VisualDandD

I'll try that and let you know if that works! I never thought of moving to another floor......Thanks!

I am doing a lake lot with 60' for vertical fall. There will have to be significant grading involved. I have never done this before, but I decided that a neat way to do it would be take the existing terrain and convert to symbol. I can then overly on the "live" terrain. I can then adjust terrain on the lot to suit my needs and model finished product. I can reference the existing terrain by turning off original terrain symbol and making sure I am staying within my desired scope of work site-work wise. OK...that part has worked great. The problem is, I have a huge symbol over the entire area that the program recognizes. Any time I try to place anything in the model, I get the nasty reminder that there is an interference problem....place anyway. What is worse, is some things like cabinets. soffits will not place at all. I have to drag 200' away, place in a blank area of plan and then drag back over. Anyone have a solution for this. I tried playing with various settings for the "orignal" terrain symbol, but I could not find anything that allows it to "play nice" with the other objects. I could point to point move it in and out of my model space for building ease ....but wish there was a way I could keep where it lies and just have the program ignore it...... Any thoughts?

NC went to a 90mph wind load and now almost all garage openings are 'portal frame'. The heads is run continuous, well past where it would normally just bear on the jacks. This has become pretty much std around here.

If you want them to do a walk-through, just export entire house as a symbol.

PLS for me Very easy to do. I dont show them on floor plan so they are on a layset which shows in elev but not floor plan.

Exactly.... I have all my defaults set up and the only time I have to switch, is when I know walls or floor sys will be different. Eg, 11 7/8 I joist vs 14 vs 16" owt. Or various wall arrangements. I do this BEFORE I even start drawing and I try to get these bridges crossed before getting too far in the plan. Sometimes there isn't room for the two extra treads to go from 9' to 10' walls as an example. I like to have these decisions made early!

In the southeast studs are standard at 93 in 105 in and 117 in. So walls are 8' 1 1/2". 9' 1 1/2". & 10' 1 1/2"

Make stairs on their own and convert to symbol and the past in plan?....

If the dormer goes across the two different pitches, you dont use hole in roof. Just use break tool on each pitch and pull back the appropriate section.

Here is a quick vid with some ideas...

You could have been a little nicer when you said that. After all, we are all about the feelings here

My old post got bumped. Still not using PBR, and.....yes still fighting every staircase that wraps a wall in a plan. I have been using chief since v6 (not x6). I have the ability to draw most anything manually in the software. EG with roofs, I run a few 'auto' roof leaving many areas defined with no roof above. I get to where I see the 'big picture' and then just draw manually. I am not asking for a lot.....just the ability to manually draw with stairs as I can with a roof. Manually break a tread around a wall...etc. Create returns and winders as needed. For a while I used landings to make these transitions, but they dont show right in 3d. Anyway....good deal for all those that like PBR. To me, the lack of normals in a lot of materials and the inability to easily manipulate materials, makes it not worth messing with for me. I am not saying PBR might not be good some day. But my honest opinion is that it was rushed into the new update and not even close to being ready. I dont think it is fair to compare Lumion to Chief as it is a dedicated rendering program (and I would expect it to be better). The guy at chief ought to navigate around Lumion a little though and see how beneficial well integrated material tools can be . Specifically using imported textures and the ability to on the fly create bump maps and adjust material properties almost instantly. It is a lofty goal, but the UI of Lumion for material adjustment is lightyears ahead. (As it should be...but I think Chief could improve) But frankly, I dont ever see using Chief as a primary rendering tool. If rendering is important enough to my business, I will use a software that is tailored just for that. Why try to be everything and still lag behind at some basic drawing functions? If I design, I want to use the best design software I can, because it is how I make my money. (I still beileve Chief is that for me). I am not losing jobs because I lack the ability to make pretty pictures. I can make as pretty a pictures as any guy out there rendering. It is just not an efficient use of my time since I am more productive designing and producing working drawings, than I would rendering. Does not mean I cant render though.....Below is a Lumion Render that took about 5 Minutes to make from a direct Chief import. I only added a few lights and defined the materials (all stock Chief). Nice thing is after the 5 minute set up, it takes about 5 more min to define a path and record a nice video. Vid was renered on high, so it took about 15 min to process. Again, I expect Lumion to be better since it is a decicated tool. I repeat, I do not expect Chief to compete with what it can do.

I checked out your videos and you represent several of Chiefs sample plans as examples of your work....even producing videos and walk throughs describing the design and the design process. You use the Grandview, the Breckenridge, timber frame, and Chick Cottage. (maybe more, but I did not go through all your vids). If you really did draw all those....nice work for sure. This vid below you say...."each of the following designs started with a rough sketch and photos and was created in one or more one hour design sessions". Wow....that is amazing that those plans done in just a few hour sessions. Nice work! https://www.youtube.com/user/sobbofner/videos

Nice work and point well made. It is hard for me to understand shipping with 'defaults' that are so far off. That is what I meant about it not seeming like it was ready. I have not even messed with it at all, but your work shows it has potential. There is a lot of work yet to go as well. The shadowing, and materials devoid of and depth due to lack of bump/normal. Sure they can update the cats at some point, but they are just so hard to work with from a manual standpoint as well. Making your own involves going in and getting the zipped files and then altering the image files to create your own maps...etc. It takes A LOT of work. Have you played with making bump or normal maps with PBR? That would improve the look tremendously if they would work. I can applaud the effort, but it is almost like chief has an identity crisis. It is trying to be everything. Pretty pictures sell software maybe....? But Those of us who have been with chief for a long time, have stayed NOT for the pretty pictures. We use it because for residential design, it is a great platform. If I want photorealism, I will use a specific rendering engine for that. Guys have used Thea for years that wanted a step above ray trace. Unless chief plans on devoting their resources to make their rendering on par with render specific products, professionals will use the render specific products if that is their business. (if they produce photo renderings) This is a mistake in my opinion since we will end up with beautiful pictures and still lack the ability to draw a stair that wraps a wall properly. And, (sorry Chief) They are years behind what the best products out there can do. They will always be in this position as they dont just render. Sorry for side tracked rant again.....but I just see chasing rendering as a losing battle. Nice work BTW.

