VisualDandD

They usually run one within a certain window before their new release. (which usually comes in the first quarter) This works out well as you get brought up to current and then get the new version when it comes out. I took advantage of this last time, and the discount was a nice incentive. (I was a few versions behind as well). Well worth it....

Sometimes I just draw a cad line at the place I want the wall to go to. Then I go back and edit wall. (sometimes I have to drag it back in the opposite direction first). Then edit and use 'snaps' to bring it to the cad line you placed. Delete line after wall is placed. Not 100% sure that is your situation, but taking a shot.

Modeled in chief. Textures / bump maps in photoshop and normal map, then rendered in lumion. Thanks. I struggle with the desire to make something that looks good vs the time invested. You can always go further, add accessory items, tweak textures more, play with more light settings etc, but there comes a point where returns diminish. I get excited sometimes, and come up with some real nice bumpmaps and re-run a rendering. When I show it to my wife, she says "It looks the same" . That is the balance point. At some point, I am just working to improve it for me and it adds little in the way of functionality to the rendering itself. That is my biggest struggle. Knowing when it is enough....and moving on.

I agree too. That would be nice for sure. In the DBX you could have "frame" options and could define materials as you wanted. "casing" could be used for bullnose tile around opening...etc. Seems an easy transfer. For those that are interested, Here is the rendering I did where I was looking to put niches in. It might be a small pain to draw the two walls as I did, but it renders quite well. Just as a reverence, this rendering could be taken a lot further with more details...etc, but I stopped at the point where I felt it could serve the purpose of laying out the spaces. With more time investment, you could really bring it in to focus more.

Normally I dont do such detailed renders, but I have been playing a little. I find the more stuff I add, the more I need to add to take it to that next level of realism. This was really more about getting a feel for a Master BR/bath layout....but I took it a little further. I could keep going endlessly, but at this point, it would be more for effect than anything else. I think it serves its purpose as is. Chief with textures done in both photoshop and normal map. Animation in Lumion

Thanks! Never saw that update. Funny, I have been using Chief for a looong time and never realized I could force two walls on top of one another! Figured that my method was nothing revolutionary for sure. No, never saw it referenced before. I always appreciate your ingenuity and approach to things. Thanks for sharing!!! Justin

Quick "dirty" non detailed render of said niches.

So I had to draw and model a niche and remember some of the threads to create them. Specifically I am making a shower niche. Joe did a great thread, but his method required the walls to be framed and that was not what I wanted. Yusuf posted he had solved it, but never showed his method. So....I thought of what I could do to accomplish the flexibility I wanted. I dont think my idea is revolutionary by any stretch, but it works quite cleanly. Materials can be defined how you like them to create whatever effects you want. It is just a real simple way of doing it with a pass through and two walls. Sure, you have to draw two walls to do it, but to me this is easier than the other methods. Just sharing...... I know...not real mind blowing I do realize that framing wont be 100% correct, but I think if you had to, you can manually draw that 2 feet or so. Heck, I would just let it ride... niches.zip

Not a Dell. I built it myself. Has been fine (actually great) till upgrade. @Jcaffee That is the thing....not repeatable at all. I have had it happen on many different plans. Usually precipitated by hitting "save as" or exporting something. Like I said,,....there is no rhyme or reason. Just seems to do it every once in a while. I have gotten in habit of "saving" before any of those. If it crashes, I just open it up again and do the export and it works fine..... Hard to identify any particular "issue".

Wondering if anyone else is experiencing this. Have not called tech support and figured I would ask here first. System stable under win 8.1. Upgraded to Win 10. Latest Nvidia drivers...etc. Chief crashes a lot....and did not at first upgrade. It happens when hitting "Save as", or during exports either an img or DAE file. Sometimes it even crashes trying to open an additional plan file. (dont think mem is an issue) System details I7 4790K gtx970 24gb ram So anyone else seeing this?

