GeneDavis

Hey @Renerabbitt thanks for weighing in on this weighty topic. To get the photorealism the OP wants for the soffit material, wouldn't one need to find a texture that was 1) seamless, 2) exhibited the desired wood grain, 3) exhibited the rounded-edges deep and wide groove between "planks," and 4) has a normal map included? How does one find such a texture one can download and use in Chief? And if this instead needs one to have the skills to use photoshop or Blender or gimp or some other 3rd party package, how does one acquire such skills? There are plenty of perspective-view photos of this kind of vinyl soffit product but no straight-on seamless images, at least from my measly searches. The only Chief training videos I can find that deal with normal mapping use textures that are in-library that come with normal maps.

AI is the best way to go. You picked a single element of your building's collection of exterior finishes, and it is one that can only be realistically rendered if done in 3D. Other elements such as stone, clapboard siding, tile roofing, standing seam roofing, all these are beyond Chief's capability to deliver true realism when rendering in Chief 3D. Here is what I asked Google and read the response. https://gemini.google.com/share/6517c9d94277 After that, take the time to watch this video. Pay particular attention to the part of the discussion that deals with your concern about architecture changes and hallucinations.

Get AI to do it. If you are set up to chat using your mic, your workflow can be a quick conversation.

My drawings get used by the panelizer who uses them and submits shop drawings, which I review and correct, if needed. It's up to the fabricator to size all the members based on the info I provide.

Editing Chief's wall framing can be done in 2D and 3D. Chief walls are autoframed either singly (click a wall, click "build framing . . . ") or with a "build all" click. For your purpose, you will open the CAD space detail for each wall either from the project browser where you can see each wall detail "page," or by selecting a framed wall and clicking the "open wall detail" button. With a wall detail page open, you are looking at the 2D representation of the 3D framing members generated by Chief when you framed the wall, and all are per the specs you either accepted from the out of box settings that come with Chief, or per your edited enhanced specs. Plate count, stud spacing, header size and orientation, etc. You will be using basic Chief CAD, but are working on 3D objects. You cannot "draw" a framing member in this space, but you can copy, then move, rotate, edit size, edit placement (flat to inside, flat to outside), and end cuts (using CAD cut and extend). Work with it. Explore all the things you can do. I usually let the panelizer decide where wall joints go and I insist on getting submittals to review and approve, so I can see joints don't compromise some aspect of the build. This means for a wall length longer than the assembly table size (which dictates max panel length), I'll show them the wall at it's full length, say 28 feet, and let them join however it makes sense to them. If I need them to change joint placement for whatever reason, I show them how with a CAD detail. This is rare. Screencap of a wall detail shown attached. Note label. Chief number-labels wall detail pages, and you can edit them in a way that makes sense to your erection sequence so your Con Docs give good directions. As for Chief CAD and editing, I recommend taking the time to watch every single training video on CAD and CAD editing. Copy, paste, point to point moves, rotations, cut, extend, fence, dimension, arrows, notes, labels, and more.

You can edit and annotate your wall framing elevations to your hearts content for a panelized job. Here is a gable end. See the joints?

Just spoke with tech support and it's a known issue and they "hope" it'll be gone by the time X18 comes around. What is particularly annoying is that deleting them isn't permanent. They come back right exactly where they were before. I was hoping for an update, say, tomorrow.

When in CAD detail 2D mode, I am always getting unwated points. Happens in wall framing detail and truss detail views, plus any CAD detail I have created. Sometimes they are stacked on top of each other, as if copied and pasted in place, and deleting them takes multiple clicks or window select to delete. What could be the cause? I gotta solve this.

Look for the threads that discuss making screened porch walls and you'll see how you can do walls, but the roofs with the aluminum bents and purlins, those are gonna be tough.

Import it in .skp format.

From AI: To create a lowered or sunken shower in a slab foundation using Chief Architect, you will need to define the shower area as a separate, distinct "Room" using the Room Divider tool, and then adjust its floor height on the structure settings.

