TheKitchenAbode

Johnny - I fully appreciate the point(s) you are making. And of course, if my work was predominantly 3D modeling of objects I would certainly not use or recommend Chief. My point is not that Chief is or has 100% 3D object modeling capabilities, it's that for the majority of Chief users modeling needs it can be done and it's not as difficult as one may think. It all depends upon the depth of 3D modeling that one requires. I'm not going to spend $1,000's of dollars on a dedicated 3D object modeling program for those rare instances where I might need to make a custom pillow; especially when I can already do that in Chief.

The tools are there. You just have to ignore the nomenclature. As an example, lets say Chief did not have a tool named "Custom Counter Top", does that mean I can't have a custom counter top. Not at all, I could just substitute with a Polyline Solid, a Slab, a Box or even an Extruded Face. It would only take about 2 seconds to adapt to the fact that the tool I have to use is not named "Custom Counter Top".

One more example. This demonstrates that what is needed to 3D model is already in Chief. All they really need to do is create a Tool Set designed to provide an intuitive way to access and control this capability. If this was done we would be able to easily create our own couches, pillows or whatever without having to rely on other software or SketchUp models.

Michael - It really all comes down to your lighting strategy, how a material appears is highly dependent on the amount of light striking it, the direction and the colour of the light. Getting this right often takes a number of lights strategically positioned within the scene. It is unlikely that you will ever be able to generate a reasonably realistic scene using only one or two lights. The example scene below has more than 40 lights in it. This is straight out of Ray Trace and has not had any other post processing. Excuse the pun, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. Concerning the sun, that light bleed, just reduce the intensity.

That type of function is not built into Chief, with the normal tool options you must have a separate texture image for every combination of texture and pattern, that's why there are so many tiles in the library. The only thing you can do is change/blend the color of the texture, stretch it or change it's direction. However, lets say that your texture is uniform, it is likely possible to make a texture without grout lines, then make a separate image for the grout lines with a transparent background, this could be overlaid on top of the underlying texture through something like a material region.

No solids used in my mattress, did not work with individual faces, it's not a photo overlay, did not import anything. All of the wrinkles are real, they are not an illusion. Textures and colours can be changed by simply using the spray painter tool, the model can be easily resized. I just used the standard tools in Chief. You can easily go into the model and adjust all elements at any time.

Sorry, no the surface is not flat, the variations are physical. No pre done models were used other than the bun feet, was short on time. Other than that it was built from scratch using the tools in Chief. No tricks.

For Sale - One King sized mattress set with frame. "Manufactured by Chief Architect"

Larry - From what I can deduce your disappointment is primarily the result of two factors. 1.) The Open GL performance of the new card is not much better than your old one. This is rarely directly tested for and you need to google a bit to find this type of information. 2.) Your CPU's are not ideal for single thread performance. You have plenty of memory so it's not that. Memory speed makes very little difference, so it's not that. PCIe bandwidth is unlikely the issue as today's graphics cards use very little of this, maybe 5-10%. One other factor could be that the driver sets or the Graphics controller DBX settings are not right or corrupted. With Nvidia there is usually an option to perform a clean install versus just updating. This is done through the Nvidia software not via Windows Device Manager. Also, the fact that the card shows up under Chief preferences is not an indicator that the card is properly configured. It really just says Chief sees it in your system as the primary graphics card. The last is that your older card was not being over taxed to begin with so adding a new card would not have any effect. The cards only do what they have to do and they only show their weaknesses when they are pushed out of their comfort zone. If to make a game appear smooth requires a 60 FPS rate then as long as this is attained by both cards you will not see a difference, even if the newer card is delivering 80 FPS, the extra 20 FPS is beyond your perception threshold. This is the same as monitor pixel density, for any given monitor size there is a pixel density limit for your eye, any pixel density beyond this can't be seen. Many may claim to see beyond this but then there are also those who claim to have seen UFOs'. What they are likely experiencing is the improved color accuracy, blacker blacks, better contrast and the likes, nothing really to do with pixel density but it is often believed to be.

Also, make sure to build a roof if you do have the sunlight on. Those light spots/bands are what we call light bleed. There's no caulking gun in Chiefs tool set yet.

Let's apply my perspective to Chief. Ignore all of the menus, tools and DBX's. If one breaks it down, every thing Chief does is based upon only one element, " A Straight Line" (Segment). The only properties you can change in respect to this Segment is it's length and it's X, Y and Z axis, that's it. All of those tools at the end of the day only affect those four Segment properties. There is no such thing as a circle or curve, these are just a multitude of very short straight Segments with slight variations in their X, Y, Z axis. Those 4 variables in conjunction with the ability to have many of those Segments are the only thing that determines whether something is a couch or a 45 storey building. You have a choice, you can see the things in Chief as Slabs, Counter Tops, Roofs, Windows, Etc and therefore those the Menu, Tools and Names will define their application/use or, you can see everything as really being the same and you select the tool regardless of it's name that best allows you to manipulate those 4 attributes.

