MarkMc

Thanks David. 1-I got something using slabs, I think I can make the rest look right. Don't think I could have gotten it to work without them-once I started pulling more dimension from the front elevation I discovered that the balcony is thicker than the floor-at least from the front. I'll have to go find a vid or something to understand what the automatic walls were doing, kept attaching to the railings and sinking the side ones down into the slab. Finally added room dividers around 2-Had already tried several custom molding profiles for the sill. Made a symbol for the bottom sill and placed it as a treatment, first floor is better, still not quite right on the second floor but think the detail isn't either. 3-Peachy- one of my favorite words I don't mind things being a bear if I learn how things work when I'm done-in this case not so much-just beat it with a hammer. Thanks for the encouragement.

This is another fine mess you got us into ...really out of my depth on this. I only have to make this all look correct- no condocs from it. Still I'd like to do as much properly as I can and I'm just a GCS. (glorified cabinet salesman) 1-Balcony over porch, railings and such? Attached pic of elevation I need to get to, pic of what I have, along with plan in a zip. I messed with railings on the balcony for a long time and finally gave up trying to get the uneven newel spacing and having the floor in the right place, or the ceiling of the porch in the right place, or a roof that I floated in there. and a few other things. Thought I'd learn how to do this-hah. So finally used invisible walls, placed the newel symbols manually, then got some railings in there (I know they don't meet the newels properly) So then I went to use molding plines to get the facia around the top of the porch, Not going to work with what I have going here. Would really like to know how to properly do this please? 2-While at it-also attached are some pics for the second floor windows. In one case I can get the shutters to properly meet the window frame but then the sill is wrong. Can't find a way to change the material on the bottom of the window to match without changing the rest. In the other case I have the correct limestone sill but then the shutters are floated on the stone face. I settled on the former. Just wondering if there was another option? 3-For the limestone lintels and for the limestone surround on the center window I used "Treatment-exterior millwork above casint" I'm happy enough with the results (short of z fighting which I can likely fix), but it was a bit of a bear to do-is there a better way? Still working on the rest,was given the file-so far changed floor spec, and wall definitions and threw away the foundation. Will go after the interior once I get the rest setteld. TIA

Like Michael I use custom counters. I have an annotation set for just counters which takes care of the dimensions as well as the layers.Grabbed a really small job for a sample.

Just figured that out. Force of habit. I use blocks in every project just to get things (corbels,hoods,partitions,molding..) into the cabinet schedule. So automatically did that. Only ever blocked cabinets in an attempt to get a second cabinet schedule.

Plan here

Joe, that is exactly the problem. Those are three identical cabinets, 2 along the X axis, one along th Y axis. When you block them and include the block in the schedule Chief reads the dimensions based on the axis and not the cabinet. Try it.

Blocking cabinets screws up the dimensions in the schedule, if that doesn't matter then it works.

Agreed, same problem automatic behavior creates with clipped corners. For this project, where every cabinet has it, with the program as it is now, the offset symbol can be used in the cabinet defaults AND cabinets will all read correctly in the schedule. Just doesn't work if only "some" cabinets have it.

Scott-Z fighting, yeah I run into that on fridge cabinets and some mud room seats that have open bottoms. Doesn't show up in rendered view or RT. It's a Chief thing-annoying- wish it would go away but have not even requested that. Sometimes for clients I make it a tad taller and then set it down to the floor but then have to change it for schedules. To control the depth of the toe space you have to adjust the Y origin in the symbol used for that. Well -for me ordering is always an issue My goal is always to have the model as it would be IRL- be it from the factory or in the field, same as you guys just at a different scale with stuff you don't usually have to worry about. There are a lot of things I feel important that only apply to my end of things. (showing fillers or extended stiles as 3/4" thick instead of full depth..) I've done something like your method IRL when using frameless cabinets, a sort of mock inset. Some companies offer parts (pilasters) specifically for that purpose. Cost of goods and the install gets pricey. IRL it makes the most sense if the pilasters are decorative, not flat. In that case in CA, I'd use a skinny cabinet, adjusted depth, blank front. Fillers leave the toe area completely open. Decorative faces get challenging so would make a symbol for those. OTOH, once upon a time that is exactly what I would have done, until I discovered fooling with symbol origins to get Chief to do what I wanted. Changing symbol origins for doors and drawers starts to allow you to draw "lipped" doors and drawers, and integrated handles on doors- also used it to fake beaded inset (rarely, too much work)