It's done with frames that are inset each side and kerfed, and a bead like that seen here in this TrimTex video. https://www.trim-tex.com/products/¾-bullnose-kerfed-bead Try making your doors with 1-1/2" thick frames and control the jamb depth to match framing layer thickness, then dress each side of the openings with molding p-lines to get the quarter rounds you need. A 3/4" R quarter round will cover the outer 3/4" part of the jamb edges, and you should get the look you want. The moldings are made for one opening, and copied around and placed in all the others. Your walls get 5/8 rock and 1/8 plaster so the build is 3/4" I've seen that look in expensive homes in the Phoenix locale, and doors in the homes were all 1 3/4" thickness. This, from Google AI: 2. Plaster Finishes & Bullnosed Returns Aesthetic Detail: In the Southwest, luxury homes often feature smooth or textured Venetian plaster or traditional gypsum plaster. Bullnosed Returns: A hallmark of custom Phoenix design is the bullnosed (rounded) plaster return. Instead of using wood casing (trim) around doors, the plaster wraps around the corner of the 2x6 framing to meet the door jamb directly. Wall Depth: The extra depth of a 2x6 wall creates a more pronounced and luxurious bullnosed edge, enhancing the "old world" or "modern organic" appearance. 3. Door Requirements (1-3/4" Thick) Standard Luxury Grade: 1-3/4" is the standard thickness for high-end solid-core interior doors in the region, offering better weight and sound resistance than standard 1-3/8" retail doors. Integration: These doors require heavy-duty jambs. When paired with 2x6 framing and bullnosed plaster, the result is a deep-set door opening that emphasizes the home's substantial build quality.

My MSI got sick last month and needed a new hard drive, and after recovery, was still giving me fits when in 3D, doing dangerous lockups for sure when making the tiniest camera orbital move in PBR, and even in standard view mode. So I'm shopping, and came across this. Acer Predator Helios Neo 18 AI - 18.0" Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX - GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Laptop GPU - 2.10 GHz - 16GB Memory - 1 TB PCIe SSD - Windows 11 Home Gaming Laptop - 240 Hz IPS (PHN18-72-92Y3 ) Was watching @Renerabbittdoing his Template Tuesday live thing, and he's having no problems orbiting around in PBR, and his sig says he's running with either an RTX 4090, or an RX 7900 XTX. I believe the Nvidea 4090 is faster than the 7900 XTX, so it well may be that a 5070 Ti will be able to cruise well with the next couple Chief releases. Whaddya think? I know it's only got 1 TB storage but I've been ok with far less with the few projects per year I'm doing.

@MN_JohnH, you said, "I still don't know why Chief wants to use it's own trusses after I have put mine in but I can work around that too." Please, for our info, tell us how you "put mine in" and how Chief "wants to use its own." Chief lets you autoframe with trusses, and you can manually draw trusses the same way you can draw rafters and floor joists. It's "own trusses" are graphic representation of engineered wood trusses with top and bottom chords done per your spec inputs, but the webbing members are all from Chief's hallucinations. Actually, not. It places webbing based on how you have set the specs for max distance between for top and bottom chords. Play with the defaults for trusses and you'll learn how it all works. But never every think that Chief can or will do what your truss plant's engineer does with her roof build software. It is all just a reasonable "look" that you get from Chief. The only truss details (the elevations that call out all members, spacings, bearings, reactions, webbings) that count are the ones from the component supplier. I'm pretty anal about framing, having framed houses myself, trusses and stick, and being a structural engineer. I want my con docs to have the framing all detailed exactly how I expect it to be built. For a trussed job, I want my roof framing plan to have the exact layout the truss engineer will produce, so I always go back and forth as needed with someone from that desk at a components plant. Girders, hip sets, mono jacks, lay-ons, tray ceilings, overframes, everything goes in the right places, all dimensioned. But as for how any of the trusses are webbed or plated, I don't care, and nobody cares how my drawings look regarding that part of a job.

Would you be satisfied if your section looked like mine, upthread? No CAD detail needed. Your wallframe elevations will be exactly how they should be built, and your trusses will have the bearing pockets exactly to your specs. I did it in Chief. You should too if that is what you're after and needing. Lots of us do workarounds due to the software's limits.

