DakotaContractor

Agree with CJ on the render example..Sorry Dennis the one you posted is no where near the quality I'm hoping for. Thank you for trying though =) Thanks for the insight CJ & Country. Unfortunately I've already scoured the CA forums and Google like crazy trying to find stuff, but it all creates inferior looking SS and anything that shows promise CA won't import. Unfortunately using any texture with reflections already in it makes it look fake unless the stars align and your lighting just so happens to match the reflection locations on the material then one can pull off something halfway decent. The materials without reflections tend to result in a overly matte surface. Ideally we'd have a quality material with a few associated bump map options to create the actual "brushed" texture look on the material. Right now it just results in a box covered in SS wrapping paper. Yeah CJ they are definitely costly, but after purchasing two copies of X7 Premier to find that it doesn't achieve the desired result, what's a few more bills right? lol. It looks like my only option may be to shell out another $500 bucks for something that creates quality SS surfaces and with it quality renders . That or I'll just keep my fingers crossed for a better engine in X9 =) Thanks for trying guys.

Definitely get a SSD. Makes a world of difference for CA and just about everything else. Like Ken said, you can pick up a Samsung SSD for cheap. I went with a couple of the 1 TB ones. Would never go back.

Most of my recent plans have averaged about 150 hours. Current project I'm working on has now exceeded 1500 hours and that's just the time spent in CA. I'd definitely agree that it varies to a degree depending on the variables. I usually charge by hour for design, though depending on the size of the project I sometimes charge a flat fee per plan and just bill as needed for extras.

Do any of you more senior CA users/members have or know a how-to on how to get stainless steel to render accurately in CA? Or a link to one? Or a source for a good material to achieve the goal? I'd even be ok with it requiring a 3rd party render engine like Thea etc. long as there is a walkthrough involved to explain the process step by step. As it stands I've tried every texture/material I could find via the forums and google( at least the ones that CA would successfully import). Also tried every suggested lighting arrangement I could find in the forums and then some and none of them create a realistic representation of stainless steel on the appliances. I would LOVE some help with this. Attached a couple examples I've come across of what I'm trying to achieve. Unfortunately the example images were rendered outside CA since I have yet to find even an example image of anything resembling realistic looking SS inside CA. Thanks in advance for your help.