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Doug, is this one that is working good? http://www.bestbuy.com/site/3dconnexion-spacenavigator-3d-mouse-silver/1306765990.p?id=mp1306765990&skuId=1306765990

I was wondering the same thing since I keep seeing all these threads and I have a question after seeing the new features vid. If I got this straight X7 does not support a 3d mouse but will in X8? I have a home show coming up I want to use it, so if I did I could download x8 beta get the mouse and run it? Can I then revert back to X7 and wait until all is stable? In the vid Mike mentions the 3d wireless space mouse by 3D connect is this a good one? The 3d mouse tool looks pretty darn sweet!

Dennis, problem is there is no way to section off different matl's for rooms, or in the same room as I show in the pic above. Floor matl regions is working, I made the thickness 1/16 and it's not affecting my wall elevations. I can't tell what it's doing to furniture but I don't think if it raises them a 1/16 will matter.....I just wish the floor matl region tool would cut into a slab like it does a finished floor thickness. That would be more realistic of a dye and polish vs a topper I am having to render. BTW: To anyone trying this Boralstone is for finished concrete as a topper not all options on their website are available in the catalog. It be nice to have some other manufactures.

X3 thanks Michael. I missed clicking on plan matl too ​

See attached. I tried this and it works if you are adding a top coat to concrete like Boral aggregate/die mix. It does not cut concrete only if you have a finished floor thickness to cut. It is working without changing my wall elevations but alot of work manipulating polylines, Dal tile same you need a floor thickness to apply it to. In the case where we want to dye stain and polish with a sander a 4" slab surface different colors/textures without adding a floor thickness to the slab I still have not figured out?

Spent the whole day trying to get better at creating materials. Rather than start a new thread I'll ask here, hope you don't mind Dan. I did as Michael said but when I create a new matl after using the eye dropper and selecting a T&G color, how do I get the texture since it takes me to my own hard hard drive file where I need to have a T&G texture stored?. If I try and navigate to CA zip files I cannot since CA is looking for PIC files?

Dennis, never mind I found a video that shows how to create a material from an image, you now make sense. I tired it with one of those photos and what a mess, lol, but know I know what to do. https://video.chiefarchitect.com/?search=material Off to learn material regions and figure out what Kirk is suggesting. Thanks for setting me on the right paths guys

Ok, I'll see if I can figure out what you're saying. The contractor I am considering says they have some samples in their store and around town I can get into. Would it better to take a photo of the one I like as you described above (taken head on and with as little inconsistency in the finish/appearance as possible. i.e. no glare/reflectiion on a portion of the image) if I can find it and try it?

Thanks Dennis, here are some images by order of liking. Can you please attach a slab in an X7 plan so I can see how you did it. As much reading as I've done on materials I'm still confused and I got a home show coming I hope to put this plan on public display. I'd like the flexibility of applying different finishes to different rooms

I'm finishing all floors with a stain and high gloss polish. What would be the best approach? I don't want it in my garages or lanscape walkways, just normal there. The only way I can see is create a 1/16" finished floor and apply a color and texture from the library although I cant find any vendors in the bonus or mfg catalogs. Won't that raise all my elevations 1/16 which won't be the case since I am polishing a 4" slab? Is there a way to use the eye droper to apply a finish to the floor from an image I find online? I tired to import one into my plan but no go?

Thanks guys that worked great!

Thanks Mark, I got it to work using Tom's shallow 1" cabinet too as a door hardware attached. If only CA had a way to open and close doors in the DBX? So I put it on it's own layer to remove it. Turned out pretty sweet! How do I turn up the brightness of my standard full camera views? Also, why is a floor camera view not showing stuff with the same camera set applied as the full camera? See attached.

Joe or anyone available, I tried to do what you said but I'm not sure it is looking right. I tried to get some profiled raised panel stand alone doors out of library but CA wanted a cabinet and there was no hardware attached so I tried a shallow cabinet like Tom suggested. Could not find any in the catalogs but I'm thinking this a custom job I can get built as you described. I did not understand Mark and if there is a better way in X7? Plan attached. Thanks! Edit: Never mind think I have something that looks good enough for now.

