TheKitchenAbode

My recommendation would be to take a hard look at the proposed configuration, not just the video card. That I7 8700 CPU is dated, there are much better CPU's to choose from. Concerning the video card, recommend sticking with Nvidia, RX 2060 or better, 6GB ram. Not that other similar cards from others won't work but my sense is that Chief uses Nvidia cards in their machines so it's your best assurance that CA will perform as designed.

If you choose an Nvidia RX series card then you will have the capacity to real time Raytrace if and when this becomes available. No harm in having this capability but I would not count on this feature as the solution to a fundamentally poor rendering.

Though I'm not currently located in the UK I have done several projects in St Albans, just outside of London. As you are aware Chief is certainly geared towards North American construction methods and materials, and requires some customization. Fortunately, Chief has many features that permits this so you can define and create wall types and symbols to accommodate the specific needs in the UK. What I did find to be the most challenging was more related to the difficulty in replicating the finer architectural details versus the base construction, especially the intricate exterior brick work. The home below is currently under an extensive renovation including a ground floor back extension and loft conversion. Note the details around the windows and doors, specifically the fact that the bricks have either camphor or radius ends/edges.

One significant benefit, though not realized when the project was first taken on, was the capacity to accurately demonstrate exterior shadow projections using the sun settings and the 3D model. When the project was submitted to city planning the neighbour complained that their "Right to Light" would be compromised by shadows being cast onto their property and conservatory. With Chief it could be demonstrated that these potential shadows were not significant and when cast they were only for a very short period of time, planning agreed and the neighbours request for consideration was rejected.

3 minutes ago, JasonParsons said:

 

for some time, the consensus was that intel was a better option even if amd offered more cores.  I was wondering if that was still the case.  the requirements page does not specify one or the other (I had already looked at the link, thanks)

 

also, Not an Apple Guy.

 

That used to be the case but AMD has made very significant improvements in their CPUs. The only slight advantage that Intel has is in single threaded performance but AMD has really closed the gap on this and for most users the minor difference would never be noticed. When it comes to cores AMD rules, especially for any given price point, with AMD you will likely get 20%-30% more cores than Intel's similar offering, that's a difference you will definitely notice and appreciate.

For Raytracing the more cores the better, it will use as many cores as you can throw at it. Currently the AMD 3900X series processors provide the best core per dollar and this new series also offer very competitive single threaded performance. Anyone currently upgrading should definitely take a very serious look at these AMD products.

The fact that the glow on those triangular walls is reduced when you turn the sun way down is a strong indicator that some portion of the those walls might be protruding into the attic space or the adjacent walls cavity. Open up a section view and check very closely to make sure this is not the case, even a 1/16" protrusion can cause this.

Good catch Mark. Will keep that one in mind.

1 minute ago, kwhitt said:

Thanks again Graham.

More than welcome Kevin, pleasure to have helped.

Just now, kwhitt said:

Graham - thanks for the reply.  I will attempt to place my own light to override the default.

Mike -  funny thing - when I switch over to PBR, the casing around the door glows like a light source.  That said, I believe that is an entirely different issue that I've heard mentioned before...

If you have glowing surfaces that may be due to the surface material having an emissive setting. Best way to find these is to turn off all lights, set your sun intensity to 0 and toggle the sun off. Everything in the scene will be black except materials with an emissive setting. Emissive is useful but you need to be careful as overdoing it can really screw up the scenes lighting.

The only other time an object may glow is if it penetrates say a wall so part of it is on one side and other part is on the other side. If one side is brightly lit CA may use that light to generate the materials appearance versus the light within the room that the camera is in.

You are most likely seeing the hidden automatic light that CA puts in if you have no lights in your plan. Just place any light in the plan, it does not have to be turned on and CA will not put it's own light in. Just be aware that with no lights your scene may be very dark.

1 minute ago, DavidJPotter said:

I order the software to create "4" and it just created "2". I suggest you call Tech Support tomorrow and see what they have to say (that is Free with your SSA account).

 

DJP

 Just played with that and the number of pieces is dictated by the wall thickness.

Yes there is no problem. Just download the SKP file to a folder and then in CA use the file import 3D Symbol and select the SKP you down loaded.

"File", "Export", "Export Picture". It will capture the displayed window.

Just exported a jpg to file and then attached it to the post.

You are welcome. Always post the plan, we are not going to judge it, our interest is in solving the problem.

Here's what it looks like when I turn off textures.

3D, Camera View Options

Are you sure you don't have textures toggled "off".

I have the same result as Eric. Does the plan you sent not look the same on your system?

If the texture shows correctly in the texture preview window when selecting it from the library then there is nothing wrong with your video card. That preview window is just a view generated based on the floor camera settings. The problem is likely in your plan or a setting. Post the plan and you will likely have your answer in 5 or 10 minutes.

51 minutes ago, johnny said:

Yeah that was on and I turned it off - thanks.  Though I did have the Macbook plugged into power when having these slow issues so technically it should have only been a problem.  HOWEVER, i just did a test where opened Chief with the MacBook unplugged and with this option on (so it should be using the integrated graphics when unplugged) and tested the video inside Chief and it was as smooth as butter.  This means for some reason when I have the Macbook plugged in ...the model view gets all jankie.  That is REALLY odd and makes me think this is an Apple driver problem for this new video card.

 

I'd love for someone at Chief to go get a 16" Macbook pro and let us know how it performs for them.  I remember seeing this thread thinking the OP had a problem related to the size of their model file, but now I understand what they're talking about.

That's strange, now when unplugged running on the battery things run smooth but when plugged in the video performance is degraded?

Would first suggest checking to make sure that Chief is seeing the discrete card under both situations.

- Close Chief, boot mac pro while plugged in, open Chief. Check "Preferences" "Render" "Video Card Status". Note the card it sees, driver, driver version & date.

- Close Chief, boot mac pro while unplugged, repeat above.

Does Chief report the same card and driver details or is something different?

8 minutes ago, rgardner said:

This can also be done as I mentioned by application so it doesn’t burn up your battery for programs that don’t need it.

The thing with this is I'm not certain it is 100% reliable. Had a similar issue with my PC, even though everything other than the power plan was set to recognize Chief I would encounter times when Chief for some reason was using the integrated chip. Was only able to resolve this fully by changing the power plan to high performance which forced the system to only use the discrete graphics all the time for everything. Maybe the MAC controls this better.

Johnny - This may help.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202043

Just now, johnny said:

 

Yeah it shows both in the "About this Mac".... but I can just say the AMD 5500M should run Chief like butter.  

 

That unfortunately is only showing the systems configuration. Somewhere in the OS system there must be something that tells you and allows you to define what is to be used. 

1 hour ago, Michael_Gia said:

Born and raised in Montreal I fully endorse this comment. 
I also get wrongly corrected by fellow Canadians from primarily English speaking regions on how to pronounce French words on a regular basis.  Very frustrating. 

I bet however you can embarrass them when it comes time to order the wine.

Could be, not familiar with Mac OS but in Windows you can open up the task manger and see right away which graphics is being used. The integrated graphics will be identified as GPU(0) and the dedicated one as GPU(1). In most laptops that contain both chips which gets used is usually determined by the graphics cards settings program and the laptops power settings program, both need to be correct. What laptop producers have done in order to maximize battery time is to set the power plan so as to only use the dedicated GPU when absolutely needed, otherwise it uses the integrated chip. From what I can determine, Chief does not like this back and forth switching and I also think that when Chief starts up it looks and only sees the active GPU and uses it by default.