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Sounds good, How do I do that?

I am working on a TI job. I received the as-built plans in a PDF format. I imported the floor plan into my plan so I can trace over it. What I would like to do is lighten up the PDF floor plan to a light gray so I can see the walls that I have drawn better. I created a layer for the PDF and assigned it a light gray color. When I look at the PDF floor plans it's still has the dark black lines, nothing changed. With the lines in the PDF so dark it's hard to see the walls I have drawn over them. Is there a way to make the PDF floor plans lighter so I can more easily see the walls I have drawn over them? Thanks, Mike

Thank Jon for your help. Now I am having a problem with the stainless steel refrigerator and dish washer appearing to be black in the break room. There are two areas of remodel. The first being the waiting room which you have been helping me out with and the other being a break room. The break room is off to the right of the partition wall with glass above and is open to the waiting room. I did both ray traces about the same time. The break room worked fine. The waiting room was the problem area. Now that I have turned off all of the lights in the waiting room and added light sources, the wait room is looking good. Now the stainless steel appliances in the break room are not showing correctly and appear to be black. None of the lights were turned off in the break room. I am using the same camera view as before. I made no changes to the break room. Why now would the stainless steel appliances not show correctly ? Thanks, Mike

Thanks everyone for your help. Jon, I like your gym rendering. I can see that you are looking through several mirrors with the crackling effect. You said that " It's all about the lighting. One bad light position or light against the wrong material and fireflies and glass ripples will never ray trace away" Is there there certain distance that we should keep our light sources away from glass and mirrors so we do not get the ripples in the ray trace ? What other materials would be negatively effected by a bad light position ?

Thanks guys for the help. I tried Graham's suggestions and turning off Photon mapping worked. I did not try turning off all of the lights yet. I see in the rendering you posted that it still looks like the fluorescent lights are still turned on. If you turned off the lights in the rendering how did you get the fluorescent light to appear to be turned on ? Thanks, Mike

I am working on a small TI job. In the reception area job we added a 42" high wall with 42" glass panels above. The existing doors in this room have glass panels. When I did a rendering of the new wall with glass panels above the glass doors in the background have a crackling appearance. It should be clear glass. I have attached the file so you can see what I am talking about. Does anyone know why this is happening and how to correct it ? Thanks, Mike PTI_Technologies_Remodel.plan

The perspective views I sent to the layout page kooks nice and dark. After saving the layout to a PDF is when the perspective views lightened up. I would guess its about 50% lighter than in the layout page. Do you make your changes before you send it to the layout page or do you make the changes in the layout page ?

I am working on a small TI job. I sent the floor plan and 2 perspective views to my layout page. I sent the perspective views as a technical illustration. In the layout page the line look nice a dark. When I made a PDF out of the page and printed the sheet the perspective views printed much lighter. The floor plans printed fine. Does anyone know why perspective views are printing much lighter than the floor plan ? Is there a setting that will make the lines print darker ? Thanks, Mike

Thanks Glenn. I will try that in the morning. It's 10:30 p.m. California time and its time to hit the hay. Thanks, Mike

That did it. I had the wrong one checked off. Thanks Chopsaw

Here it is. Thanks for your help. T-Bar Ceiling.plan

I tried both full and floor cameras and both do not show a floor, just grass.

All three were on.

I made a pony wall using polyline solids. This wall has 3 free formed glass panels on top. I wanted to rotate the unit but was unable since the rotate handle would not appear. I also tried to block them together. Again I was unable because the tool would not appear for me to do so. When I moved the wall the parts of the wall would get misaligned. Does anyone know why this might be happening ? I have attached the plan. If someone could look at my plan and let me know what I am doing wrong I would greatly appreciated any help. Thanks, Mike Arched Entry Porch.plan

That is already checked off. Is there something else that could be preventing the floor from showing up in both section and 3D views ? Thanks, Mike

When I do section or do a full floor view of my model the floor does not show up. It will show up after I build the foundation. I was told not to build the foundation until the last minute. How do I get the floor to show up before I build the foundation ? Thanks, Mike

Thanks William & Dennis, William, the picture you sent is what we are looking to do. The only difference is the wall will be longer and the glass panel will encompass three pieces of glass and each one free formed with slightly different colors and textures. Did you add a light source inside of the wall to achieve the illuminated look ? Dennis, I'm going to try your suggestion in a few minutes. Thanks, Mike

I am working on a TI project. We are adding a 36" high pony wall with an artistic etched glass panel on top. The glass panels will be lighted from below and inside the pony wall. The pony wall will be 8" thick with a cherry wood cap. There will be a slot cut into the wood cap where the glass panels will be placed. How do I show light lights inside the pony wall and facing upward ? Or is there another way to get the glass panels to appear to be light from below in the 3D model ? Thanks, Mike

Does Chief do T-Bar Ceilings? I have a small TI project where the client would like me to provide 3D drawings. The offices all have T-Bar ceilings. I looked in the library for T-Bar ceilings and found nothing. Does anyone know how to model a T-Bar ceiling in Chief ? Thanks, Mike

Do you think that CA could provide this feature ?

Thanks Gene, That work faster then the "adjust materials definition". Another handy feature would be having the color pallet show up on screen and stay up while you highlighted different colors on the pallet. At the same time your highlighting a color on the pallet your wall or object would change to that color. This way you could quickly go through different color options for your model. Thanks, Mike

I find it interesting that I can easily add a material such as stone to one wall without it changing all of the walls in the plan. But I can not change the stucco color of just one wall without needing to creating a new wall type with a different name. I would have thought that CA would have made it very easy and quick to change the colors of one wall or all walls. I think it would be a good idea for CA to incorporate a way that we could change the material colors on the model in real time. Thanks, Mike

One more thing, When I highlighted the one wall I wanted the color change to take place I just realized that all of the stucco walls changed to the new color. Is there a way to only change one walls color while leaving the remaining walls the original color?

I'm viewing this in a perspective view which is set to standard view. I check the "blend with texture" and that worked perfectly. Thank You, Mike

I am working on a project where I want 2 different colors of stucco on the exterior walls. I tried using the adjust material definitions tool but nothing changes on the elevations. In the adjust material definition dbx under the general tab I clicked on the materials under color and picked a color that I wanted the stucco color to change too. The walls color did not change. How do I change the color of one or two walls in the plan ? Thanks, Mike