VHampton

Interestingly, Layout lag time seems like a common issue. When you do an update of all plot line views for example, the layout sheets take seem to take forever to scroll through. Often times, I have to shut the program down and somehow this refreshes the memory when it reopens. Turning off the undo feature works best for speeding up things in plan views and 3d, not necessarily layout. But back to layout speed... any camera views sent to layout as images (as opposed to plot lines), have a way of increasing the size of the layout exponentially. Try to avoid "live" camera views in layout altogether. It can be helpful to save the live view away from the layout borders - and just keep an image capture of that particular camera to help minimize. PDF files in the range of 50 to 70 mbs are often the result when you print a project with lots of live cameras in the viewports - and they can take an incredibly long time to spool through the pdf printer.

Sometimes the plan file gets severely bogged down because of the undo/redo option. As an experiment, go to preferences and turn it off altogether. That always results in a huge speed boost. If that turns out to be the cause, then try setting it to only a couple of moves. As Alan pointed out, notes can also be known to bog a plan down. Back in the earlier versions V7, V8 and V9... they always recommended to keep notes to your layout sheets or CAD details. Never on plan views if you could possibly limit that. Not so certain that it would matter in this day and age though. 15-20 years ago, you'd be lucky if you could find a computer with 1 Gb of memory. Changing the undo/redo setting will make the difference no matter what.

My pleasure.

X-11... This was again made using poly line solids... But with a cut-out for each piece, so that the rug reads as one. The 8 foot section was created first. Then it gets a poly line solid "hole" for the middle section. The middle section gets slid into position... and likewise, it gets a cut-out for the center. The center section goes into place... and voila. (3) pieces all at the same height. No shadows lines. Round carpet.plan Round Carpet .3ds

That's correct... and part of why it only took about a minute to "stack" everything. Anyway ...Just opened X-11. Takes 2 minutes to re-do, and using your suggestion. The right way. ...BTW very impressive renders on your site. Are all of them done using Chief? or is there a hint of Lumion as part of the rendering process?

My pleasure. Here's the plan so you can see how it works. Hopefully you're using X-12. Carpet plan .plan

A quick way to do this is with the Poly-line solid method. It won't be perfect since each texture gets layered over the next... and you may see an 1/8th inch thick build-up. But it's good enough to fake in a 3d camera view. Attached is a 3ds symbol which should get you going! BTW... this was done really quickly. In case you want something to match more closely, I can resend. Best, Val Round Rug .3ds

Excellent. The 3D Warehouse has some excellent resources. It's not exact, but close enough... If you scrunch the height down to about 27" it takes on a similar proportion to your reference image. Too bad the the "scoop" is a bit more exaggerated though. Otherwise it's a near match.

This one can be stretched either vertically or lengthwise to come close to the look you are after... Amalfi.skp

Agreed Larry. This should have been bumped over to another thread. At least the signature police haven't shown up!

Hi Eric, So yes, you're absolutely correct. BTW... no arguing whatsoever. ") The are indeed insert page up and page down commands in X-12. For either placing a new blank page before or after. But in X11 the one arrow was all you needed to tap, and presto, the blank new appeared. In X-12 however, the page gets inserted, but then you have toggle back down or up to get to the new blank. Again, not a big deal, but the single insert tool to spawn a new page was handier since it involved one step, not two.

Hi Eric, Please see the comparison. The insert page tool is no longer available in X 12. You have to insert "page before" or "page after". Then after the page jumps, you have to go back to the newly created blank page. Not a big deal, but that's what's missing...

Copy and paste in place is very helpful. It's easy enough to learn the new method, but still, it was a surprise to see that taken off of the toolbar. Not to digress, ....One thing I miss is the layout page tool, where you could insert a new blank page. Now you either toggle up or toggle down for a new page insert.

Hi again creatrix, I was going to post this in your PM box, but it won't allow file uploads there. The people are appearing as a "poly-line solids" in plan view since they are only one inch thick.

This should hold you over.... https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/search/?q=2d silhouettes&hl=en

So... those are actually 2D figurines only. They’ll only show up in a camera view. That’s the difference between a silhouette and a cad person, and that’s why you won’t see a thing unless they happened to be inserted to a 2D elevation.

Type in "people" in the Library search. The silhouettes can be used as 2d or 3d. Here is one of a man drinking, probably the architect.

I just watched through the video Michael. That's a huge help for anyone new to the program. Excellent tutorial! Just noticed your YouTube Channel as well.. The folks at CA should be paying you for your service to the community! ...I haven't been on the forums for a little while. I only stop by once a year when a new release comes out. It's helpful to see what new features are available, and to keep an eye out for the typical bugs in the beta versions. That said, the new release is proving to be very stable. In any event, awesome job! It's folks like you who are an added benefit to what might possibly be considered the best drawing program in the industry. All the best, Val

Excellent point. When stuff like this happens, the unwanted object can be typically placed on it's own layer, and get turned off for interior camera views. This was just a quick two step process for modeling the shapes. To your point, the roof option definitely has merit. ...The best answer in most case scenarios is to ask yourself how would one build this in the field, and then just use the tools to make it work. In this case, a reverse sloped roof with no ridge caps is the winner, and it would avoid having to play hide and seek (with the bay window molding) when taking interior views. Thanks for pointing this out!! The OP might have wondered what was happening inside the house.

Bay window.plan.zip

Bingo. Draw the shape you want in a cross section, and add it to the Library as a molding. Go back to the plan view and trace the bay with a line - convert to the new molding type, and it should be fairly close to the desired look. You may have to adjust the vertical axis a bit, bit this is by far the fastest way to illustrate it.

Make a new wall type. Take a 6" interior and copy it. Change the width to something like 1-1/2", and call it Interior 2 or Furring wall. When they frame the room in the field, the cabinet wall will be viewed more like a component of the millwork, not necessarily part of the structure.

It could be a number of things... Try turning off undo-redo under your preferences. It's it's set to anything over 3 or 4, that could be why there's a lag. If your machine starts working at lightning speed again with the Un-do re-do off, then you'll know why. It's a memory issue, and nothing to be too concerned about. Secondly, as mentioned, if you've got a new object in the plan with multiple surfaces, that can really bog down the program. Be careful what you import, especially from the 3d warehouse. They have tons of great models, but if they get into the 10 MB range, take a look and find something with a count thats under 1M.

Could be an issue with the sketch-up file which is know to have glitches from time to time. Not every import for the warehouse will make it through the import process, and when it does go wrong, it will freeze up your Chief program. Test the import process out with another .skp file and you'll know if it's just that one bad file in particular. Also.. regarding the FTH warning, you can turn that off... this may help: https://discourse.paraview.org/t/potential-ms-windows-10-performance-hit-due-to-fth/405

Hi Sharon... Quick observation. As a fellow Mac user, I happened to notice that the new release was slightly glitchy. It had a few quirks with text disappearing, as well as delayed reactions (blue screen) when opening viewports from layout sheets. Aside from adding more memory which is really easy to do on the larger Macs... the option to upgrade to Catlina is highly recommended. It somehow optimizes the graphics hardware, and all this to say, that the Beta release is far more stable, and all of the above quirks have been resolved. I was also using High Sierra, not wanting to make the leap to Mojave. Long story short, the Catilna release has some very nice features, and it's very subtle change to the system. Have a great day, Val