jcaffee

Sorry Mark, I do not have a link, but I may have the video Scott did of my GTM session that turned into a "Let's play with layer blends" 3-hour mess. (And I had my third major heart attack two days after--don't know that I want to roll the dice on hosting another GTM session)

Just the ones I'm trying to get to "Yes!"

SusanC, I started a new thread to describe the technique.

I didn't want to get off topic on Mark's thread, so here is the quick and dirty of the technique I used to produce the attached image... Get your camera in position and save it. Ray trace to suit your needs for clarity, save as a *.tif image (tif is lossless and allows layers in Photoshop). Render and export a Line Drawing set as Extend 15, Squiggle 30, Amplitude 50 (play with the line setting so it looks "nervous" but not too nervous) using the same camera from ray trace. Export Line with white background intact. Open RT and LINE in Photoshop; I use PS CC 2017. In the RT, unlock and duplicate the main layer>set blend as Multiply 100/100 on the duplicate layer. Drag Line image into the RT image; align. Set blend as Overlay 100/45. Using the Magic Eraser Tool on the LINE Layer, ALT-Select the background color, then randomly erase areas of the LINE image to achieve marker-like strokes and "blocks" of white. So simple, even I can do it.

Mark, that's just the base price. Once you build it out, it's a $7000 laptop

Ben, luckily I don't need to do all the file fixing. The original designer is doing that and then handing off to me to create something similar for a new client. I ditched all my pl files a couple years ago as they were all exclusive.

So that's where that bread box went.

Or, if you have the budget and want the best, you want a Boxx... http://www.boxx.com/products/mobile-workstations/goboxx-mxl-vr?utm_source=marketo&utm_medium=email&utm_content=02072017_ChangeYourReality_campaign=e-blasts

Or, do the opposite, turn everything On and Unlock everything then see if there is a line.

Guess I got lucky, just brought a Chief 97 pl file into X8 then to X9. Slow as a dog, but I'll see what happens when it gets cleaned up.

Mark, I'm just a designer (Or, a Design Generalist for legal purposes), but I do have fairly significant influence on the whatfors and howcomes of all built-in systems on any given project. Understanding the nitty-gritty of the process is invaluable to ensuring smooth transition of the stuff coming out of my head and into the hands of the kids who are going to implement my design. Thank you for furthering my understanding of what takes place after my "pretty pictures" go off into the ether. Here's my latest. Now I better understand the pain my designs cause the installers.

Here you go. Budget friendly and will run CA inside out (well, as much as four cores can)... https://www.amazon.com/GL502VS-DB71-Full-HD-Gaming-i7-6700HQ-Windows/dp/B01K1INYD0/ref=pd_sbs_147_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B01K1INYD0&pd_rd_r=YH14DPWHGVQFR0E3T62R&pd_rd_w=0sp5e&pd_rd_wg=nbvEv&psc=1&refRID=YH14DPWHGVQFR0E3T62R

What's your budget?

Not with Chief and not with many RT engines out in the wild that aren't CUDA-aware. You would see either the same or degraded performance while RTing running in SLI or CrossFire. If you are determined to spend money, get a single TitanX, SketchUp Pro, and Lumion. Your workflow would then look like: Model (CA)>Export DAE to SketchUp>Clean and tweak materials/symbols/objects in SketchUp>Direct export to Lumion using the SU plug-in for Lumion>Render and add effects in Lumion.

What Dennis said. Upper-end Quadro cards, but then you lose performance in other areas.

That was a software capability/material check shot of the oil and vinegar bottles. The "Santas" are Elf-on-a-shelf; an inside joke for somebody who was reviewing the image.

Thanks for a super session Mark! I learned a bunch. Hopefully (someday/version) we will see CA with a robust backend that allows manufacturers to feed pricing and options data directly into Chief (without CA intervention). If we take a collection and come up with the license & development fees for MS Dynamics (or some other CRM), then CA can engineer live data pulls from vendor maintained data sets>CA CRM Server>CA Users>Accurate & Timely Pricing, Options, Finishes, etc., etc., etc. Wouldn't that be something?

And just imagine how long the rt would take if I left the entire house intact. Looks good!

I don't need it back. Just something for you to play with.

Here you go Scott, (or anybody else who wants to play with this. It's in X9. The camera is on floor 2, all set and ready to go with the lighting I used in the original shot. 20170219_JCC_RT133_Kitchen_RT_Setup.zip

By the time you're done buying the professional grade extensions needed to make SU fully functional as architectural modeling software, you'll be well beyond the cost on CA Premier. That said, SketchUp is a valuable companion toolset to Chief for interoperability with other modeling/rendering software and rapid modeling of certain symbol types Just like Adobe Photoshop and MooTools 3D Browser/Polygon Cruncher--it's just part of the toolbox.

100% CAX9 Beta. This cooked for 30 passes but could have used a couple hundred more to degrainify the shot.

Here you go. Yes, Photoshop was involved.

Thanks for the info Dermont. Good to know for us users who regularly break the 200MB file size pain threshold.

Hmm... My laptop is running a GTX560m and hasn't crashed in X9. Slow as a dog, but it hasn't crashed.