Brackets at the top would have to be added individually- do the molding how you wish- I'd use a wide top rail on the cabinets. I always use molding plines rather than adding molding to the cabinet. The extended flat at the top is easy and better controlled with plines. As to the base cabinets-to me those are inset cabinets with "side and stile extended down"-that is how I'd order them. To do that in cabinet DBX eliminate toe-0" height and 0" depth, for the front add a false drawer at the bottom whatever height you want (I used 4" here) delete the separation at the bottom, The key then is for that drawer use a custom drawer symbols that has the "Y" origin offset. The examples to the right have a simple slab drawer that has been offset. The one on the left has a custom symbol created for the purpose-this cleans up the inside edge of the toe kick but note that IRL that would have to be done in the field. edited to add poic from second catalog- a little clearer

I've noticed all you indicate regarding Photon Mapping. I really would like it to be a tad less soft- something between PM and none... Interesting the difference with in cabinet lights (per our other chat) Time-I find the setup more an issue than run time. When I need RT's (occasional) After setup and checking, I stack a bunch from a few views, run each with a 2-3 saved settings-with a limit to passes (20)-and go to bed The examples posted were all "quick" settings 1-3 passes, nothing for real.

Look up "concentric" in help or user manual. Should -maybe give you way. Alternative is to use circles as guides, or arcs and lines that are then converted to closed polyline, then to counter.

Think the OP problems started with room dividers. Images I posted have 3 around the island, wall with door opening, and divider between two back rooms-total of 3 rooms.

That was what I thought but it didn't work. In any case-unless those are inset cabinets you need fillers in the corner in real life to fit the doors -even with insets I'd use an inch. If you decrease the depth of the fillers the box goes away. I do this all the time anyway to avoid confusing installers. Shown with filler overlays in place.

I'd agree Graham- the biggest difference in how dark the room behind dividers is comes from ambient light settings. Does all get brighter with photon. Do you have a room divider in there?

Nice tip P. I haven't run into this and wondered why (being I'm usually dog paddling with RTs) I recently did some RTs where I had room dividers around an island without having this problem. Went and played with that plan looking into other rooms. I took out all "light sources" (which I usually have in other rooms) and added some recessed cans, then tried some RT variations I had. Photon Mapping appears to solve the issue but .. It looks as if you do have Photon Mapping on? are there actually lights in the other room? Other thing (I got this from Jintu)-ambient light? On another note- I'd love the settings for the material on that cabinet. Ooh and another- is there a way to import Ray Trace settings from one plan to another?

Depends on what you mean? either what Joe and Perry suggest or if you mean a true clipped corner. Front clip has a 1/16 filler between it and the wall that is set back from the front edge of the cabinet by 1/16. IRL I wouldn't be doing that with anything less than a 1-1/2" filler likely 3 though. Back clip also has 1/16 filler between it and the wall set just forward of the clip, cabinet is 1/16" shallower than the adjacent cabinet and pulled that much off the wall. Note that there is a limit to clip size so if you need more at the back then the other suggestions apply.

After I logged off (missus was chasing me). I realized why I've never run into this. I never order a cabinet for this, instead I order a subbase and a frame OR spec site built subbase and other solid stock. Either makes installers much happier than messing with a cabinet (that most don't make properly)

Yeah it's a bug IMO, I can duplicate it. Alternate work around is to block it, include in schedule, change to automatic label, be sure cabinet schedule includes "other" and suppress the label of the cabinet proper. Advantage is the cabinet itself is correct. Since I always have blocks in my plan to get stuff into the schedule anyway it's not a big deal. Add to your library for future use.

I've used GPU-Z, pretty simple, lightweight, free.

Thanks

When I first got CA I was using Dell Precisions with Quadro cards, switched to gaming cards after a year or two based on recommendations here. Can't say for sure as the gaming cards were newer and stronger but noticeably better performance after switching. Considered a desktop card with this machine, skipped it but went with desktop CPU and no Intel card. Works well.

As an alternative to full Adobe I use Bluebeam PDF Revu, less expensive. Combine, rearrange, optimize...my second favorite program. If I didn't have that I'd join Perry.

Scott it's the scale as David points out- attached shows exported layout re-imported with lines weights the way you see them, next to it is same file-resized in cad then imported.

You can one page at a time-export current view-dwg. Line weights do save. Will go to model space in cad not to layout, at the scale used in the layout NOT to world scale. I use plot lines to begin with so don't know about live views. I check em in TurboCad Deluxe (cheap) can use Double Cad (free). Always have to size to extents to see it and need to have a white background-or select all and change the line colors.