mtldesigns

Thanks Robert and Graham. Beach life is better than work life, even though it was real windy and water was choppy. Still something about that Vitamin D.... heals all kinds of things! Outsourcing I don't think will work, even though that sounds wonderful. The builders are cutting cost too, and do their research. They see the ads for Chief and look for us, me, to get realistic renders for their marketing. I would love to learn this, instead of plugging away and like you said Robert, and watch that money go down the drain. I charge by the job, so added hours equals less money. Its not terribly busy right now, even though spring is typically overwhelming. I will do some research on this, but any advice to point me in a direction of learning more would be great. Suggestions of add-on's too. I'm smart in the 3D world, just need to learn key terms and setting on the rendering part. My goal is to get Rabbits and Graham, and others quality without having to add a lot more cost to my clients. This would be great for the pictures. The walk through are a different story though. I love this idea. What's that texture on your walls graham, I like it!

PART II of my gripe, Sorry I am venting here. Why in a BPR mode do I need to have it night time to get any descent results. I have read through so many of the post, some are pages and pages of info.. a lot of it confusing too. Where can I go to in the knowledge base to find simple instructions? Do I really need to adjust lums, sun angle, etc., etc. in every view? Try searching "physical based rendering" in Chiefs Knowledge Base. Nothing, maybe at least refer to a page or link of the experts on here?? I love Rabbits, and Kitchen (Graham's) stuff. How do I get there without cussing? :-) I think I need a break, heading to the beach!

Chiefer's, I have seen so many comments and ideas on how to make PBR a better tool. I know when we first got it (9 or 10??), it took a little bit to understand. But it seems now I need a college degree in video graphics and lighting to make this work. Is there a better way to do this? I have a client who wants walk through's, showing shadows, textures, etc. for marketing (and believe me these are not fun). When I do these walk through vids using PBR, every time I go into a room, everything is off. I have to pause and adjust material definitions to get any sense of worth. Is there something I can do that it would be a smooth transition? I have my lights set at 200, and all are on. My vid card shouldn't be an issue either. Stumped here. I uploaded a quick test video showing my concerns. test.wmv

I have never seen that before. Your system max'd out by chance?

was that a summer backdrop with all that snow up there in MN? :-)

Your awesome.. thanks. That was it. 99.9% of designs are with north up, but this house was to long..

Now that I have this house designed.. and north is to the right of the screen. How do I change the sun angle so that south will be from the left side of screen? Basically I need this angel to rotate 90 degrees clockwise to give me the right shadows. As of right now high noon on June 26th, the sun light is coming from the N.E.

Thanks Johnny, I love the hotkey idea. Long day.. brain is fried.. the experts gave a great answer.

Hey experts.. is there any way to get the >Edit>Copy and Paste In Place, back to the bottom toolbar? I use this all the time.. no biggie if not, but my mouse keeps going to the lower left corner to search for this.. was there on 11 and before.

NP, looks good.... see I'm not the only one up and running tonight. We kinda have the same career.. I'm a mechanical designer during the day (Plant 3D), and this on evenings and weekends. Cool!

Could you just make that a pony wall, with the cabinets butting up to it, or is that whats shown? Looks like it higher than a standard base cabinet anyways. That should put the molding on automatically and you can than do electrical on this wall too. Or, search as mentioned above.

Interesting article. I know they are used in the facilities, but the far-UVC has potential, if it can be tested more and mass produced. Please do Greg. I don't know if this builder has done any research on their end... and maybe there are residential safe units that he is aware of.. but I'd like to be more educated myself.

They didn't say the kind or brand, just to accommodate for it, with symbols (fixtures, switches, etc.). I know my previous day job, we designed pharmaceutical plants/labs, they had industrial size UV units everywhere. So I get the jest.. Didn't know they made them to mount under a 24" cabinet.

Wondering if any of you all have had this request. The builder I am working with is wanting me to go back and add UV lights in multiple locations throughout the houses I've designed and to include on future designs. All spec houses. all it en tales on my end are symbols I need to create and label UV. They wants under kitchen cabinets, a light in the main coat closet with timer, and an extra outlet on the front porch for UV boxes that home owners will put their foot attire in. Has anyone had this request? Easy to do for sure, but maybe a new trend.. or a small business opportunity for someone out there to provide.

Thanks Robert, Client wants no switches for these rooms. I saw Chiefs OC symbol. I will just make a symbol and label it "MS" as you suggested.

Anyone got a symbol I could use for a interior light fixture (client wants these in halls and closets) that is motion activated, not switched. If not, what is the industry nomenclature (M, OC, ?) for something like this, I would just make up a symbol then.

Thanks for the suggestion Robert. This is in the right direction, but door also needs to be flat and with carpet on the walking surface. I think I will just model as a solid, then do as you suggested and do the hole in platform.

Trying to crate symbol for crawlspace access from with inside the house for a couple reasons. 1) the real estate company building this subdivision wants to show it in a model, and for framing reasons. I copied a regular door, been playing with the symbol, but it still will not let me put in a "floor" because there isn't any options to do so. How can this be done? Or should I just create an opening a some p-solids to show door?

I do the same as Scott, just resize to a small door, the chg hinge size via the toolbar. And I have been seeing a lot of these doors being requested lately. 70's coming back?

Or in Canada (eh!).. no shadows for 3 months anyways.

I would think not.. We are 93 million miles a way from the sun, so I don't think a mile or two will make any difference. The latitude and longitude and the date you want to reflect the shadow is all I think you really need. and maybe any obstruction, like another building, trees, mountains, etc...

I don't know if I am understanding the question.. You should be able to center you text with any object or line. Make sure your text alignment is how you want it, rotate it in the direction you want the text to show.. then center with the lines of the border box.. And all main title block geometry should be done on sheet 0.. this will carry over to the rest of the layout sheets.

I also use Google street view to capture the neighborhood, if I can't get out to take an actual picture. But very interesting on the P-solid thing.. I mean a person could do this as a panoramic view per say, by doing this on a couple sides.. Imagine a solid showing the back of property, then a solid showing the sides and another for the front. All on a its own layer to turn off. But in a camera view, your not showing the same mountain view looking out each direction. I know getting way out there.. but interesting nether less.

So do you guys (and gals) use these backdrops for actual backdrops of a exterior house camera views, if not what do you use them for? Most are nice pictures, (used for framed art maybe?) but the camera angle just doesn't fit with locating a home on... for example, under Cities, is San Antonio.. how does that work? Most of them never made sense to me.