TheKitchenAbode

This may or may not be relevant but I have experienced twice during recent windows updates my screen resolutions being altered after the standard update restart. Usually fixes it's self if I do another reboot.

I believe this is a PBR issue, not sure there is anything you can do at your end to resolve this. Might be worth sending the plan to Tech Support.

When the floor finish or some type of floor component is not planned to cover the entire area then I use a floor material region. An example would be in a bathroom with a heated floor. I use a floor material region for the heated floor as it would not extend under the tub, shower, toilet or vanity. I then use another floor material region for the tiled portion. Each region gives me the required square footage.

Not sure about other regions but here the flooring goes in before the cabinetry, cabinetry sits on top of finished floor. It's easier for the flooring installers as they do not have to try to cut and fit around the cabinetry. They only shortcut they might take is if they know the cabinetry footprint then they will not be so meticulous where the flooring meets the wall and will be hidden by the cabinetry.

I also believe we tried something like this a year or two ago and only a few responded, I believe it was based upon the Grandview plan in the CA sample gallery. One thing with Raytracing is that is fairly easy to predict the results. Raytracing is 100% CPU based and the per time pass is directly proportional to the CPU frequency and the number of cores. Double the cores and your per pass time is halved, increase the CPU frequency and your per pass time will be reduced accordingly. If you are PBRing then it's a bit more complex as both the CPU and GPU is involved however from what I can see it is the GPU that is by far the most important in the equation.

I always set up separate plans for differing iterations of a design. To show these I send the appropriate comparison views to a common layout. usually PDF this and now we can just flip between pages to see the differences. I never run Chief in front of clients, it's all done with PDF's of layouts. I was in the past using Chief during client presentations but found that clients started requesting changes on the spot and in many cases the changes were not related to the meetings purpose and too much time was being wasted playing around with non related design changes.

Absolutely - Even if you decided to take the risk the other issue would be if your business liability insurance would cover you. I know with mine it is very restrictive as to what activities I can be involved in. If I'm involved in something that I am not considered to be professionally designated in then they would consider that to be negligence on my part and as such I'm not covered. Even more important if you are working in a more commercial capacity such as a mass builder, when something goes wrong they are going to come at you with all guns blazing. Had such a situation back about 20 years ago, even though I was not at fault the GC filed suits against everyone who had stepped foot on the project.

I think it would be advisable to still have these plans reviewed and stamped by an Engineer. Otherwise you will be assuming all liability should something go wrong.

If the casing can be properly dimensioned then the contractor knows from the drawings what size of casing is needed. In many of our remodels the trim work is being replaced and the width can impact on things. Seems minor but there are times when we are bringing the upper gables right up tight to the casing, the casing must be exactly as specified.

For myself it's useful when laying out and balancing cabinetry around a window opening. It's nice be able to see the exact gaping. I can do this using point to point but it would be much easier if the dim tool would just snap to the window and it's elements.

When your machine gets to be 4 generations old then a new machine is in order. The performance difference will be 3 - 4 times what your current system does right across the board, and you will likely get this for less than your current system cost when it was brand new. It would not be so bad if the video card you would be using to upgrade your existing system would be transferrable to a newer system say a year down the road, but that 880m is already outdated and the $400 is gone.

Not sure that is worth the upgrade. I'm assuming your current graphics is the 780m, the 880m other than more memory is only on average about 15% better performance wise, that would be hardly noticeable. The increased memory would help but the benefit would depend on what you are doing. Regular plan and vector views do not use a significant amount of video memory unless you have a lot of active windows, if you are using CA version 10 and the new PBR feature then the extra video memory will be appreciated. If you can swing it with say option 1 you are going to see a really big difference right across the board, CPU, Graphics, Disk performance and everything else you do..

Just played with this, it's worse than my original comment when relying on snaps. My frame is 3/4", the casing is 3" width, casing overlap is 5/8" to create a 1/8" reveal. When I dimension across the window it snaps to the outside of the casing and then the rough side of the frame showing a dimension of 2 3/8". The only other point it will snap to is what appears to be a 1/2" drywall layer between the rough side of the frame and the closest wall framing member. Yes I can use point to point but that leaves point markers everywhere and it's a lot of manual manipulation.

Thanks Mark. I thought it might be something like that. To bad we can't just snap to all those points, I always have a reveal, usually about 1/8", if this could be snapped then when dimensioning across a window or door the true casing width would be shown versus casing plus reveal. It's a minor issue but if a contractor is using the drawing the casing width shows incorrectly.

I don't believe it will snap to the actual inside of the casing but it should snap to the frame, just try dragging it over there and it should lock on. Mark I just saw your comment, does that allow you to dimension the reveal?

Hard to tell without knowing your system specs but It seems that for some reason, if you have a dedicated graphics card, that it is not being recognized. On laptops you need to make sure that the power plan is set to "High Performance" in both plugged in and battery mode. Windows has been making changes in the power plan so if you have recently updated your Windows then your previous power plan settings may have been altered and now need to be reconfigured.

Have had this issue before, for some reason an element in the block will not adhere to it's height reference from the floor and defaults to absolute "0". Can only suggest making sure that all elements in the block are using the exact same height reference. If that doesn't work then as Tommy suggests you may need to convert this to a symbol. Just make sure to retain your block as you will need it if any future changes are required.

What program do you use to unzip that file format?

I have always found that the generic default light disengages as soon as any other light regardless of type is placed in the plan, even if the placed light is turned off. There must be something else going on, best to post the plan.

Reduce the sun's intensity, that's causing the severe blowouts.

Yes that's the issue. To do that type of connection in real life you would need to do a compound miter, cut two angles at the same time. The 3D Molding tool can only cut one angle. You can get fairly close by inserting a transition piece such as Glenn did. I have done this and it you set the line length of the transition piece really low, say 1/16" or 1/8" it is barley noticeable. Depending on the angles two transition pieces may need to be used.

I was a bit surprised by the model you sent, was expecting something more challenging or impossible. How ever there is a lot of value in demonstrating what a tool can do versus what it can't do.

Hi Michael - I don't think it can do all of your items. From my playing around it's as if you only have a miter saw, so anything requiring a compound miter seems to be out of the question.

Here it is. I duplicated your original to the right and saved the cameras. Solid molding example.plan

Michael - Here it is using a 3D molding line. Everything seems to be fine. I included a pic with the molding pulled away from the wall. It took me about 1 minute to draw the line, I'm no speed demon, and then I just had to select/apply the molding. The advantage here is that if there are any changes to the tile height or the molding profile needs to be changed it's quick and fast. But as I have mentioned before these 3D Molding lines can go wonky real fast if the camera views are not spot on. For this I used the floor plan for the main horizontal run and two elevation views to get the verticals. Here is one that wraps around this house. There are 3 moldings applied to this one line, all the miters seem to be ok. Here is an example where I needed to configure a shower control and hand sprayer from individual components. I used a 3D molding line to model the water supply hose for the hand sprayer. It's just a round handrail set to 1/2" diameter.