jcaffee

This is called z-fighting. For distance views or large models use the following: While in 3D camera. 3D>Edit Active Camera>Camera>View Clipping>Clip Surfaces Within I set this between 240" and 600" to eliminate z-fighting. jon

Because you painted the "room" not the "Wall". There is a hierarchy in materials application and definition. Structure>Room Walls>Room, Wall Covering>Wall (Int & Ext)>Wall, Wall Covering>Wall Material Region. You can apply a material to any and all of these "Surfaces"--either intentionally, or not--with varying degrees of z-fighting madness. Or, you can learn the benefits and detractors of each and be a happy camper. jon

Make sure you buy a good cooling pad; you'll need it. jon

Good tutorial Curt! Now if CA would cut the framing for masonry fireplaces, I'd be all set. jon

Ask TS to give you access. jon

You might try posting this over on RoomTalk, as their users may be more familiar with the procedures. https://roomtalk.chiefarchitect.com/ jon

Search for "Handrail" in the lib, or what Dennis suggested. https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/search.html?q=grab&backendClass=entity jon

Mmmm...Donuts. jon

I don't get that at all. I can scroll/zoom and the copy/paste icon stays until I left click to drop the symbol. Update your mouse drivers, then call TS if that doesn't work. (Or clean your mouse?) jon

$2,819.00 I'm curious how they managed 8GB out of the 980M. Unless they're counting dedicated + virtual (shared, system). Now I must investigate. Nice system! jon

Oh, and what Dennis said. There seems to be a lot of the X5 lag creeping into X7. jon

I would never use beta software, of any ilk, for production work. It's part of my process since...well, a long time ago. Many unreleased (beta/in development), trial, and free software has license terms which preclude commercial use. Not sure with CA, but as a practice, I don't use Beta. jon

Thanks Joe! jon

You need to get more granular in the molding definition--break it down into smaller elements than can have unique materials assigned. Either that or just assign a photo material to the entire door. jon

I had my first corrupted plan file EVER (using some variant of CA for 22yrs) this morning in X7 Beta. Thank goodness for archive files. I will send the file to CA on Monday...er, hey...it's Monday already, so I guess I'll send it over now. As for using Cloud services w/CA. Not a problem as you work on a local live file (it's the way these services are configured). The issues are with folks who turn on file locking within CA and have live (vs. batch) updates enabled on their cloud service. DJP--USB problems? A USB drive is an SSD drive by another name. Now, if your customers are using files set to live or live incremental backups to a USB NAS device... well, there will be issues. jon

Oh, wouldn't that be nice. As for "profiles" on NVidia hardware. NVidia only does games on their "Enthusiast" hardware line. If CA (or any non-game vendor) wants optimal settings defined, it's only on their professional Quadro line. jon

I hear ya Dennis. It wore me out watching the guy shovel the driveway and sidewalk. (Zero manual labor is one of the few benefits of a bad ticker). jon

DG, OP said he's outsourcing and wants to get back up to speed with X6/7. My recommendation was to get ALL his ducks in a row. Hardware, software, people, and policy--it's all connected. Going out and dropping 20K on a good 24 core CPU render workstation will have OP grumbling when he decides that Octane, Bunkspeed, or XXX GPU renderer is where the money's at; and in hindsight he should have spent his $$$ on dual Tesla K20s. Opie needs to know what he doesn't know in order to ask questions germane to the knowledge he seeks. Man, I'm starting to sound too much like DJP; all Zenny. I better end here, before I start quoting some old dead Greek guys. jon

Rob, you need to setup a profile for CA in the Nvidia Manage 3D Settings>Program Settings. Neither CA or the Ray Tracer are on their list. You must add them manually. jon

Guys, he was talking about ray tracing a 15 story building and then compositing the model into either a background or into another 3D set. Big iron is what's called for if the OP plans on doing anything else that day other than RT. jon

You need to add and optimize both the CA *.exe and the ray trace *.exe under Program Settings. CA does not use DirectX, so disable anything where the description mentions DirectX only. Beyond that, it's really machine specific. One thing I did notice in your CA settings, "Final View". Set Software Smoothing to "0". You want your expensive hardware to do its job, not the software. jon

Did you remember to setup X7 & X7 Ray Tracer profiles in the NVidia 3D Settings tool? jon

In all seriousness, it all depends on your toolset, skillset, and budget. Can X6 or X7 produce that quality, sure, why not. Chief Architect's ray tracer uses CPU rendering. Therefore, more CPU cores = better/faster images. (The above referenced system would do well with any CPU ray trace engine) However, there are other ray tracers in the world. CPU, GPU and hybrid using both. Do some research and try to match your skillset and budget to a new toolset. jon

https://www.digitalstormonline.com/configurator.asp?id=1152444 Well, you asked. jon

Its a Step marker. Turn it off in Defaults>Foundation. jon