VHampton

Thanks Tommy!! It finally works. It's pretty darn weird having to do it this way, but at least it's functional. You'd think that pulling on the grab handle alone would have been much much easier. How on earth did you figure this out?

Exactly. You can stretch the image but it retains it's aspect ratio which should not be the case. It's rather frustrating not being able to stretch a jpeg since the past three releases. Not complaining...but this is definitely a bug when the box reverts back after you uncheck it.

Why they undid this feature is/was unnecessary. It was quick easy and straightforward.. Not complaining, just saying. The programming department dropped the ball on a very useful tool.

Here's an old post on the subject... Chieftalk - Eyebrow dormers.pdf

Do you have a back up? You might be able to copy your back up folder of the old library and paste it directly into the Chief X7 location where it is located. I've done it before on old versions. It worked.

To create an open to below... Draw four walls around the stair going down on your first floor. Click on the space and designate it as "open to below" using the dialogue box. Use your floor reference tool to see the stairs below. It's easier to draw the walls (or railings) around the stair case this way. The stairs and walls from floor above or floor below will be highlighted in red. See attached pic. All the best, Val

You got it. Auto build a basement. Stairs need to start from the up position. Keep in mind that you'll need to have an "open to below" of level one to allow the stairs to appear in the floor plan. (Do this by creating an area which is either surround by walls, railings, or an invisible wall.)

There is always the slight problem with the shadowed views in that they aren't sent to layout as line drawings. ....meaning that they have to go into the viewport as images. They always seem to "pixelate" pretty badly. Is this how Vector works does it? This past year I started playing with the very same idea in color. Meaning that I keep a standard view in layout, then send a shadowed image to the same sheet. The image then gets tweaked until it matches up with quarter scale. So far it works fine. Much nicer looking than regular line drawings.

That's exactly the way they get built in real world. I've been making battered walls for years in Chief by using roof planes in front of regular walls. The roof needs a hole to allow the walls to show the windows and doors. It would be great if Chief could allow an option to thicken the bottom in an effort to create the slope.

This is the ideal way to do it. The truth is...you will need stairs and a finished space to get to the roof top balcony. One the program knows that you have a third floor, the rest is cake. It's also probably better not to call it a deck but rather a balcony. Otherwise it's going to create all kind of deck posts and stuff that you don't need or want.

HI Richard, Why not draw the wall conventionally and then add either a molding poly-line or a poly-line solid to show the existing portion? The contractor must have one of the Ancient Aliens levitating gizmos on site to make the new pour go ok, but let's not get into that.

I used the client viewer on a recent project. The owner was beyond thrilled to see his house come to life. He also jokingly cautioned me that I never should have done this. He was right. It was basically like handing over the car keys to a twelve year old. He'd open the plan file each day and start making changes. Every afternoon became a design session where I'd have to open the plan one more time so we could revisit where he wanted to make adjustments. A long story short, be careful who you share your 3d model with. Trades people yes....clients no! Keep the mystery in what we do is all I can say. Right on.

Exactly. Then draw white lines over the higher portion of stair treads to help show the floor area below the stairs. If this doesn't work to your liking, you can always turn the stair layer off. Draw the first five or six treads and railing with CAD lines and create a break line.

Noticed something similar. As always, turning off the undo feature in the preferences fixed the lag time. It's as fast as ever.

Sorry for the confusing image file....I am in X7... I just wanted to show how the feature used to display by showing the missing tab in an X6 file. Thanks again for pointing the way. Val

Awesome. Thank you. Here's where it's always been for years... Glad to know it's still there!

In every previous version there was the ability to open an object's dialogue box and under "Materials" you could select a material from your plan. This was far easier than having to navigate through the library all over again to find the certain material (and recolor it if need be). Why did this feature get removed in the new release? .

Nick, Make sure that your material texture starts out as plywood. It appears that you have the type set for tile....which is correct. If in doubt...downlaod the sample plan which I posted. Open it and open your current plan at the same time. Copy and past the walls from my plan into yours and give it a new name under wall types. That should do it. All the best, Val

-Hi Larry, I started using the "raised region" or "lowered region" tools. Place the blob into your plan (while in terrain mode) and start shaping it using the break tool. Give it a height (in the dialogue box) and what what happens when in a 3d overview. I keep both the plan and camera view open on different monitors so that I can watch how it's being shaped.

People can be inserted as images. You'll find them in the Chief library. If you are looking for 3d people, the Sketch-up warehouse is a great resources for any and all things 3D. Just download whatever you are looking for to your desktop. Then mouse over it and hold the left click down... and drag it into your floor plan. (You can also import the object by using the Chief prompts, but this method is super fast). 3D people

Wendy is a long time user and this is her business. http://www.artformhomeplans.com/index.a5w All plans are made in Chief. This could be a good start.

That's a very good solution. Brilliant. You could also make your own casing out of a polyline but it won't be recessed into the brick thickness as Charlie pointed out.

Here ya go Scott. You is correct. I was happy with the look nonetheless Why the heck do they have a Joint width for tile then?!! Untitled 1.zip

I did this once using plywood as the siding material. Change the color accordingly. Then what you do is change the pattern to tile. You can change the proportion very easily along with the groove depth. The dialogue box allows you to create the groove by changing the grout thickness (aka Joint width) If you are using "standard views" with your camera, just play with the x and y scales in your texture box to make the material read correctly for 3d renderings.

Thanks Guys. ...you're right Perry...Nvidia is known for being the preferred card for Chief. The excess whirring is coming from the video card fan which I suppose is quite normal. (it's an ATI). On a side note...every computer that I've ever had always revved a little faster when sending an elevation to layout for example. It's just that the Ray Trace process makes the video card fan spin like crazy (during the entire process) and I'd rather not wear the thing out. ...So what I'm gathering is that ten passes should be a typical parsing period for an exterior view. ...and if your fan sounds like an F15 ready for take-off, it may or may not be normal. I should have posted a poll, bu how long do you find that a Ray Trace takes on average (exterior view)?