TheKitchenAbode

Scott - not sure about the bug you are experiencing but your new avatar definitely expresses your frustration. Just for the record, never have and never would give anyone a negative vote. Since the last update I did have the odd error pop up but for whatever reason they seem to have gone away so I'm not sure as to what caused them. Would you consider posting the plan to see if the error occurs on our systems? Excuse the pun but try to "hang" in there.

Interesting to hear these experiences concerning 3D molding lines/polylines. I agree 100% that they can be tricky to manipulate, especially when working in 3 planes. In the past I never used these tools but had a recent project where I had to accurately replicate an existing two story staircase wooden handrail, not sure what other tool could be used to do this as the built-in staircase handrail feature could not replicate it. As it was my first real experience with this it was certainly difficult to get a handle on manipulating the 3D molding line through X, Y and Z transitions and to get the correct miters at these transition points. Yes this was frustrating and very time consuming, but from a first time experience I would say it would be no worse than ones first time trying to "accurately" replicate a staircase winder. After this project I had a bit of downtime which prompted me to further explore this tool, the two renders I posted above demonstrate the results. Certainly from those experiences I was impressed as to how many elements could be modeled with just this one tool, in both of them I just used the 3D molding polyline. It should also be noted that the items created were intentional, accurate and precisely positioned in the models. Not sure how one could build many of those elements any other way. Also, as they were built using combinations of single and multiple molding profiles they can if need be easily modified by substituting a different molding profile or changing a profiles size or position in respect to the molding polyline. Concerning miters, there is no doubt that as one transitions into differing planes that mitered joints can go amiss. When this occurred it seemed to happen for two reasons, one the molding due to it's profile was not position correctly(horizontal vertical offsets) on the polyline or two, I was changing the polyline orientation in a plane(s) that such a miter would not be possible in real life for the type of molding profile I was using. Manipulating the line, dragging it around, is tricky and this took a while to gain a bit of perspective as to what was going on. It was imperative that I was using the appropriate camera type and view in respect to the lines position(orientation) and the direction I wanted to manipulate it. In two planes this was not much of an issue, just needed the correct elevation or plan view. It's line segments that are in a third plane and it becomes even more difficult especially if the line in the third plane is also angled off in more than 1 plane in the 3rd plane direction. As you can surmise, the ability to accurately drag such a line in 2D is extremely difficult as when the line is being dragged it is not just extending across/parallel to your camera view but it can also be extending away or towards the camera at the same time. I'm still grappling with this but it seems that you either have to enter hard end/start values or set up a camera that is precisely angled so the line is 100% parallel to your camera view according to the direction you wish to drag the line. The tool is not perfect by any means, but then what tool in CA's arsenal is? They all have their own personalities and at times quirky behaviors, the 3D molding line and polylines are no different, maybe it just takes a bit more time and effort to get to know and understand them.

Just to give you some hope this staircase and balcony railing systems was done using the 3D molding line. In this model, other than the cars and main walls, everything was done using the 3D molding line. Roof Trusses, Valance Soffit, Railings, Sprinkler System, HVAC, beams and Columns.

The 3D molding line can be a bit wonky to work with, there are times when you can only insert break points in a particular view such as plan and then you need to flip back to your elevation view to grab it. The other issue I have found with the 3D molding line is that it works best in only two planes, better to use the 3D molding polyline if you are trying to draw in 3 planes, this may result in a molding section that you do not want, just select the edge and remove the molding from that edge so it is not visible. Usually when I work with these I will have a plan view, several elevations and a 3 D camera view open so I can see what is going on and to make sure I'm using the correct view to select the line segment or insert a break.

If you wish to have a cabinet where the side gable is the same as a door panel then you can apply panels from the Cabinet DBX. If you wish these panels to be part of the box then you can save the door profile to your User Library, open the Symbol DBX and change the Y Offset to the door panel thickness plus 1/16" and then use this as your finished side panel, it will now be just like the unfinished cabinet box and the front doors/drawer fronts will overlap as specified under the box construction.

You can only adjust the door/drawer front overlap in the cabinet DBX but the maximum width is that of the cabinet. One option would be to make the cabinet open and then float a door or drawer front in place and then adjust their widths to cover the end panel. Not sure why you would want to do that if you have a separate panel/partition that the cabinet abuts to.

I just took a quick look and I think it has something to do with the exterior top plates, the wall finish is not covering them and it looks like there is a gap up there.