Chief PBR is terrible right now. I refuse to even waste my time with it. It looks and behaves like a pre-release beta version. I dont think it was ready for release....not by a long shot. More bugs than a cheap motel. They need to have a MUCH easier way to manipulate and adjust materials, normal and bump maps...etc. In lumion, you can do this 'on the fly'. In fact, I just use most of chiefs native materials and just adjust in lumion. This was just done for a concept and I have ZERO added lighting. The "lights" just are material defined as having "emissive" bumped up. Just default single light source. Probably took about 15min to set up and takes about 30 seconds to render each image. In the last one, I added some lights under cab and where the fixtures were. Then lowered the sun. That took about 5 minutes, and rendering was about 45sec. (cant remember what my global illumination settings were) If I 'decorated' and played with adding lights, it could easily go to a presentation level in no time..... No hate on chief....but to me the PBR resources would have been better spent on producing tools that allow us to produce CD's and maybe.....fix stairs. How many years of complaining about stairs (a part of EVERY two story home you draw).

Thanks for the reply. I was beginning to think I might be the only one. I'll have to see if that is what is causing it. I always have multiple views open between monitors so that could likely be the case. Does it do it if you turn off camera labels in the 2D view?

Wow....those stand the test of time for sure. Really nice work and just shows how the 'tools' have been there to output some really nice stuff for some time. That living room is very nicely done!

Thanks man. You might have missed it, but that was done about 10 years ago. Was just using it as an example of how much landscape adds to the realism of the render. Your stuff is awesome by the way. I can get good looking renderings, but I spend WAAAAY too much time to get there. In the end, I cant justify doing it in most cases. I can definitely appreciate when you see a guy who has that part dialed in! Nice work.

I chose to use spray foam because of it's air sealing properties. It is amazing really, but you do have to make extra precautions such as fresh air provisions as the home become too tight. I used an ERV. I did a full sealed envelope. I just finished the project in Dec, and we did a blower door pre-drywall and were less than .5ach BEFORE drywall. HSF is 8800 sqft. My HVAC guy sized it conventional and said I needed 13ton if I buit the home "normal". I used a 2x8 plate stagger stud with 4" of foam (any more was a diminishing return and there was a LOT of wall). In retrospect, I could have used a 2x6 plate and got the same effect. The fact that they dont have to "shave" the foam actually makes it more efficient. The skin yeilds greater performance that is not factored into normal calculations. I spec'd andersen 100 series windows, which have decent performance. I hired an energy consultant to do a detailed long form manual J and ductwork modeling. The entire home sized out for 2.9 ton on a 95 deg design temp day. Total utility bill (home is all electric) for Feb was $160. I put in a lennox variable speed OUTDOOR unit which can actually change it relative size depending on demand and ensure proper run time. I used a 4 ton unit which can effectively run down to 1.5 ton if it needs it. I used a separate 2 ton unit for the walk-out basement as load is almost nothing. That area we added a dehumidifier in case the unit does not run long enough. Modeled in chief and built last year.

We dont have the energy requirements that you guys deal with, but regarding rigid foam in a braced wall, Huber has a neat product. They sandwich foam on inside so no lath or siding nailers required. They have engineered the sheer requirements to allow the foam in the inside. Pretty cool stuff. I am a fan of Zip system as well. This takes it a step further. Was going to use this on a recent project, but went with a staggered stud and spray foam application instead. I still used Zip on outside which was probably overkill, but the material itself is much better than standard OSB. Much greater water resistance in how it is made. (not just an exterior coating) http://www.huberwood.com/zipsystem/products/zip-system-rsheathing

The funny thing about rendering is how much an impact the landscaping can have on the realism of a given scene. Learning to blend those elements can add a great deal to the impact of a rendering. These below were renderings done in Chief 9.5 (NOT X9) I photochopped the landscaping out of the real pics and did a rendering of the home from the point of view of the photo.

I know the PBR was a big change with this addition. I dont even use it. It is essentially worthless to me. For clients that want 3d views, I use the watercolor and line drawings. Producing CDs is a big part. Silly things like still having to mess like crazy to make stairs work. (the winder tool to make a tread extend 3 1/2 to wrap the outside of the wall. And then the room divider line just keeps changing into a 3 1/2" invisible wall. (You then have to re-do to get the 3d looking normal again). It is a major PIA and stair improvements have been at the top of many's list for a very long time. (not discounting some small improvements to them...but still a ways to go).

Bump...Anyone else use a 3d mouse and see this same effect?

Working on a modern home built with conventional materials and glazing. (asphalt shingle roof and 'normal' windows and doors). This is the start of my concept for the design. Drawn in chief and rendered in lumion Still lots of tweaking to be done but the concept is there. I got a little carried away. I 'borrowed' the table and chairs from the BOTR model

Noticed this today. x10 GTX970 card 32gb ram i4790k processor...etc 3dconnection 3d mouse I had 3 or 4 3d view open and using standard render technique. I tried it with other rendering methods and was similar. Using 3d mouse to navigate was a little choppy. If I left clicked the mouse, it would navigate with zero lag. Anyone ever notice this https://youtu.be/DJbWYZUM_lE