perimeter just larger than the pool. I drew elevation lines to make it slope from 3'6 to 6' along this path. I then drew the simple kidney shape (but it could be any shape). I found a good reference point at one of the tangent points that I could use when "layering" up objects. I actually just used copy and paste in place of the same shape over and over. Layer 1 pool perimeter (moulding polyline set to 6' deep and width I wanted Layer 2 tile line (same moulding polyline just set smaller) Layer 3 Coping (added moulding and adjusted offset for proper look Layer 4 Convert to road and add "curb" profile which was just a 24" radius. It follows the terrain. I then used the same shapes to create a hole in a larger slab I had made Painted materials and I had a no muss no fuss pool. (I also added in some steps and swim out. Using these techniques, I think I could probably model some pretty complex pools or free form objects. I ran a quick run rendering movie of it. (could stand a lot more detail) but just playing with the possibilities. Moulding poly lines and roads with terrain can indeed model a pool fairly easily.

Yes. Been having issues with shadows sent in line drawings if I resize it in layout (eg...not sent as a specific scale or resized on layout). It looks good on screen but you can see them offset in "preview". I have tried resend in and no luck. Have still not figured out....just quit using shadows in perspective views...

Yep....this went on for sometime...even when I was doing beta testing. I thought it was something in beta, but looking back they found an even log in 7 where it happened too. They concluded I had faulty hardware. I tried many things with the help of Chief support. (dont get me wrong...they tried for sure) They concluded it was hardware which I ruled out with running all kinds of scan utilities. After a BUNCH or research on my own, I tried creating another user account. Worked perfect! Just had to migrate things over which was not too bad. I lived with crashing for about 2 months....glad I did not wipe everything.

I tried for support, they told me it was most likely a hardware malfunction. Possibly bad memory or other hardware related item. Recommended if memory passed test, might have to do a full wipe of system. I am glad I did some more research myself as creating a new user account was MUCH easier......

I started having a bunch of Chief crashes when I migrated to win 10 whenever I would open a DBX, or save and even "export" Go to windows "event viewer". Click on windows logs, and then in the right box double click "application". Look for your error messages. It was a faulting module :MSVCR120.dll I found searching that several other graphics intensive programs were starting to randomly crash with win 10. If that is your problem, I found one way to fix it..... I had to create a new user account and migrate everything over. No more crashes.

Had a similar problem when I upgraded to win 10. Went round and round. It was hit or miss, but whenever I tried to export or "save as", Chief would crash. I tried many things.....eventually I made a new user account (new desktop) and copied all my stuff over. That solved my issues.

No bumps in that render. I think if one were added, it would improve greatly. I did that a few years back. I probably tweaked the material. It was a few years back. I will try to pull it up and will share it when I get a chance.

"Real" stainless is quite reflective. When I was looking to improve my renderings, I actually took the time to take a close look (in real life) how it behaves. I was surprised at just how reflective it is. The grainy thing is difficult to achieve. I dont shoot for doing many "photo realistic" renderings and do most in just watercolor/line. But this is from X6 I think where I was playing around. If I spent more time on it, I think I could improve it some from here with a good bump map. I have started doing more stuff in Lumion and still playing with making my SS better. It takes some work, but this is where I left off. The difficulty is real SS has some minor distortions in it. Our CAD models want things in perfect planes. Places where handles attach to faces, distort the material slightly and give distorted reflections. At some point, I may attempt to tackle this with an alteration to bump maps....but as I said, I dont worry too much about trying for perfect realism.

Hmmmmm... I just closed X8 and rebooted and then opened it again. Now it worked?! Ha....never know sometimes. Never hurts to re-boot when having an issue and see if it goes away. Thanks!