I have this situation how do I create this with a full length cabinet and modify in the DBX somehow? Mine is 48" wide with room for growth. I was thinking of adding side shelves to the right and left as you walk through the cabinet to the pantry where I was thinking of an arched doorway but I'm not sure what is best. My fridge in right next door just like the pic. I'm open to suggestions. This first kitchen design (I been studying the cabinet DBX but not that good at it yet) is kicking my rear so if you can explain in detail I'd appreciate it Also is there a way to open and close the doors when I am demo'ing to clients?

I just did my first window schedule and could not find quad casements. I used craftsman lites and I had to put in four vertical to get the muntins to be in the upper third of the window which made that number confusing in the schedule. I'm not sure any of those issues would be solved had I used a mfg catalog window but, it sure be nice if there was a way to auto-populate the mfg, shgc, u-value, and other mfg data into the components description and comments that show in the schedule.

Rod, for the record I was not saying there are any drawbacks to pretty pics and video, they are a good sales tool to be kept in perspective IMO. Another way to "show your goodies" is technical publications which is the path you are on and I think you are doing a great job and getting away from defining everything in 2D drawing's. In most industry that follow ISO standards like ANSI Y14.5 isometric views are for ref only not dimensions(BTW: Part of BIMS is utilizing ANSI YF14.5) .They usually aid is helping put orthogonal 2D views into perspective on drawings and aide in making sense of verbiage in tech documents as tech illustrations. In my experience, I have seen alot of skew or non-true dimensions in ISO views. If you are careful the path to filtered 3D PDFs or tech illustrations may very well be a "goodie" I can appreciate but those without the shop or trades experience may not. What Johnney commented on applies here but I do not agree that drawing conformity or QA should be placed in the hands of clients, the Architect should share in the "Design_Build" and gain more build experience to aide in design. In alot of industry these days you can not get a design seat unless you have been a trade, and you are held accountable that your designs can be built cost effectively. What I was referring to BIMS or MBDS IS another VERY valueable "GOODIE" I do not have to show yet. The ones that pioneer this in this industry will make a fortune. I'll be back Anyway Rod keep up the good work. I look forward to seeing more of your tech goodies, pretty or not. BTW: I used Arobat Reader, W10 default media player did not work.

Rod, I like the concept of 3D/2D but it's not where things will go with this industry, it will go the other way around 2D/3D nor will there be an increasing demand for 2D or 3D images. I discussed this at length in another thread, it will go where aircraft, auto, power sports, etc, has already been for about 10-15 years now, paperless. Drawing's will slowly go away so will 2D paper. It has already started in bigger building firms, Model Based Definition (MBD) or DMU (Digital Mock-Up Units) will dominate. I've done many models over the past two decades, all the 2D views are on 3D planes stored in camera views with auto layer sets. The renders, ray tracing, videos will happen there, so will the very few needed annotations and dimensions. Big industry will use less paper to save big on cost and need less drafter/designers and/or their roles will change. The design will become more accurate due to concurrent engineering that saves companies big bucks. It has already happen and proven itself in other industries. The new Boeing Dreamliner is practically paperless. The building industry and CA has an output file called STL that will feed 3D printers like paperless Fused Depostion Modeling (FDM) (old Rapid Prototype) that are now production capable and growing rapidly as a part of this effort and other CADCAM, etc, being used to build homes and for production manufacturing today in the building industry. CA was smart to add this export now they just need a GBxml. There is going to be more focus on High Def 3D, HD video. More will compete with Luminon. CA, others, will be forced into BIMs to stay a float, more integrated 3D modeling rendering in the near future. BIMs will be the life cycle depository and interface for large design-build efforts that will work it's way down the home level. Here is a video showing product design but the same can occur for whole building's and is with BIMS: You can see the 2D definition in 3D. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvS3E5IGBFg I'm very good with life cycle BIMS/E-BOMS(ML's)/CATIA. I'd show some goodies but they are from other industries Some will disagree, or not want to hear it but, it makes sense from a cost saving's perspective even for the small business to minimize paper and package the entire design_build effort into one 3D/BIMS model. No more sending anything to layout or other video, HVAC, etc, programs. It is just a matter of time. Who knows maybe by then some smart guy will figure out a way to manage society's expectations, and mine

