Christina_Girerd

The challenge is if I wake up in the middle of the night - do I run downstairs to the office to see how the raytraces are going, if I need to adjust a light or something and start over?! Hope this doesn't mess up your sleep!

Mike - The firepit is in Chief's Bonus catalog "Patio Firepits" - it is the "Tall Firepit" symbol and the fire is part of the symbol which is why it was showing even though it was daylight. Chopsaw - yes, I have noticed that turns are a bit tricky. As I continued to play with those, I realize I need to set an extra keyframe to help modulate the speed.

Thanks. It was a remodel - mostly changing the pew locations and the podium/choir areas. I remember having to learn how to make a bunch of custom items too. I think the sharp shadow lines are one of the tell-tale signs of it's age. One fun part of that project was realizing I didn't have a photo of a certain area I had to model, and then looking through my wedding album and finding a photo that showed the area I needed! It was my home church for many years.

Okay - I got a test walk-thru in "standard" mode posted to YouTube. I've spent all of a couple hours playing around with walk-throughs, so I've still got lots to learn and improve. But at least I can get some output now, thank you again!

Thank you! That did the trick! I had the hardware edge smoothing set to medium. I changed it to low and now it works just fine. I can't attach a sample though, as it is bigger than 25mb.

If I try it with Movies & TV I get the "Can't play - encoded in format that is not supported" and the error code 0xc00d5212. I have attached the simple test plan that I tried after my project plan had problems. I started it new from Chief's Profile template to make sure it wasn't a problem with my template plan. The "f1" file is what resulted when I had it set to use the "Standard" option for render - with no other adjustments. The "f5" file is the result when set to "Line Drawing." The files will play on Windows Media Player and Cyber Link Power Media Player, but not on Movies & TV. I also attached info about my computer and video card in case that is helpful. Thanks for your help. WalkThru Test Plan2.plan f1.avi f5 line.avi

I have a 24" main monitor and a 19" on the side, which seems to work fine for me. You folks have some pretty impressive setups! I'm especially intrigued by the 55" tv used like a drafting table. That would be very interesting to see. I have a funny image in my head of that large screen with a big T-square across it... Thankfully I entered the profession just as those were falling by the wayside.

I've noticed that the starting point of the panorama varies depending on what viewer you are using. I had figured out that the site I first used for display would open 90 degrees to the left of my initial camera direction. But then I uploaded that same pano to a different site, and that one opened with yet another location. I would suggest doing a simple test with whatever viewer you intend to use to figure out where it starts.

Thanks for the details. Unfortunately, I tried your settings and it still produces a video that is mostly black with a few scattered vertical white lines. Hmmm - will probably just use line drawing or one of the other options until I have time to experiment more. I did do a reboot after changing the settings too, in case that was a factor.

Michael - thanks, and regarding how to run multiple raytraces... Once you set one raytrace up and it starts, click back to the plan and open another camera view or go to a view already open. Then select raytrace for that view and follow normal setup for a raytrace. The only difference is when this second one starts, it just opens a new window, shows the checkered background and at the bottom of the window says "Ray Trace Queued." You can repeat this multiple times. It can get fairly confusing though, if you have a lot of windows open because once a "queued" window is set up, there is no way to match it back to a particular view. Once I couldn't remember which view I had just added to a queue, and didn't want to come back in the morning and find two of the same thing, so I had to close it and start again to make sure. A couple things to keep in mind. Make sure you have set a definite number of passes or a time limit for each view. You may also want to put a name in the "Save Image to File" option in case you run a multi-hour raytrace, your computer crashes later, or you accidentally close the program in the morning, etc. However, the problem is Chief can only save one name at a time automatically for a given configuration. If you have two raytraces both running the same configuration, say Indoor High Quality, it will save the first image file, but when it is ready to save the second, you will get a dbx asking if you want to save with a new name and meanwhile that image doesn't get saved. One way I get around this is to duplicate the raytrace configuration and then change the "save image" file name and then the second queued raytrace will be raytraced with a different config so it will get saved with a different name. And you can do that multiple times - at least until Chief adjust the program to automatically increment the file name if it already exists (which I have already asked for). I have also asked for a better system to set up queued raytraces so I could make changes on a plan, and with one step run a sequence of overviews, interior & exterior raytraces to reflect the changes and it would automatically name the images and save them to a folder, and work in the background so I don't have to have all those camera view windows and their queued raytraces windows cluttering up my tabs as I continue working... but that's another issue. And just as a fun note from the past, in case anyone is frustrated having to wait 15 or 20 minutes or an hour with a raytrace, I remember when they first started, I would run a single raytrace for 15-20 hours to get a good, large image, such as the attached image from 10 years ago. We might have even still been using Pov-ray then, in conjunction with Chief - I don't remember exactly when we switched all the raytracing to Chief, but that alone was a big step. I certainly appreciate all the speed increase and other improvements!