OK....I repeated it real quick Blank plan. Imported two layers to copy an old plan. SPWALL_OUTLINE SPWALL_TEXTURE. I then just closed a box in the plan to define a room. Now turn "all off" on the layers and just select SPWALL_OUTLINE SPWALL_TEXTURE. to show on drawing. Group select and delete all those objects from plan. Now open Layers up and confirm that those layers are not used. Now try to delete those unused layers. I cant do it.... Maybe I am missing something?.... Running X8 layer exp.plan

I am sorry.... I meant individual layers. I fixed it but in a draconian way. I just copied everything (leaving those two created Import layers off) and pasted into my "save as" template. I already deleted the old file. I am working on sprucing up my "save as" template and did not want to clog it up with any unnecessary layers that I could not get rid of for whatever reason. I can try to reproduce and also try to do it in X7 and see if it does same thing. Have to make a note to do it... [edit] plan example attached below.

I impoted a DWG with two layersets. I have since deleted all remnants of them. They do not show as used in my dialogue, but it wont let me delete them.... They are not mapped to any specific "Chief" layers that can not be deleted. I can delete other unused layers have created....just not those two that came in as an import. Could this be a X8 bug? Anyone run into anything similar?

Ahhh! With the new ability to control roof "platform" type, I guess it moved. Wonder if it changes globally? (Like you could under "edit all planes) Have to try it out. THANK YOU!!!

Ran into this today. Needs fixed ASAP. Really a tough one as I have "Wall"X" copy" building up in my plans.....

OK...am I going crazy? The roof plane material is missing from the roof plane DBX. Tried "edit all roof planes" and individually selecting them. Guess I can "paint" them, but that is not really the way I like to handle it.

It is always good to see the way others work. I am thinking for me, live details would me re-doing sections every plan. I have a ton of "standard" ones I use and usually only have to do a few job specific ones for each new plan. Sometimes only a stair sect. Been a while since I tried to work "live". Back in the day, it was more trouble than it was worth trying to get it to generate right. Might be better now. Always worth evaluating! I might try in out again. Thanks for sharing.

Problem with post to beam is siding is not right (depending on actual offsets and plate heights). For me getting my elevations to display right as well as floor plans are a priority. If I happen to have a section that passes through that area, it is easy enough to manually detail it out. In fact, I almost never take the time to actually "Frame" the house in 3d. Sections I dont already have, I can manually detail MUCH quicker that the amount of time it takes to get all the 3d framing correct. Yes I could do it, but I also framed for almost 15 years. Had 60+ men at my biggest and built everything from large customs to mixed use and multifamily. (besides GC work I have done) Building the framing is not necessary for me to picture how it will go together. In my area plans only require a few typical sections. I could do the extra work, but it would not be something that anyone is willing to pay.... Engineer notes are usually done all in 2d notations on top of plans, and any sections they might add are typical as well. Guess my workflow has as much to do with the requirements of my locality. Floor plans and elevations drive my choices.

Not sure what you mean? Are you speaking of 3d framing? Obviously I did not put cols in there as it had nothing to do with the question of the op. As for header.....also not sure what you mean. Would it not be flush in said condition? You can use moulding poly line if you want to wrap with trim or a soffit and adjust poNY wall ht. Not sure if that is what you are asking?

Gotcha! I know the feeling. Been messing with this stuff since V6 (not x6). Funny I still see new ways to get things done! I like using selective CAD layers as it gives me some flexibility. Sometimes I just know a "beam" needs to go certain places, and a 2D representation is all I need. While I do go into 3D for structure at times (to make sure of beam, rafter, joist clearance), I dont fully detail plans in 3d. I just use it as a tool to make sure all the elevation info, wall plate info..etc will work out in the field if executed right. I use 3d to communicate with clients but dont translate any of it into working drawings. (except for the pretty picture on cover page )

Do you turn off those walls (over the porch) in floor plan view and manually draw in CAD?. My method is based on getting the working drawings as the most important. The 3d is less important to me. I do a lot of 3d in the drawing process but am not willing to compromise my working drawings to get a better look 3d. (boy...you should see what I have to go through modeling custom ceilings )