You don't have to wait, someone many years ago who understood the underlying principles involved in the creation of a diamond, applied this knowledge and there is no problem replicating this, they manufacture diamonds all the time, they are the real thing, Who would have thought that a simple + or - voltage swing would result in the device and system you just used to post your comment. My perspective is "Nothing is complex, it's only the arrangement of things that create complexity and ones inability to see the simplicity within".

That's like looking at a single 2 X 4 and saying it does not look like a house. All the fundamentals are there. Dinner, no problem, from the library select a stove, some cookware and food items and then send this data to a sophisticated 3D printer.

I on the other hand I did. I thought about my former comment concerning curves, which is most likely the greatest perceived challenge. This was created using only two of Chiefs built-in tools, I did not use any library components or symbols. Now that I have a technique, which is ridiculously simple, I could build this or similar in very short order, probably about 5 minutes. No tricks here and things can be accurately controlled/defined. It's not the name of a tool that defines it's application, it's what it can do that defines it.

Johnny - The cube I posted is not a solid, it's an Architectural block comprised of individual surfaces (faces), as such you do not have to explode it to change the texture of any of the surfaces within the block. As I have repeatedly stated, this type of modeling is not Chiefs strong point but it is capable of handling some fairly intricate work. You just have to dig deep to figure it out. The most difficult task is creating sculpted/irregular contours, challenging but not impossible. I'm not trying to convince you to use Chief, just attempting to demonstrate that Chief has a wide range of capabilities that are not always obvious at first glance. Being able to exploit these requires one to apply a certain level of thinking beyond just replicating a tutorial.

Here's another example. This Library wall unit, if I eliminate all of the design thinking time, took no more than a few hours to create. I have control over every element, can dimension every element, elevations, plan views, generate a material list, explode it out to generate assembly drawings. How long do you think it would take in 3Ds and from the information could you provide all of the other things necessary to make the design a reality.

Johnny - I agree that this is not Chiefs forte and it is certainly not as intuitive as a dedicated 3D modeling program such as 3DS. However, one would be surprised at what can be done if you take the time to learn how to work around Chiefs inadequacy's. For example, you say that I can't go back and change the shape. Yes I can, I just have to un-block the Architectural block and I have full access to every surface plane. Each surface plane is just a polyline and can be fully manipulated on it's own, curved, extruded an so forth. The altered object can then be re-blocked. If I were to have converted it to a symbol I can resize the symbol through the symbol DBX and by using the stretch zones where I can define where the stretching will take place. If I create a tapered leg and the taper is to be fixed at 6" then the stretch zone would be in the area above 6"s. I can then change the height of the leg and the taper will always be 6" high. I believe are you underestimating the capabilities of Chief. What is really the difference in building a house versus building a piece of furniture other than they have two differing names. All they are is a combination of a few very basic shapes.

I also prefer working in a room. The other advantage is that you can now showcase your piece in a real looking environment. You could also create a showroom for your pieces, add lights and everything. That would be a great way to sell your pieces.

This took about 20 seconds to do. Created a cube primitive, exploded it, applied different colours to each face and then converted it to an architectural block. Now I can change the surfaces without having to un-block it.

I think in CA you can accomplish the same thing. Just explode an element and apply your materials to the individual surfaces. Applied textures can be oriented, stretched and shifted via the material properties DBX, when finished just block the item or use create a symbol. Blocking is likely better as you can access the surfaces later on if you desire a change. Maybe not as intuitive as a dedicated program but with a little practice one should be able to develop a fairly productive technique.

Not quite sure what you mean by case goods, but there is no requirement for you to model within a room. Just make the piece and use the camera views and elevation views as normal. If there is a reason to draw inside a room you can turn off those elements in the layer set display options so they do not show up in your camera view. Another trick is just make all of the room elements a color such as white without any texture, it's there but not seen.

Larry - I think I have brought some logic into the equation, did you see my posts from earlier this morning onward. I strongly feel that if these things are kept in mind then one should be able to nail down a fairly good system within the budget they have. There's a lot of marketing smoke & mirrors from the major players concerning features and performance. They have the majority of us convinced that more cores, more memory and expensive graphics cards are the answer. A lot of this is done to improve profit margins. All that extra memory in a graphics card does not cost them all that much, but they can charge the consumer many $$$ per GB for it. They can get 50% more for faster memory that at the end of the day does little or nothing for most users and it's benefit can only be discerned under very specific test condition. A number of the CA tips that I have provided over the last few days will deliver p[performance improvements that one would be unlikely to achieve no matter what their budget was. Just have to adopt a few new working habits.

Not quite sure how the settings in Chief work in relation to the settings in the Graphics card control panel. I do know that the Chief settings will effect your graphics performance when working in Chief regardless of your Graphics card settings. Users should make sure that Chief has been assigned to the graphics card, this is done through the graphics card control panel.

I think that has changed in X9. Just check Horizontal lines and choose Low, med or high. That should do it.

The other option if you do not need to see them is to turn off the displayer layer that they are in or move them to a separate layer so you can control just their display without effecting anything else.