I do this all the time. That is how I design many of my projects. I use chief to "sketch" and I dont worry about all the 1/16"s etc. I am just sculpting. Sometimes, I even alter room DBX's to create offsets in roof planes very quickly..etc. When I start to get close, and am happy with my shape, I turn off all the layers that are not important, and do a cad detail from view. I now start a new plan (from one of my save as templates that best fits it) and I redraw the house. The CAD overlay makes this VERY quick. This time, I know where all my important points are (eg important centers, and things that need to align or offset). I now bring the model into dimensional accuracy and eliminate all the odd dimensions. All told, I can redraw a model in less than an hour in this method. I open the original and copy over areas I spent a lot of time on (cabinet layouts in kitchens..etc). I cant tell you how useful this is to me. I am working on a new personal house and the versions just keep piling up. When I am finally happy, I will just redraw. EDIT....I attached some pics that show the evolution of a project. These are all basically the same plan. It is still in flux with me doing the "dirty" drawing right now.

I made the jump to win10 and one thing I noticed is that my "undo" function is MUCH faster. Like 1/4 to 1/3 the normal time. I have a fast system i7 4790k overclocked 32g 1600 mem Multiple ssid drives GTX970...etc Anyway....even with mutliple windows both 3d and floor plan, undo updates VERY quickly. This is a huge improvement in work flow for me. I use Undo quite a bit. Just wanting to see if anyone else has notice this.

On the far left roof. I suspect if you open that roof plane DBX you have some funky settings for in the framing tab. See if there is a difference between the other roof that is coming out correct. That would be what I would check first. And attach plan

Shot you a PM. It is always nice to meet another local Chief'er! Give me a holler and maybe we can catch up sometime. Justin

Good info. I assumed that google maps just used GIS info. I know that much of them along with FEMA flood plain maps were constructed from LIDAR. Good info to know. Thanks for digging it up! As for suitability for building pads, I know that good earth info is NOT even close enough to approximate. Working on a house now where I exported the google earth data and sectioned it to check elevation drops. Google earth show 17' change in elevation across building pad. I went out and shot it with a rotating laser....and it was 5'. I have seen this in several cases. Data is unreliable and pretty much useless.....unless you just generally want to know what way the water is shedding. I either have topo's shot by the surveyor, or I grid off the areas I want to know and shoot my own. (I shoot my own for my projects, but tell clients if they want accuracy then need to have a topo done and get their surveyor to do it)

Never quite understood threads like this. These...."look at what I did....now guess how I did it" threads. To each their own, but if you want to share some tips, great....then do it.

It is not true that the elevation data is satellite. It is mostly LIDAR.(shot from small aircraft or helicopter) There are different resolutions that are shot, but most of the FEMA flood plain is shot at 3m intervals which is good for about a .5m vert accuracy. In less populated areas, they dont use such high res. One downside, is the accuracy over heavy canopies is greatly reduced. They mostly fly these mapping missions in the fall/winter, but the canopy can still prevent good readings.

could you also use wall material region?.... Just an idea

Why do the gps conversion? You can bring the data in correct just as we went over in the workshop. Of course....it is only as good as the Google data. Generally lidar over populated areas. Pretty decent, but I always import site done topo models for difficult sites.

Try this. Should work for you. I have collected stuff for years, not sure where I got this. dome.zip

Drawn in Chief, imported into Lumion. Believe it or not, I have only been working on it about a 3-4 days. I went through a drawing binge the first few days. This other (and long uncut ) vid shows the initial concept. (as well as outdoor/indoor flow which is the highlight of the home) I have been steadily cleaning up things and bringing into more focus when time allows.

Did you say stairs?

I share a little something I have been working on. Model still "rough" but honing it in. Could not wait to see what it would look like rendered, so I ran these quick shots. Still lots of stuff to do....even tweeking colors/textures/bumps/lighting. (fixing landscaping coming in the front wall ) Guess I have to finish the design first!

I disagree completely. You have to know your intended audience. For a "promo" type or sales vid.....I agree completely. Much like a movie trailer....constantly moving shots, lots of transitions etc. Creating something of visual interest that is exciting. Now....working with clients to give them a true "feel" for their deisgn....the video is MUCH longer and not nearly as 'exciting'. It cant be... They need time to get comfortable and flow through the spaces. Jumping from one scene to another keeps peoples attention who are not invested in your project. A homeowners attention is focused and the WANT the long boring video. They want to move slowly through...and are never yawning or becoming disinterested. In fact, they usually go back and play them over and over.....sometimes pausing at parts to look even longer. Again....it is all about knowing your audience.

It will only take 180 hours of work to pay for the chief license to do the side work though.....Oh wait...have to buy a PC too. Ok.....so about 300 hours of work @ $15/hr to pay for the license. Sounds like a bargain to me. Where do I sign up?