VHampton

You're quite welcome. In having explored every possibility on one project, I discovered that the culprits were a couple of garage sconces. After they got deleted from the plan file... Presto. Ray Tracing was possible again. Could it be that one or more items were introduced to you project in recent days? It seems that lighting is the Achilles heel to the M1 chip - not just w/ Chief Architect, but other software makers as well. I've been doing extensive research, and despite the hype of Apple's chip (which is an extremely fast and hearty work horse) it does have a couple of quirks to be worked out. Not any fault of the software developers. Intel chips have always been the industry standard. The M1 is new, and cut from a different cloth so to speak.

Have had crashes as well. Turning off the lights has helped alleviate the problem. I don't make many interior views so this has been reasonably acceptable. But for those who do interiors, this crashing issue will hopefully be looked into. If you note on the Forum, you'll see many people with Apple products (M1 chip) discussing TwinMotion in recent months. It's a viable alternative for rendering. The problem is however... RayTrace type of renders are unsupported in TM. But there is excellent refraction quality on glass and metallic surfaces, and the results can often be quite good. Sorry that this is not a help. If anything it merely confirms that you are not alone in your findings. CA techies review the forums and may be keenly aware. Keep the faith that a new release is coming, and perhaps in due time this crashing issue is going to be addressed.

To add to Michael's comments... TM is an extremely helpful tool to enhance model making. That said, Chief still has incredible potential to render exteriors. Much of it has to do for example, with user settings. That's all. With the correct camera views, texture settings, vegetation and sun angles... that's what's going to make your model shine. If you wanted to post that particular plan, it would literally take less than ten minutes to bring it from a 3 to a 10. In any event, TM animation such as moving clouds and the leaves rustling in the trees is really amazing. Water ripples too. Maybe one day Chief will have a similar functionality. I have faith. Chief continues to make advancements year after year. Export a 3d overview of your model as a .dae file (or 3Ds) no terrain. You can settle the house into the ground upon import. Regarding the possibility of reimporting to CA, TM files won't be in a format to come back into Chief. Once it's a TM model it stays that way.

Another option is to go to File> Manage Auto Archives. While you won't get a specific hourly tabulation for the day, it is very possible to gain some perspective on the general start and completion times. The trick is to hit "save" as soon as you start work, and as always, "save" when taking a break or closing up shop for the day. Taking a screen capture of the archived dates and time blocks will allow it to be printed for tabulating the number of hours.

Ditto on making the completed house into a symbol. No muss no fuss. In an effort to keep the symbol smaller, you could turn off layers of whatever objects might have many surface counts (prior to the symbol making). Either way the symbol will be large, but it's so much easier than having to deal with wayward walls and objects when the new plan file is imported.

that's the answer. If the balcony rail moves over, then the newel will receive the stair rail. The offset is obvious.

Thank you Mick. ...and this is what I meant about the default grass in Chief. It sure is green! Not that there's anything wrong with vibrant green, but often times there's a client expectation for models to look as life-like as possible. A worthy render invariably sells the design because they (the homeowner) can visualize themselves within the scenery.

Chief's default "Grass 7" works really well but the texture size and colors are slightly too lime green. Going a bit darker gives the best results. Same with a simple adjustment with the texture size. ...and yes, TM is an extremely handy software in conjunction with Chief. Render capability in Chief has come light years in recent history, and things will probably only keep getting better. ...Looking forward to X15 even more now. Thank you for the preview!

Yep. That's probably the best solution. ...and on a side, it's always great to see folks at CA perusing the forums, and doing the follow up. The OP's thread is ancient history now, but conversations like this always prove to be a helpful resource for future users. ...and maybe even the suggestion box on new releases. Have a great rest of the day.

It may be plausible. Windows can be made into varying sizes, and can be assigned to the door schedule. There's no option to add hardware (to the "window"), but the handles can be inserted as a symbol. The one on the left is a door. The one on the right is a window.

Thank you Michael. Agreed w/ Twin Motion being a wonderful resource. Regarding the curb, I guess that's just what we happen to call them. Technically they would indeed qualify as extremely low parapet walls. The design intent is to make them not so obvious. ...That said, the parapet method is going to be looked into! Appreciate the video. ...and thank you. Back to the original post... Chief Architect can build just about anything.