Hi all - I just found this post and read it all - very interesting! I do raytraces for every job I have. I only raytrace in Chief, though I usually do a quick bit of adjusting in a photo program afterwards, mainly because I have found it is usually quicker to brighten up the overall light or the shadows that way, than to spend more time adjusting lights and running additional raytraces. I'll share a few things that I do for my raytraces. Regarding the comments about number of passes to run... I also tested the differences between numbers of passes and decided it is rarely ever worth running more than 10. I set all my raytrace configurations to 10 as the default. I find it much more effective for the time involved to enlarge the scene. I make most of my finals at least 4,000 pixels wide. At least on my computer, which is a couple years old now, I find that more efficient. Most of the raytraces on my computer take about 10min for overviews, 20-25min for exteriors with only sunlight, and about an hour for interior views that have a couple lights. I also like the larger sizes because in addition to printing out copies for my clients, I always give them digital copies too, and I want the images to have enough resolution to look good on a large monitor. When I raytrace final panoramas, I do those at 8,000 to 10,000 wide. I also like to have shadows on windows for interest. If I don't have any that are already in the plan, I sometimes will add a few trees just out of view of the camera, but set so they will reflect in the windows. I really liked the house view where someone set partially transparent tree shadows on the windows - never thought about that - looked very good! When I take photos on a jobsite, I always try to get a front view that might work for "inserting" a raytrace later. (I do almost all remodels/additions). I also try to take backyard photos that I can turn into a backdrop so if I am taking an interior raytrace view, they can see their actual backyard view out the windows. If I am shooting a front view raytrace to insert in an actual photo, I use a solid blue backdrop so I can easily remove it in the photo program. One photo below shows a very quick one (10 minute raytrace, 15 minutes adjustment in photo program) that I did just this week for first stage preliminary options. If the project was farther along, I would get fancier with the landscaping instead of leaving the existing and would make the house not "pop" so much. The other is a busy deck scene I also did this past week, again a quick preliminary pass, I think with all Chief materials except for the sky, which I got free on some site with panorama skies. I find that taking the time to collect a few good "sky with clouds" backgrounds are really helpful for exterior raytraces. In the last 6 months, I find I am spending less time setting up single viewpoint raytraces and more time doing raytraced panoramas, if they are suitable for the project. I show those to the clients on a tablet that they stand up and spin around to view, and they get very excited about seeing their project that way. The prep time spent is probably about even since I reduce the number of time intensive raytraces in a critical space like a kitchen . Here is one of my first raytraced panos that I did for a kitchen that saved me at least 3 regular raytraces. http://www.2vr.in/V-KCR (btw - I found the backsplash online, but I think the rest of the materials are Chiefs) Here's a raytraced pano of the deck project. http://www.2vr.in/V-SSV I have found that adjusting the size of materials can be effective in getting a good look in different situations. For example, in an overview, I might significantly enlarge a carpet pattern so there can be some sense of texture. The overview below, which I did yesterday, has the beige carpet enlarged (Textures tab of the Define Materials dbx) to 98"x98", otherwise it looked just like a solid paint color from the camera height needed to show the overview. The hassle is sizing it back down for regular interior views, but that is quick. Playing with the texture sizes of grasses, dirt, fabrics and other textures, can also be helpful in adjusting the look. In overviews, I often turn materials to "matte" so they don't have odd reflections. I had to do that with the wood flooring in that interior overview. I typically set up 3 raytrace configurations each for Indoor High Quality, Outdoor High Quality and Panoramas. I have window size (about 1800 pixels wide), 3,000 wide and 4,000 wide for indoor and outdoor configs. Then I set up window size, 4,000 wide and 8,000 wide for panoramas. All set to 10 passes as default, though on some panoramas, I will set them to 6 passes so they don't take so long when I am running multiple raytraces in sequence over night. My last "go-to" help for raytracing, is a chart of sun angles which I have posted in the past, but I still refer to it all the time to figure out where I want the sun coming from. I used to try to match real sun angles to each project, but realized it wasn't worth the extra time and effort except in special cases. So my goal with sun angles/lighting is to do what will make the scene show well. So nothing fancy to post, but hope something might be helpful.