Short answer: you don't. Chief has no settings you can do in dialogs that raises plates above ceiling heights. Chief generates wall framing based on room def specs, so clicking on a wall and framing it places the top plate at the ceiling height specified. As I said upthread, you need to edit the framing to raise the plates where wanted, and extend the framing up to the raised plates. Those edits don't "stick" if you doodle openings in the wall. I threw out the test file and can't play with it, but I just thought you might succeed this way. It'll do it for a simple shed building with roof shape like you showed in your upthread image of the truss with bearing pockets. Use CAD to figure the plate heights you want, both low and high sides, and do room division so that all rooms on the low side have ceiling heights for that low side, and likewise across the building for the high side. Fram those walls and you might find they are poked up into the truss envelope where you want them. Now all you have to do is edit the truss. Show us your results.

Edited truss envelope, chords, bearing, and web. Edited wall framing.

Have you done as suggested by me and others? Edit the truss to have bearing pockets, edit the walls to rise up into the bearings? It's just basic Chief Architect. Do it and show us results. My work is all in a locale with a gsl of 100 psf, and I have never met a header-under-truss situation I could not solve. Here's a pic of one going to con docs right now. You can see how the truss chord is interrupted so that a pocket is formed so the bearing is accommodated. The section view is picking up the 2x4-framed close-off panels we are doing in every 24" truss bay. You can see the top and bottom members as crossboxes in the view. The job is getting all its walls panelized in the shop sistered alongside the truss plant, and these are part of that package. I never show my truss guy anything other than the envelope required for a truss. This job has one exception, a gable end truss for which I want the 2x3 upright chords done to a specified layout. You may not know this, but the 2D truss detail views you have in Chief, showing all the chords and webbing, those are very editable and you can arrange any bearing pockets, and web arrays you want using Chief CAD.

Is there a reason why you want to pocket the wall frame tops up into the truss envelope? Bring the wall tops up to the bottom chord, and use Simpson VPA2 clips. Your sheetrock guys will thank you, because there will be nailing for the tops of the boards.

You can get the truss to generate by manually placing the roof and ceiling planes, then draw one truss, edit it to get what you want, then lock it. Frame the bearing walls and edit their heights. I'd tell you how to it all with settings and clicks and drags, but I don't know how.

Put it in a blank plan. Post it here. Then he and we can all have it.

Thanks, @MollyNDG! Worked great, and I gave the recessed panel (the countertop) a little bevel molding to emulate a simple framing bead. See the pics. I can make a second symbol for doors with the wood grain rotated, so my doors and drawerfronts all have the same panel with framing bead.

Thanks, @MarkMc! Make a door or drawerfront from a cabinet! That is out-of-the-box thinking, and you are using Chief's hard-coded grain orientation for the one-click-to-assign-oriented-texture thing. But, I see no way to do the drawerfront I did with its top and bottom rails at 1-1/2" width and its stiles at 2-1/4". How would one make a cabinet's face frame to that spec?

Here is a very interesting video that showcases Sketchup's rendering and compares it head to head with Nano Banana. Note the focus on the development of the prompts, and how photographs were used taken at the site. The house seen in the video is an interesting modern arrangement, a take on the kind of twin joined barns you see in the midwest occasionally, this one a cluster of three, the solar side of each roof plane steeper that the other. I think it's about 75x75 in footprint, with a roman style center courtyard about 20x20 and an integral 3-car garage, making it a one story thing with about 4500 sf of conditioned space. If you study the shapes and features, you can see how the architect cleverly did the guttering and hidden downspouts.

I use the freeware eCabinets software, which has as steep a learning curve as Chief, but worth the time if you are doing whole-house packages at the rate of two or three a year. In my case the job files are exported for CNC cutting, but the application has "saw shop" features that produce cutting lists, nested part diagrams, buy lists, and more. Chief is used for designing the cabinetry and for producing the photoreal renders. It takes about 2 hours to take a cab schedule from Chief and produce a job file in eCabs. But starting from zero, it'll take you all of a week 40 to 80 hours learning eCabs and building your seeds, longer if you need to learn part editing. Every cab config is built as a "seed" cab. An example is a 3-drawer stack base cab, like the two that you can see in the pic here. My seed is a 24" width version, and to load each of these in the pic into a job batch, all I enter is the width variable.