jtcapa1

I'm hoping to get some help in puzzling out if I should upgrade my existing system, or cash out my IRA to buy a top of the line system? Real world RT time test would be very helpful for us. The only way I can think to do this is by rendering a file that has some preset lighting and have everyone with a GPU capable system render the same camera setting for a specific number of passes. Just turn all all the lights and see how long it takes to do 10 passes.

Does it matter for the graphic rendering in X13 if the CPU is a Razen versus an Intel i7? Most of the specs tout the Razen as blowing the intel cpu's out of the water for graphic renderings, but I got confused in that AMD cpu's don't have a built in graphic card. Right now, I've got a 1080Ti GTX card that won't RT any faster than X12 because it must use the CPU to do RT'ing. So as I look to update my rig, I'm wondering if I'm better served in RT scenes (I do a lot of very complex interiors) if I went with a complete AMD chip set and CPU with a 3060 RTX instead of intel. Any thoughts or comments or comparisons?

Looks like the technology is improving and dropping in price. I've just watched a Dot3d presentation for doing indoor scanning using existing mobile devices. BUT it does not look like CA yet supports importing these files like ACAD can. Is that a feature CA will be supporting soon? 6 Bedroom House - 3D Scanned with Dot3D™ Pro & Intel® RealSense™ D455 (dotproduct3d.com) Ideally, if CA could import the native *.dp format, these files are small! E57 format is the next best.

I've asked CA to correct this before. I think you need to post that ask in the suggestions forum and get it on their short list. There are many issues with the tails as they extend past the walls and join up with fascia, subfascia and soffits.

Well I guess we did not rate highly enough with CA for the "private invite". Public beta testing is mostly in name only while they work out the final bugs before release.

As long as you can import the detail and then make those changes, it would save time. This assumes some level of knowledge of your own market. You cannot be concerned about what the less experienced user might do with them. I do love the 3d cut-aways, as I've been putting 3d framing perspectives on my construction documents for years now. What I love about CA is that I can basically put every single stick of framing in any project, manipulate them, colorize them and then create a great 3d framing perspective like this: My structural engineer now has to spend less time load tracing, since I've not only done it, I've made it easy to see. I even upload these 3d models to the CA cloud viewer so the engineers can see it in detail. I honestly spend way too much time completing these 3d models, by including all those great 3d Simpson hangers and fasteners.

Even though this is from the UK, many of the details are useful, including the 3d cut away sections: Detail Library

I like the ease at which this can be done for sure. We already take copious photographs of the existing home, so this is a small step in a slightly different direction. I like the "augmenting" the flow by taking some critical measurements, so that the 3d scan becomes more accurate. Just a couple of quick X,Y & Z measurements of some of the rooms could get the accuracy much closer. But right now you've got a disconnect that could easily be overcome: I've seen other recent software measuring tools that incorporate inputting on the fly measurements while you take those Lidar images. See the new Houzz Pro 3d App That would put those critical measurements into the scan, saving time and money on your end. Question: Is there another device one could buy that is not an iPad or iPhone? Some kind of handheld Lidar attachment?

That is why we come here to pick the brains of all these experts that have been making CA do what it was never designed to do, since it was first created. I love and hate 3d CAD; in that I love the visual end results but hate the amount of time I spend monkeying around with it. Or as Glenn might say: "it was a dog's guts of a problem, brought in by a chap that's Few roos loose in the top paddock, but with a little encouragement and a zoom lesson, he'd have a go, ya mug, who in the end was a fair dinkem Shark biscuit, and went straight to the pool room" So in the end Glenn helped me suss it out, and he's a top bloke in my book. :-)

Sure. I've played with that and you can if you want to spend more time. It is a fun exercise in geometry to get everything lined up.

With Glenn's help I created a video tutorial on how to do a spiral stair, or at least the one I'm showing. Due to size limits here on chieftalk, I'll host this on my drop box account so this link should get you to the video How to draw a spiral stair

Thanks Glen, I struggled with CA and could not get what you did. Any chance you can either do a quick video of the steps you took? Or at least a description? Maybe a Zoom call. I could not get a smooth rail, nor glass. I've got some banana's I had to grab a model off of the sketchup warehouse to do this, but it is limited to the model created.

I agree, CA should have a better spiral stair tool. Can you do this one Glennw?

I too noticed a new library called Chief Gear, and it made me think I should buy some of that swag. Guess what? They don't sell any Chief Gear, just reserved for their design competitions.

You might update your codec also. I remember having a similar issue that was solved by doing that. I also changed the video format I saved to, so you have a few options.

Your welcome Perry. I have always included as much 3d information as possible on my permit documents for the benefit of the Contractors and subs. I've actually had one building official ask me to take it off because it confused her?!* I know it is not to any kind of AIA standard but in this brave new digital world it is just another small step in the direction of clarity of intent and purpose. I spend so much time making accurate 3d model's it is a shame not to show. Now we can also distinguish between existing and new! Love it.