I've never really done walk-throughs before, haven't felt the need. But after seeing how much my clients love the new panoramas, I decided to look at walk-throughs again for a project that isn't really suitable for a panorama, especially since I haven't checked them out in several versions. I'm now using X9. I watched a couple Chief tutorials, downloaded the XVID 1.3.4 codec, set that in preferences, and set up some walk-throughs and then tried to record various options as I learn how this works. I am using Windows Media Player for viewing after finding out that "Movies & TV" gives a "Can't play" error message for all the resulting walk-through files. (Interestingly, when I had the XVID 1.3.2 codec installed, there were a couple avi files I could watch with the Movies & TV app.) In a brand new test plan, (all preferences as default except for changing to the 1.3.4 XVID codec), I set up a short 3 camera walk through of a one room space and I found I could not make a viewable .avi file from the following options: Standard, Painting, or Duotone. However I was able to successfully record and view .avi files for Vector, Glass House, Technical Illustration, Watercolor and Line Drawing options. I would like to be able to record and view in the Standard format. Any suggestions? Thanks...

Thanks for the tips - I'll check them out. I doubt the court I'm putting in is regulation size. This project is a homeless shelter. BTW - my husband is Canadian - and a US citizen. He preferred volleyball.

I have a large concrete area on which I need to show basketball court markings (typical white paint stripes about 3" wide used for schools/playgrounds) and I thought maybe road markings would be a quick way to do so, but while those show in plan view, they won't appear on my concrete slab. I don't want to change my slab to a road just so the markings will show. So I'm using another thin white slab to show the court lines, but just wondered if anyone had any better suggestions. I wish there was a way to just draw a single line and tell it to be 3" wide - sort of like we draw a sidewalk and it has a preset width that we can adjust...

Thanks, that worked well. I didn't realize I could still adjust each line in elevation view to match the roof slope while they were connected as a polyline.

I have a sloped ceiling plane in a room so the "auto" crown molding doesn't work since that only seems to work for a flat ceiling. I drew CAD lines and converted them to 3D molding in elevation views which worked, but it looks bad at an "outer" corner in the room as the moldings aren't intersecting. I thought I might be able to join them in plan view like you can intersect two CAD lines, but I don't seem to be able to do that. See attached image. Suggestions? Thanks.

Here it is - thanks. 2016 10 03 Bay Window Problem.plan

Yes, I have auto rebuild walls turned on. I also tried selecting F12 "rebuild" and that didn't change anything.

I have several bay windows in a plan where the room floor does not quite fill in the bay window floor all the way. It leaves a gap where I can see foundation concrete below. There is an inset basement in this plan, so I'm guessing that might be causing the problem, but just wondering if there is something obvious I'm missing that would fix this? I don't have this problem on my typical plans which never have basements. This problem exists even if I resize or move the window, and even if I put in a new bay window without making any changes to the defaults.

Finally had a chance to try it again - got it to work this time. Thanks guys!

I knew I had a lot, but hadn't counted before. I have 125 bonus catalogs and 54 manufacturer catalogs! They need cleaning out. For example, I noticed I have a Therma-Tru catalog, as well as a Therma-Tru 2009 catalog. They look basically similar, but I'm not sure which is more recent. I also have a lot of User catalogs, too.

I tried using ctrl, command or even shift to open a second instance, but that doesn't work for me. Then I tried right-clicking on the icon and then left-clicking to open, which starts to work, but I get the warning message that it is not recommend to run two sessions simultaneously and it doesn't seem to let me get past that warning. I'm running Windows 10.

I'd like to be able to open more than one Layout file at a time. I know there is some reason that Chief hasn't wanted us to do that - I can't remember why at the moment. The main reason I want to open multiple layout files is so I can easily copy and paste between them. If I'm in a plan and select "Send to Layout" and have multiple files open, it shouldn't be hard for me to designate which one to send it to. This is one of those "small things" but it frequently bugs me when I forget and get the message that I can't open another Layout file.

Yes I know I can do that, but I'm still curious why the object paint/spray wasn't working as expected - thanks for the suggestion though.

Yes, I'm using the bay window tool. Thanks for the ideas. I ended up just using a polyline solid.