robdyck

Plus it's Friday. You'd think everyone would be in a great mood!

Before: After:

Would you mind sharing an image of the light fixture you are getting modeled?

1. You used a material that has a pattern assigned. You can either toggle off patterns or adjust the material and remove the pattern. 2. To move the railing inward, simply increase the railing wall thickness.

Won't they add the light data? If not, then yes you can. Import the symbol as 'electrical'. Select 'Show Advanced Options', go to Options tab and check Light.

Before chasing one's tail too vigorously, one should have a plan for what to do if they catch it!

Do you have all the various layers accounted for in that SU model? Keep in mind that roof layers vary in vertical height when the pitch changes. If you build the same roof in Chief and eliminate all the various layers, you will get the same result as in SU. All elevations will nicely match. Remove ridge caps and remove shingles. Change osb to 1/16" thick. Uncheck Eave Sub Fascia. All fascia heights will now match.

This is caused by something specific to your program settings. In other words, it's a setting in your program, not the plan file. Perhaps repeat the drawing process and use a screen recorder to capture your entire screen and then post the video. Even a screen shot of your entire screen might help so every active tool can be seen.

So Chief builds the roof "wrong"...that doesn't mean we need to. We aren't building rockets here! The "problem" is simply understanding that Chief is placing the finished fascia directly under the finished roof surface. Obviously to a computer, this is simply a rise/run calculation. Chief's sheathing and shingles don't 'flex' up or down like they might in the real world. Because we don't model a "flex" in materials, we can simply adjust the dimension of the finished fascia board. A carpenter might do that in the real world, or they might just nail them on outside of the sub-fascia and sheathing and let the shingles and drip edge flex a bit to deal with the overwhelming discrepancy of 3/16". For those noticing such issues from street view, May I suggest using drip edge and gutters. Come to think of it... Chief models rafter tails and truss tails incorrectly as well. Chief should be modelling them all out of alignment by +/- 1/2" in every axis. After all we want it to reflect real world conditions. Now try modelling your fascia! It may be time to let this topic rest.

The quickest way (which is still pretty slow) that I know of is to place every object that you need in a plan file. Then marquee select all objects and change their layer. Close the dialog and while they are still all selected, add them to the library. Then proceed with the somewhat tedious process of organizing them in the user library.

Yes, I do. I'll send a PM.

Yes I have and yes it is. To save money on the utility bill, I like the lights turned of during the day! Seriously though, I sort of stepped away from that for a couple of practical reasons: Time...I don't have enough! $...I don't get paid enough! Priority...Generally speaking for an exterior render, I want the visual focus to be the exterior. I really don't want to highlight anything on the inside. Keep in mind that no matter how large or detailed the image, the public will probably see that image on a phone. IMO interior lighting for a daytime exterior view is wasted effort and unrealistic. Take a look at almost any home during the day...you can't see inside even if some lights are on. I prioritize reflections on the windows.

If a model is complete, I'd recommend making a copy of the plan file just for CPU raytraced renders. In this file, you can make the needed material and lighting adjustments to improve the outcome of a CPU raytrace. As an example, experiment with the material preview (in the Define Material dialog) and compare the differences in the visual out put between PBR and the various configurations of CPU raytracing. The output varies so significantly and CPU raytracing is much slower, even just to preview a material.

No, you must create your own library of objects to be able to control the layer settings. Unfortunately, this doesn't apply to cad blocks in your library; a custom layer setting can't be applied to these.

You may need to post a screenshot of your roof layers and an image the problem areas (using vector view). And it'd be the most helpful if you could also post the plan file.

All of these images are PBR renders done using Chief X14 only. If these types of images would be suitable, feel free to send me a PM for further assistance. https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/gallery/album/517-robert-dyck-building-design/