Thanks Doug, I finally got serious about making video tutorials for CA as a very fast and informative way to show what I'm trying say with words. A picture might be worth a thousand words, but a video is worth much more. :-)

Thanks for that simple set of solutions. I create and use terrains and often generate them before I do a foundation plan, so pushing it down is more trouble than I usually want to undertake. So I made a quick and dirty video of my preferred solution. TerrainClipping.mp4

Okay. I am basically just putting out a thank you to CA for adding more flexibility of the object boxes we send to layout. Instead of just being a 4 sided box, we can now break them into any shape we want. Why is that so COOL you ask? Let me show you via a video tutorial I made for my draftsman. MultiColor3dIsoNew_Existing.m4v

Blake posted 5 months ago so he most likely bought something and plus technology has changed since then. Since CA's ray tracing uses CPU cores and virtual cores, then the newer i9 CPU is the way to go...for now.

I hate to admit this but I tend to do way too many project specific detailed sections cuts. I do have about 30 basic details that I can reuse, but on most of my remodel projects I just use CA to draw a section, and if I've taken the time to make a near perfect 3d model I use the live image to draft a 2d looking detail, so it is updated when the plan changes. I'll fill it with custom boxes with different fills as needed and populate it with the text needed to explain everything. I prefer custom details over the canned ones and so does every contractor that builds from my plans. Rarely have any questions or problems in the field. It just takes a lot longer to complete a set of plans as each one is very customized.

I avoided all the surgeries until my "floaters" got so bad that the (3)27" bright white Samsung LCD's were driving me crazy wiping my eyes constantly to try and get rid of something that was not on my eyeball but inside. The bright white screens made it so bad I had to tilt my head and shift it constantly to view around the floating halo inside my eyeball. My main eye doctor just said you have to learn to live with it. I tried for two years, but this floater was almost dead center in my right eye. Imagine swatting at flies in front of your computer monitor all day long! I did not give up and finally found the ONE local doctor that was doing the new YAG laser treatment for floaters. I took 3 visits and about 5000 laser zaps, but he finally got rid of 90% of the Floater giving me grief! Now I want to get a 60" 4k curved monitor, and work from about 4' away. I saw this setup at my local granite cutting company and ended up with Monitor envy!

I agree with most here. I like the idea of 50% for reuse to include redoing the site plan and all the lot coverage calculations, That one sheet can get very involved. I'm okay charging a flat square foot price fee for the first one, which in my area is between $2.00 and $3.00 per square foot depending upon the complexity of the home, and which jurisdiction it is going to be built in. Here in Western Washington, the local jurisdictions are getting Code drunk with power and making everyone's life miserable with complex requests for over reaching information. In some jurisdictions, it can take over 100 hours to create a permit set of plans!! I talked with one local Architect using Autocad that say's he is billing for 300 hours! Which is why Building Designers like myself are getting most of the work. Start to finish, including lateral and gravity engineering, the cost is around $10k for new plans that are 2,800 s.f.

Light adjustment seems to be crucial to the PBR more so than Ray Tracing. I had somehow turned shadows on and I was getting all kinds of weird shadow lines in the PBR's. But literally you need to open the lighting dialog and tweak all the lights until you get the result your after. Seems like that is the smart way to get the image you want BEFORE you spend an hour or evening, doing a high resolution Ray Trace.

Most of us have to do as-built drawings for almost any kind of remodel project and only recently has this program become easy enough to use in the field for drawing on the computer as you take measurements with your laser device. Dan Baumann has shared his tools where he shows a portable table and his laptop as his preferred method of measuring and drafting in the field. I followed that path and have successfully drafted my as-builts in the field too. BUT. It is not perfect by any means. Dragging the table around has its own limitations in small spaces. I prefer to use a mouse so the table needs to be big enough, creating another set of issues. Since we are creating a 3d model as we go, we have to spend more time on the computer tweaking the spacial information as we draft, than the actual measuring and writing down the dimensions. I think Dan even does both. Well, today I saw a more superior method. A commercial company came by my office today to measure up my space and the whole building, and I was so impressed by the tools they had developed I asked questions and asked if I could take a picture. The company is Pace Compumetrics, Inc. and the president, Jody Resnick was the one doing the measuring and her 30 year career with her company and as a BOMA official boils down to a sleek professional and expedient way to do as-builts. The pack she wears with a Surface Tablet is the key. It is made by Tablet EX Gear and is perfect for quickly moving through a space. Her software is a 3d Autocad addon more specific for what they do, but watching her input data with the tablet pen and child icons is very similar to CA. Plus her Lazer measuring device is bluetooth linked to the program like CA. That is the final piece I need to integrate to make the field work faster and more effective!!