MarkMc

Can't look at plan right now, here's what I've found - it's different.... Less than 100% ambient occlusion, play with adjusting camera exposure,always use a lighting set (defaults to not doing that), avoid generated sky, never us generated sky with sun follows camera, helps to adjust the sun manually, can help to alter light lumens up drop off down and increase spread, one or two added lights that are directional with wide spread can be useful (play with height). Once you get a few that work cameras and lights can be refused and copied.

Mine are physically based render, my ray traces aren't that good.

I"ve never been a big rendering guy, tried a bit more this year as need arose but I always struggle with RTs. I approached these as if nothing I knew applied but that like RTs need to be "worked" a little and I 'd have to find out what did what. While there are still things that need tweaking the results are better than I normally can produce, faster, easier. I'm not going back. IN Orlando now and only have the Spectre with me so haven't run stuff through latest update but here's some of what I've been able to do.

There are a number of videos in the knowledge base , then there is the Reference Manual and the Tutorial and a good section in the new Chief Tutorial PDF found at Product Documentation Just a note- Once a cabinet is placed in the user library you don't have access to change anything but the name until it is placed in a plan. Because of that it's useful to change whatever needs be prior to saving to the library. Those things that should to follow defaults ahead of time. That would be door, drawer style, side panels, and materials. Layer (I place some on a second cabinet layer), fill if not standard Label if not standard (as in the case of a refrigerator cabinet- the automatic label is unlikely to match what you use day to day)

While I've set the keyboards I use all the time to left side I also use a wireless number pad so never changed that one.

Keyboard on mine is (-) to zoom in (/) to zoom out, think those are default. Arrow keys work for moving.

Examples of each

Alternate edit behavior, concentric. Set jump distance in preferences. Or transform replicate, copy move if along the axis. Or multiple copy

This looks good in standard view, lousy in vector unless you turn off the material region layer so might be wise to place on it's own layer, for plan the block needs some work (I didn't bother). Placed an outlet, 3D molding line around it 5/8" x 1/16", convert to symbol, change y origin. Placed in wall, placed material region to match set to cut into wall, Got rid of all but one layer of the material region, set to 5/8" as opening no material. Recessed outlet.calibz

Nice one

Ditto build #2. FWIW I had a couple of Dell Precisions with Quadro cards when I first switched to Chief, switched to GTX and it's been better. As to your Surface issues- 2gb on the GPU is minimum and that most likely has Optimus which is a hassle with multiple monitors since it some will run on the Intel card instead of the GPU. My previous machine could have issues with other monitors depending on which ports I was using. I run the Saber in my Sig with the main screen, a 24", a 42" TV, and a 15" DisplayLink all at 1920 with no problem. From what I can tell it handles things comparable to many of the machines folks list here in their signatures- some better some worse, and it's a bit dated. You may want to look over some of the recent Ray Trace threads-Graham has done a bit of research and indicates that single core performance for RT's matters even though RT will use multiple cores. Chief itself OTOH doesn't gain much from extra cores AFAIK. There are a couple of folks on here with Xeon.s I know mrscott runs a Xeon machine for tracing but he just got an 8700k with a 1080, could likely give you a comparison. If I were getting a machine today and couldn't wait I'd talk to tech about what X10 will be happiest with, the new rendering engine they are previewing on youtube is different.

