GeneDavis

I agree. Now let's talk about rakes and modillions.

That "door" costs more than a lot of new cars.

So only beta testers can open it?

What I was saying, Glenn, is what kept Eric from being able to do it with one molding polyline. I have done the same as Eric, using two p-lines and two moldings. The one-step solution, which we do not have, would be a wall layer that tapers in thickness from bottom to top.

I can do the molding polyline, Glenn, but the "no molding" segment at a window does not yield the cut molding under the window.

I downloaded your layout and am unable to open in X8. Am using the latest build: 18.3.2.2x64. What's up?

A question I have, with today's use of 2" thick faux stone veneer, is how this gets built. Do builders scab framing and sheathing atop already framed-and-sheathed walls, just hung on there and no bearing below, then do the veneer atop that, to achieve this look? If that is the actual build method, then the use of roof planes is a perfect way to do this. One will need to trim the planes at edges with 2D and 3D moldings to get good 3D realism, but the window cuts will be easy to do, and one can frame the panels.

I wonder if there is an easier way to do this, because one needs to perform, somehow, window and door cutouts in such a buildout. See my image, in which I show a simple 4-wall "house" with an window and door, and a 2D molding p-line applied. Getting it to cut at a door is routine, "no molding on this edge," but for the window, something more sophisticated needs to happen.

Doesn't the Save-As-Method (SAM) address this perfectly?

Without a plan to examine, I've no clue.

I'll bet you want the insanely-common sold-in-lumberyards-and-home-centers-everywhere patio door with two leaves, one leaf active, the other fixed, the active door hinged at the center (not the jamb). Try this.

What is the secret for getting that close? I downloaded what looks to be the same glass with whiskey and ice that the OP has, and just put it into a blank plan, no table, no room, no lighting, nothing. How do you get the camera just a few inches away? And what transparency setting does one best use for the ice cube surface?

Sort of off-topic, but I find it hard to believe that an HOA's review committee would require submittal documents that showed photorealistic renderings with brick textures absolutely matching something required. Wouldn't a note on b&w drawings suffice? "Brick on addition to match existing." How do property owners address this if their designer or architect has older software incapable of performing renders? Wouldn't the HOA be better served if the property owners were required to submit physical samples?

You likely need another tread. Stair math results are fixed by your floor elevations. The image you show has 17 risers from middle to top floor. If the only way to get a comfortable riser height less than 7-3/4" is to go to 18, you may have to alter your floor plan to allow for the extra 10 inches of space. Chief draws your stairs based on those elevations, but once you start locking riser heights and tread counts, you are off on your own and stairs may not "reach" the way you want.

Thanks, Perry. Went in and turned off legacy shadows, and things are good again.

I've a file populated with symbols. The usual appliances and plumbing fixtures, all from the libraries including some from bonus libraries. Furniture in rooms. I take a camera shot of a room, the cursor is in the orbit mode, I do the slightest move, and BOOM, the scene goes into some kind of mode, spin-stop, each stop going "shadowing," then "rendering, " and I cannot stop it. I have to use CONTROL-EDIT-DELETE to bring up the task manager and do a hard exit from Chief. Why is this?

It did for me. Thanks, Dan. Laptop, Windows, Chrome.

Heck, all I wanted was the option to put the starting newel on step 2 instead of step 1.

I ganged these windows and blocked them, but used the factory-mull spacer distance (1/2") Pella will use when making them. See the picture. We've no way to control the material for such a mull-joint part, with Chief assigning it the same material as the casings. I know I can make it go away by unblocking the windows and resizing so there is no more half-inch space, but I'm a purist when it comes to millwork, and want the windows to be true-size as they will be ordered. Others rant here about insignificant elements of 3D, so consider this mine for the day. I'll go to the Suggestions section and ask for a future mod. And for this job, we'll just live with it.

A material region will work. You'll need X8, though. P-line solids work just fine. Have you figured out your framing details?

You might try working on the over-mirror light fixture, which apparently has one point light. Place three more, dial all down as low as you can (I wish Chief would let us go even lower), edit placement to get them about one inch below each shade, edit the shades to be one of the "lighting" textures (try white first), dial up the emissivity to 40 or higher, and see what you get.

Creating your own is not difficult. Fixed windows mulled to a door. Problem is that yes, you won't get an item in your door schedule that calls out the shop-built door unit. And you won't get, if you are wanting 3D realism, a single frame that has 4-inch-depth mull posts. But hey, Chief gives us all the CAD and text tools needed to get the job done.

Light bulbs are not "lit." They are a solid object, the surface of which is "painted" with a material called LIGHTING WHITE. Go and locate this material in your Chief library. Now create a new solid object in a room. An easy thing to do is just use the slab tool and draw a quick slab. Open the slab for specification and change its material to LIGHTING WHITE. Now take a camera shot and render it. Shoot us a screencap of what you get.

I am happy to use out-of-the-box Chief to do the walls of screened porches, doing them as railing walls, post to beam, adjusting the specs so I get the middle and shoe rails as I want. One can use the post spacing to get the bay sizes one needs. It would be nice if Chief allowed a way to do a screened porch door in a chosen bay, the door going between posts without a door frame, the door auto-sized by width to fit the bay. I draw the doors using CAD in plan view to show their location and swing, and use CAD in elevation to patch one into the chosen bay or bays. My doors do not appear in the door schedule, and I have a CAD detail in my library that I use in con docs to show door construction. How do you do a screened porch door? Mine are simple stile and rail affairs, one middle rail, all parts 1" x 3-1/4" with a 1" x 6-1/2" bottom rail.

Duh. Thanks, Joe.