KirkClemons

Reflections in mirrors is available in the Standard rendering technique. Check your general camera defaults to make sure they are enabled.

I'm not sure if it's been mentioned on this thread yet, but, my favorite way to work around the image export feature in a Floor Plan view specifically, is to send the view to a layout sheet that is set to the sheet size that is needed. Then, I use the scale settings to scale the floor plan view to fit the sheet.

This ensures that you can save as PDF at the print resolution and keep all the quality of the floor plan view.

For ray traces and other camera views, I like to use a tool like this to calculate the actual pixel sizes that I need to print at a specified sheet size and resolution:

http://www.papersizes.org/a-sizes-in-pixels.htm

That's true, he didn't really point out that the image was losing perceived 'quality' as he increased the number of pixels. I like to call it the 'lego' effect. It's like you're taking several blocks of the same color and adding them together to make the image bigger.

Tech support is not equipped to teach users concepts such as image resolution in one phone call. However, this guy does a good job of doing it in 2mins.

Hopefully, this helps clarify what you are doing when you adjust the DPI.

If all you want to do is add some fixtures and produce renders from the model, then you should be able to do that without a problem. You would basically be freestanding everything around the model.

Ctrl(Command) keys are your friends!

You would also need to modify the materials so that they make sense to Chief. Glass, Metals, etc. will import as Matte materials by default.

Looks like you deleted the terrain in the copy of the plan you attached. Problem solved!

If you want some tips about specific issues in the terrain, like the spikes you pictured, I recommend attaching the version of your plan with your latest attempts so that we can hone in on the problem areas and suggest changes rather than spending the extra time trying to reproduce what you show in the picture.

To actually answer your original question, I have two suggestions:

1. Post a "Help Wanted" style advertisement under the Seeking Services topic:

https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/forum/15-seeking-services/

This topic is mainly for offering, or requestion objects that you can add to the library, not for hiring people.

2. Take a look around the web or at specific hiring sites. A few examples:
https://www.upwork.com/hire/3d-modelers/
https://www.freelancer.com/freelancers/skills/threed_modelling/
https://www.cadcrowd.com/

Another thing to consider might be to research who made that object and see if there is a digital asset out there already, either offered on the original manufacturer's website or made by another, independent, party.

Revisions are added to the pages individually.

You should be able to access a revision from the edit page information dialog.

First, it would seem strange to me that clicking Ignore would have any effect since it is supposed to ignore the disconnected wall.

Second, I would recommend starting your plan with the process outlined in the Tutorial Guide, and Quick Start training resources:

https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/playlists/138/quick-start-video-series.html

https://cloud.chiefarchitect.com/1/pdf/documentation/chief-architect-x10-tutorial-guide.pdf

The process, in a nutshell, is to start on Floor 1 and draw the rough shell of your structure. Then, use the dimensions to resize the structure to exact specifications.

Your foundation can be auto-generated based on the room types and layout of your first floor. (Garages receive a slab floor and shorter stem wall, for example.)

The warning symbols can mean a variety of things but, they can simply be ignored as well. They point out issues with your walls, such as, off angles, misalignment across floors, and walls that are not connected properly.

If you do choose to ignore them, however, keep an eye out for anomalies with things like your room definition and roof.

This issue is caused by very large models.

Try making your terrain smaller or hiding it as a test.

My guess is that it has something to do with the ray tracer trying to make a calculation based on the origin and the distance becomes too great at some point.

6 hours ago, Kbird1 said:

might have the setting too low currently at default for VFW

Also, now that you have a better codec, I would recommend setting the Compression in the Walkthrough settings to 0%. You don't want Chief to compress the frames before passing them on to the codec to be compressed again.

You are more than likely encountering a memory limit with the video player. Not the size of the file. The file happens to be 4GB, but the media player can't load that much into RAM.

Try a different media player. Maybe the 64-bit version of VLC.

15 minutes ago, Kbird1 said:

I am just not sure how I get a 4GB file for a 60 second Video

This is related to the codec. The codec contains the instructions on how to compress the video frames. Some use lossy compression (lower the quality in favor of a smaller file). And others use lossless compression (as small a file as possible without sacrificing the quality).