Thank you for posting that Michael. For years I've been using "gutters" to create the curb. We don't use parapets, but rather let the EPDM ride over a 4-6" tall curb. and then it gets flashed. The roof is pitched in real world (towards internal drains) but for the sake of the 2D elevations, the roof is specified as flat. The pitch board detail is shown with CAD lines in the details. ...regarding furnishing etc... the 3d warehouse has some helpful .skp models, but you have to be pretty careful in selecting low surface count furnishing. CA will get there though. They've come a very long way since the Victorian arm chairs!

Thank you Larry. Much appreciated. That said, it's really great to have a software which can adapt to any style of architecture. Chief can perform alongside any software in the industry, and with what appears to be a much lower learning curve. To the original post, Europe is a bit further ahead of the US housing market with modernism. The demand here is growing however. That said, the Chief Architect marketing department has never quite showcased much beyond traditional dwellings, but perhaps they should. For example, in So Cal the houses are literally over the top... Chief could draw this no problem.

Agreed. There are absolutely no limits with what Chief can do. Like a piano or a violin, the instrument will sound according to whomever is playing it.

The fascia and roof edge(s) of gable end return and primary gable appear to be at the same elevation. The attached may or may not be the desired look, but it works. The primary roof can be "broken" along the rake boards so that a hip roof section can be created with the gable end return. Note: Per Rob and Mick, you should probably post the plan file. In X-14 what your plan file is showing has been a bit of an anomaly. The fascia on the gable end return should exist, even if it doesn't merge with the rakes on the main gable.

For future reference, there may be a time saver in exporting the newer X-14 plan to CAD. The CAD import can then be brought to life in a previous version w/ the "CAD to Walls" tool. It's not perfect, but it works fairly well. There's a dated tutorial on the web by a fellow user which helps explain...

Thank you for starting the thread Gene. When I've attempted to make varying roof planes merge at a common roof edge height, the fascia will often behave as you are describing. Meaning that roof edges won't always line up, even when the top of fascia input is a perfect match. The gutters don't always line up as well. A 3D molding (for fascias and gutters) has been my work-around for many years. That said, Robert appears to have described the optimal method. Thank you. ...It's great to learn more about making Chief work as it should.

Bummer. Layout files and plan files sometimes get placed in different folders. Usually a quick check of the Archived folders may shed light. In some instances, I've found numerous plan folders there w/o realizing that there had been so many saves. Chief Architect Premier X12 Data > Archives

The floors and glass walls are all Chief. The vertical columns and angled steel is either solids or molding poly lines. It's a valid choice either way. Just out of curiosity, the real world image sheds a lot of light on what the end result would be. That entire building can be done with Chief and a combination of solids no problem. https://visitnordlys.com/cabin/metallark-tower/

Totally agree Kb. Thank you for making that distinction. (I only use 24 x 26 sized layout, and thus the unconventional fit to paper method) My response was to describe how a larger layout can fit more snug (onto an 11 x 17 sheet) - which are typically for 'show and tell purposes' only. There's also a slight benefit in making a reduced scale PDF (before sending to printer) in that it reduces the file size for emailing. But just to recap... In the event that someone wants a "scale-able" 11 x 17 tabloid print, then a 22 x 34 layout is the way to go when using "Check Plot at" [1/2 scale]. 24 x 36 sheets can be 'check plotted' at exactly 1/2 scale onto 12 x 18 paper.

In the preview pane, try setting the scale (fit to paper input) to 95% when printing to a 11 x 17 PDF (Tabloid size). This works quite well for layouts which are set up for 24 x 36 formatted sheets. The 95% however may need to be fine tuned for 22" x 34" ...meaning a few % less. ...like 92 or 93.

Agreed. The looks like some kind of grid (in CAD) which can be deleted.

Agree with Gene. The beige bleeding through (Sheetrock) is indicative of a wayward roof section. Looks like the ceiling is poking out When weird stuff like that happens, it's often because the roof has a slightly uneven edge. It could be the ridge, or any one of the 3 remaining sides. Opening up an archived plan, and tinkering with a new roof is a relatively easy and helpful exploration process without messing up the original plan file. To add to that... if the beige can be clicked on in 3D view, the roof may very likely 'highlight'. Then you'll know for sure where the issue lies.

If I recall correctly, one can make symbols in X-8. In a new plan, per DB, one could presumably make a "panel" by drawing poly-lines with the appropriate spacing. Create a symbol while in 3D mode. Then utilize the new railing 'panel' per DJP's example.

So agree. It's amazing to see the generosity. ...and that's very good advise about posting image files - and if need be, a plan.