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Thanks Dennis. OK, that proves for sure it is not a material change, and is specific to my hardware, or perhaps still some odd setting?? I'll keep digging....

OK, that will make it a little harder for you, but my example above is what you have, you just need to define your wall types to reflect the CAD files you have. Good luck....

Anyone? Just a wall with a OOB mirror on it?

Good question. Anything in your library will be whatever you want it to be, CA default names for layers are a bit baffling to me, but I'm not aware of a global way to change these.

Here, by way of example, see attached. In my case I have a brick wall intersecting a siding layer. Note that CA will show all layers, or just outer if you choose. CAD files are just lines representing the outer and inner most part of a wall. See plan attached, and two JPGS CAD Walls.plan

Just a guess, but having imported some CAD drawings, I agree with what others have said. The CAD file you have is showing a combination of probably brick (where you see the wider areas) and perhaps siding where walls are a "normal width". These are not a single wall type, different types for how the outer accent (surface layer) is. The DWG is simply showing the bounds (outer and inner) of the walls, and you will need to know what those layers are. This can be done, but you really need to know what those "lines" in the DWG represent. Post the CAD file (zipped as CA won't allow it attached otherwise), and the "plan" you are working on. I'm betting we (maybe not me, but one of the smart folks on here) can get it represented correctly.

Joe, Thanks. There are not many related, or that I know are related, to Preferences (see attached). One I tried, with unexpected results was under Render > Troubleshooting with button "Use Enhanced Lighting". If unchecked, all my mirrors go to Grey, Checked, they show the blue hue in all but white objects. No idea what Use Enhanced Lighting even is supposed to do, except turn off reflections in mirrors, which is selected in other fields of Preferences > Render?? Although it might be related to my card, can anyone send a mirror to me? In a plan, so I can see if my mirror material is somehow corrupted. I might have rainbow tooled it inadvertently and that might be the problem. Not sure, just shots in the dark right now. Thanks,

Thanks Jonathan, Yeah, really a mystery to me. I just deleted, and updated my Nvidia drivers, newest driver a few days old. Still see it. I was thinking, is it possible that my "mirror" material got corrupted, and that is the problem? Perhaps I changed it inadvertently? But not sure that makes sense, as they are in the plan, and others are seeing it normally. Also, why just in renders, but not Ray Trace? Can someone send a box with a mirror in it as a plan? Don't know that it will matter, but at least I can try that. No idea what else it could be? I guess it could be a setting in the Nvidia software that is causing this too. Still not sure......

Hi Perry, As this is a laptop, don't think I can upgrade it. May need to upgrade the computer sometime, but what I want is not in budget right now.

Hi Dennis, I thought about video card, but not sure how that could change a color? Driver is up to date. The picture posted was from one of the mirrors in the plan posted. This happens on any of my plans, new and old. It never used to, and not sure exactly when this started, somewhere in last year or so and just started to bug me.

Thanks Dennis, it helps to know that it does not happen on your machine, so narrows the issue. I think then that I need to figure out the difference between the plan on yours, versus mine. Is that a default setting that would not carry over, or something else? No idea really, not at all sure what is different there, versus here?

Kind of an odd thing I see on plans (see attached) is all renders show mirror reflections blue tinted. Most every material, except anything white for the most part, has a blue hue. This happens in all plans, new and old, metric and SAE. Not sure of any settings for make mirror reflections blue? or way to turn that "feature"off Note that they will all Ray Trace correct, just in renders. Attached is a crap plan that shows the issue and a capture of one example. Ideas? Bathroom.plan

Looking at this further, you'll note that Chief drops everything to the right of seconds decimal place. If entered CA does not round this number, it simply drops the numbers to right of decimal. Example is 37.96" will get entered by Chief as 37" This can potentially be an error of 100' give or take. Not a big issue as far as sun angle goes, but if a specific location is desired, say a townhouse, you would not want to be pointing at a neighbor 3 - 4 houses over. If more accuracy is desired, and again for sun angle this really does not matter, entering degrees as a decimal will be spot on. You can use Glenn's formula above, but I found this online converter that will also do this here >> http://longitudestore.com/coordinates-converter.html Within CA "Sun Angle Specification", change "Number Style" to "Degrees" CA will trim this to 6 places to right of the decimal, but will be right on for your target.

Perry, yes I know my response not aimed at you, just seems she is still trying to figure out something that, I think, is mostly figured out already.

What??? Where are your priorities at sir? Baby's are a nearly automated process these days, Chief takes time. Stick with the program man. :) Congratulations Brian to you and the wife

I stand corrected Glenn, you as usual are correct, I will delete my post so as to not confuse anyone, but will leave this. Thanks.

Guys, did I miss something here? See posts 10 and 11. She was aligning the porch to the "upper" stucco wall as that was what was default display in plan view. I simply changed to lower wall (stone), aligned porch to that wall. Also, both porch rooms had ceiling and roof over selected, I turned those off, so the auto walls above would not generate. Then I used invisible wall between porch and deck and no more gap. The gap, I think, was the difference between upper and lower walls. The post to beam wall is simply the outer most wall (side wall if you will) of the porch rooms. The posts are the 4x4 columns the beams are the thing sitting on top of the posts. To select the wall, just click it and go to the DBX in either plan or a 3d view.

I have the same issues here in US tornado alley that kills annually, people thinking they are safe in a basement with view and/or walk out windows, when in fact your best changes of surviving one is in a FEMA, Texas Tech tested, safe room. Or not live in the alley? Just sayin.........

For those that may not already know this...... LAT and LON for any spot on the planet could not be easier. Use Google Earth. If an address is known, type it in and fly right there, otherwise navigate to location. Once location is found, center cursor over spot (house, field, wherever) and look at bottom of page where LAT LON is very accurately given. LAT and LON are bottom of page. Now, in CA, "Sun Angle Specification" simply use this information and your house is now geo specifically placed on planet. See example photos attached. This post was edited to correct an error I had in my explanation. If anyone read it previously, I apologize otherwise, what is written above is correct, as well as what Glenn says one post below.

Add to your signature with a bit more information, as Jon mentioned. What version of Chief, for example? You can get a pretty good Ray Trace after about 10 passes that usually won't take more than a few minutes, to perhaps 10-15 depending on complexity. Lots of great help here, so I'd also try to figure out how to post a plan.

Glenn, Curious as to how this may have happened. I added no terrain regions, and simply imported the CAD DWG that as far as I could tell only had the contour lines and the terrain perimeter. The rest, was I though text file related. I will go back and try what you say, but would never have occurred to me that somehow terrain "features" or regions were there. Great catch, and has me curious to figure out where it was coming from. Thank you sir, as this was really frustrating to see the odd things happening that normal interpolation between elevation lines should not have caused.

To add to what TomKen said, I further that to point out that you are needlessly creating two wet walls, and no idea how you plan to get proper DWV through that 4" wall. (see attached) Tiled tub/or shower, and right window will present little problem and be functional for light and ventilation if you desire.

Looks odd up that high, and nobody is going to climb up to open it, unless quite tall. Another option is not to use the surround uni-tub and tile. Then you could put it at a better height, it would be functional, and let in more natural light.

Just wanted to thank the guys that helped with this (Mark, Joe and Bill). Lots of good answers, so hard to pick anyone "best", as all helped.

Thanks Bill !! No idea how you did this, as I could never get the oddities out of it. I have found that terrain is one of those difficult to understand features of CA, if you are trying to get a real world situation correct. Some of the things just don't do what you would expect. Must be a cake walk for the flatlanders.