Just got home to an invoice from our attorney going after a client that has failed to pay and we are pro's. Sometimes no matter what you do and no matter how hard you try, some people will have unreal expectations and are NEVER satisfied, or fail to pay per contract. I'll take caution to not misrepresent, in some areas of this sue happy nation we live in people will use anything they can against us in court. I think the way to safely manage expectations is to be careful what you put in the public eye. I'll probably have my attorney add some verbiage to our contract that renderings are for illustration purposes only, etc.....If you are finding that a verbal explanation is needed, that the render may look better than the real build, then perhaps the rendering has gone too far. Just my .02.

Jintu, your website is outstanding and you do excellent work, as well as others on this thread. My background is mainly aircraft design where we have similar rendering capability especially in cockpits and occupied cabins but, I was never part of that interior sales group. It makes me wonder about this "digital art" I'll call it and how clients react when they see gorgeous digital art and then it does not appear to be what they were lead to believe when the building is complete? Reminds me of where TV monitors have taken us to a point it's not real anymore, looks like a PC game in resolution, even the acting is mostly computers. The movie theaters have become a digital fantasy, then reality hits. How much further can or will we take it? Seems to me designers are putting so much time into pretty pics/vids that should go into a store front art gallery and/or be sold as many are. That to me is what this has become, art, like old school hand paintings but PC based. Please don't get me wrong, I respect the talent. In my mind, as much as I would like to gain the skill set if did not take too much time, but, the more I think about it I'd much rather be a part of bettering the way we build buildings especially in America where there is much room for improvements. I guess everyone does what they enjoy. I just hope people don't believe that the best building designers are the ones with the best digital art. Jintu, I think you have done a great job at keeping most of what is on your site real looking. I had a hard time telling the difference but I'm not a trained eye. Nice work everyone, very interesting thread.

For those that do not know here is another one I found surfing the site. Looks good, more pricey. http://lumion3d.com/#popup2/1/

Larry, are you saying it would be beneficial to watch all 14 videos from beginning to end? I ran into Landscaping 2 the other day when I was trying to do a my first terrain and driveway using a road he suggested in that vid. It was getting advanced and hard to follow perhaps because I jumped ahead too soon. That is the problem with the vids they are not project based. I purchased Terry Munson's book. What I like about them is it's hands on projects he walks you through step-by-step. I find jumping around searching for write-ups in the ref manual and help sections and/or vids as your trying to create a model the least effective way to learn so this looks good. I ended up just throwing down a slab on terrain, good enough for a concrete dwg/quote

Thanks to all the BIG guns that support the site w/o you I for one be lost. AND everyone else of course

I'm shopping for this capability and have read some use Snagit and/or Camtasia. https://www.techsmith.com/products.html Snagit cost ~ $50 USD, Camtasia ~ $300. Bundled ~ $325. They said Snagit has limited video capture no editing is mainly for images. Cantasia more video editing. Having both would be the best of both worlds? I want to be able to communicate my plans better with other CA users and industry professionals. In the future, I want a pro video of my model in my spec homes for clients to watch explaining my designs. They said I can switch back from a video of me using my camera to my screen/model by editing. Is this the better of the video/image software on the market and is it easy to use? Are there other competitors I should look at? How often do they roll versions. Snagit is on V12.4, Camtasia 8.6. Like CA SSA they want a $81/year maintenance fee for version updates/and priority tech support? Otherwise, 50% of software cost.

Thanks Guy;s. Glenn that AMD tool does the trick. Yusuf material regions I'll study. I wonder why CA did not allow better display control over wall and roof layers. A 3d section cut tool be nice too.

I see. Thanks Perry. I was just looking for a way to show people the layered rigid insulation under siding in 3D for example. Sounds like I have to create a wall without the siding switch it over in the wall DBX then switch it back when I'm done with my dog and pony show. Or, use the delete surface tool. CA does not model the batts anyway, only thing I can think of to get them is polyline solids in every stud bay, too much work. Well for this slow poke anyway.