Xvid defaults to lossy compression but, the x264 codec allows you to choose lossless compression.

5 minutes ago, Kbird1 said:

Which Codec do you use for Walkthroughs?

I like this one:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/x264vfw/

10 minutes ago, Kbird1 said:

can others be installed.

Yes, the link above is one that I like but this one works well too:

https://www.xvid.com/

Walkthroughs are heavy to render regardless of your card. I believe most of the video compression process takes place on the CPU while the creation of each frame is rendered on the video card.

That means that your card can help by being fast at rendering each frame more quickly. The time saved for each frame adds up, though it's not a huge change overall.

Other ways a walkthrough can be sped up is by lowering the amount of compression in your codec settings and in the walkthrough settings. However, this may not be an option if you need to send the video via email or Dropbox as it will produce a larger file in the end. But, it is a good option if you are simply going to upload the video to a video service such as Youtube or Vimeo since they will take in the raw video and convert it to a web-friendly format anyways.

Or, lowering the number of frames per second(FPS). A typical video on youtube, for example, is rarely over 25fps and depending on your scene, you may not need more than 15fps.

Samples are certainly welcome, I believe that was the original intent of this thread. But, it is worth noting that the Physically Based rendering technique was not intended to replace ray tracing. The two are mutually exclusive in terms of capabilities.

1 minute ago, rispgiu said:

I am really having a love hate relationship with PBR. I think its a great product, it definitely provides a great alternative to RT, however I feel it was introduced at the expense of RT instead of updating RT. 

Well, actually there were several updates to ray tracing to make the material and lighting support more consistent between the two.

Ray tracing now supports the PBR textures same as the PBR rendering technique. At this point, the number of materials that contain these textures is fairly limited though.

On 2/13/2018 at 11:06 AM, Jay_on_Cape said:

Are the exterior textures like grass any better than say the ones in X8?

There some new HD textures in the Core Catalogs, and Bonus Catalogs that you can use. You can also try to enhance the grass with Normal or Bump maps.

Otherwise, using actual 3D grass is the only other alternative. I created a basic catalog of 3D grass and imported into Chief, Attached. I generally use this with the Distributed objects polyline to duplicate it at random angles over an area.

3d-grass.calibz

13 minutes ago, solver said:

 

Where may we find information on the new maps?

At the moment, they are only briefly mentioned in the feature overview video:

https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/2412/3d-rendering-features-added-in-x10.html

As for how to use them, they are in the material properties dialog, same as the bump or normal maps:

Creating these maps would only require a photo editor such as GIMP or Photoshop.

If you want to see some examples of what these maps typically look like, this site offers several PBR(Physically Based Rendering) texture downloads:

https://www.poliigon.com/

On 2/13/2018 at 2:06 PM, Kbird1 said:

IIRC @KirkClemons started a thread on this , with a Tutorial he made , linked on his Blog , I am not sure if he got around to Finishing it or not ? I'll try and see If I saved the link but hopefully he will see this post and pop in here....

 

Maybe in the Symbols Forum?

 

M.

 

 

Yes, I finished the tutorial, for creating Normal maps and bump(height) maps. The article is here:
https://kcclemo.neocities.org/creating-height-and-normal-maps/

It hasn't been updated for the new types of maps that X10 now supports but is still relevant and last I checked, the online normal map generator is still up and running.

That article used to just explain the steps for copy/paste from Excel to Chief. That information for that article was merged into KB-00173:
https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00173/transferring-text-and-spreadsheet-information-into-chief-architect.html

You can safely close the program during a download. It will pickup where it left off when you reopen.

I would recommend using the update library catalogs command after a relaunch instead of the install core content command.

Try out different fonts as well.

Barring that, make sure you are not sending the view to your layout as an image.

Another note, is that you exported the panorama at 2K resolution. For better quality, especially when using a headset, we recommend exporting to 8K resolution.

Apply a material and then open it with the Adjust Material Definition tool, or copy it to your User Catalog and then open it from there.

If it's using a normal map, you should see that under the Textures panel.