You could place a few 3D point lights in the room to get some light onto the ceiling and you could also try adding a bit of emissivity to the ceiling finish to brighten it up. There are times when the floor finish/properties can impact on the ceiling as it's settings will effect how much light is reflected off of the floor and bounced to other surfaces.

If you wish to draw a molding in both horizontal and vertical planes then you need to use the 3D Molding Line tool. You can then insert breaks and change the direction. Just make sure to set the vertical and horizontal offsets so the molding is correctly positioned on the polyline so the connected corners where it changes direction will be correct, this will vary depending on the moldings profile.

I have SSA and maybe they are restricted to SSA users only, not sure but you could check online in the library download section.

I think this might be the issue, I am using the 3D plants from the bonus library, just tried with a regular 2D one from the core library and it does not show a shadow. 3D Tree on left, 2D tree on right.

Right of screen tool bar, 4th Icon from the bottom toggles the grid on/off.

Try placing a blank section between the two drawers and along the top to simulate the inset rail. In this one I placed a molding just in front of the blank space so the material could be shown as stainless steel.

Try adding one or two 3D point lights to get some light onto the ceiling surface. The light from those recessed fixtures will only cast downward and as such they will have little or no lighting effect on the ceiling.

Was just playing around to see what could be accomplished using the 3D Moulding Line tool. These are the elements created with this one tool. - Perimeter Soffit Valance & Accent light. - Roof Trusses - Sprinkler System - HVAC - I Beams & Columns - Display Railings, Lower Column Surrounds, Seating Area, Back Corner Screens

Try adding one or two exterior placed 3D lights to get some light into those heavily shadowed regions. PBR Sun Only. PBR Sun with two exterior 3D lights. The 3D lights have shadows turned off.

Thanks Mark, are you testing this with the most recent Intel driver?

Thanks for the heads-up. I have a system that is affected by this issue but have not had time to test it, I'll will now hold-off.

There have been known issues with X10 and Intel integrated 600 series graphics chips. CA just released an X10 update this week with fixes to address this issue. Might be worth trying to see if this solves the problem.

What I seem to be finding is that to get the best out of PBR'ing you need to disregard Ray Tracing. Trying to create a scene that looks good in PBR and at the same settings will also Ray Trace properly is very challenging and you will likely run into issues where a positive setting in one will result in a negative effect on the other. Seems to be best to make a hard choice, it's one or the other. The main issue seems to be related to light and sun intensities, for Ray Tracing these need to be at certain minimum levels, otherwise your lights and especially the direct sun will not show. However, in PBR'ing it seems to be more about the ratio of the intensities that's most important. If the sun intensity is too high then it will introduce a color cast from the exterior and blow out the exterior backdrop, just reduce the sun intensity and then adjust the interior lights accordingly. This sample PBR has the sun intensity at 25 Lux, the recessed ceiling lights are at 50 lumens, the under-counter lights are at 1 Lumen and the pendants are at 3 lumens. The Dusk Overlook backdrop seems in line as does the direct sun being cast onto the floor through the patio door glazing. Color is good and the other interior lights seem proper. If I sent this as is to Ray Trace it would not come out very well as my low light settings would be below Ray Traces minimum threshold.

They are nice machines but, the model you have chosen does not have a discrete graphics card and with X10 this could be an issue if you wish to use the new PBR camera feature. Also, the 8th generation Intel CPU's are currently in the market and they do provide improved performance over the 7th gen ones. Given the cost of the Surface Book Pro there are many alternatives out there that would be better performers, more future proof.

100% PBR now. Much faster, especially when clients make a change and the renders need to be updated. Just open up the view and in a few seconds the render is ready to send.

Another option would be to get a JPEG pic of a mirror and apply it to the surface. You would not get any real reflections of your room but it would look more mirror like. Just like putting art into a picture frame.

Just wonder if anyone else has encountered this anomaly. The pendant light shades have a 4.0 emissive value. There are no lights on other than the sun. In a standard view camera the shades show as desired in front of the mirror and in the mirror. However, when I switch to the PBR camera, the shades in the mirror are significantly brighter than those in front. It's as if the emissivity has been boosted/magnified in the reflection process. Standard Camera PBR Camera

Just curious, at what pix size are you running the Ray Trace. If at 18,000 wide I think that's going to take a very long time, maybe days.