The major problem with the Chief library cabinets is they are traditional overlay AND box construction is NOT dynamic. If your business is anything like mine (I've sold maybe half a dozen trad overlay kitchens in 20 years) it means you have to change the construction every single time on any of them, Top row drawer height is also not a dynamic default so that has to change for brands and/or construction type. Finally there is no "B" drawer (lower drawer, large drawer) default anywhere. Lastly the automatic labels work for some cabinets in some brands. My method- make a shortcut key for each type of cabinet i the build menu (CB; CW;CT) My cab default width is 15", toe and top drawer by brand, labels vary by brand (longer topic) Make a plan for a brand/construction. Make the cabinet you need in the plan and save it. Ovens, trash, any pullouts, micro cabients, if you use multiple susan types, talls, a few panels...like that. You can always add to it. Set the label for each cabinet to match your brands catalog. To make your life easier later in the procedure-type each label into a table or spreadsheet. Make sure everything is set to use default-side panel, door, hardware, all materials, like that. Then make a folder in the user library (library management is another long topic) NOW- with both Chief and your spreadsheet of labels open (two monitors or tiled side by side) Select a cabinet-add to library (another shortcut key for me), when it gets in the library it will simply say base cabinet or wall cabinet. Select it, press f2 (to rename) go over to your spreadsheet, select the label, ctrl + c (to copy), back to chief, ctrl +v to paste it Do that for each cabinet. If you need another brand or construction then open that plan you saved and change the cabinets, save as, and add them again. In use design with just the cabinets from the build menu, keep in mind what you want to put where, then use replace from library (shortcut key) to get the cabinet you have stored and place it there. Gotta go now

This is similar to what I showed before but may suit a little better. Still not perfect. Made a table in word processor with two row and four columns. Set it to width and equal columns, put type in the column that spanned side to side, then added carriage returns down the second row of one column to expand the height (though that can be done in Chief) Oddly when I first made this I was able to type in the second row without it expanding, but that stopped working. So I added in some guidelines to be able to see if the columns moved. When adding text further down use carriage returns to keep column width from expanding. (not ideal for a major copy paste but with the guides I guess that is doable) Delete unwanted returns when the length gets too long but be careful as it has a tendency to delete ALL the returns in a column when selecting. Columns.zip

Amen

You can make a table in a word processor or use a spreadsheet, paste special into Chief. IF you don't have text in the columns to start with they come in shrunken no matter what size you started with. Once in Chief you can insert text into the cells. Screenshots from a cad detail in Chief

Thinking he wants a complete desk? need two parts a front and a back. I realized you need to sit there so changed it. Curved desk.plan

Side panel in the accessories tab of the cabinet defaults- I don't have a Merrilat Catalog on my machine so you have to change that yourself. Material defaults- NOT in the cabinet defaults but here Plan with "Material Default-Cabinet and Cabinet Door/Drawer updated to Maple Cotton-Tuscan. Checked and it works. That was the point I was trying to make and I realize it is %)()& confusing. Setting the default material in the "cabinet default" will work UNTIL you change door style. A new door style will usually be set to "Use Default" and believe it or not that DOES NOT mean what you set in the cabinet-simply put it sucks but now you know. Bellmeade_Buildeer_def.plan

Post the plan please to get better help, also add version of software and some information about your computer to your signature..... but this should get you started. The largest number of cabinet defaults that are dynamic (anything listed with (D) after it), those that will change across the plan when you change a default setting are those from the Build menu (or those you made and placed in your library that are made from those) The other cabinets in Chief's library will be dynamic for "some" defaults and simply don't follow others even when first placed in plan. I simply avoid those cabinets entirely to get more consistent results. The easy way to do that is to make a couple of dozen of your own cabinets and place them in the library,. The default material for cabinets and doors needs to be set both in the cabinet default AND the material default. If it is only set in the cabinet default and you select a new door that uses"plan default" it will use the MATERIAL default NOT the cabinet default. (yeah it's a PIA) Side panels need to also be set in the cabinet default, separately from the door style. That is done in the accessories tab. Always use doors in the library that are set to "use default" (which will be the material default) so always select that before adding a door symbol to your user library.

Opens in Firefox on my machines, thought it would open in a browser automatically. Sorted through some of what I had so here is an update of the kit- I no longer use "Sticks" I just change molding and or panel to make new wainscot. Then use that in a cabinet to make the door. Also a library with some of the framing beads I use (more around but library is seriously out of control right now)- some may be facing the wrong way since I get dislexic and don't always clear out the bad ones since I also have CRS. Several Panel raises are already in Chiefs libraries. Door kit plan 1217.plan Framing Beads.calibz

Should be able to open in Web browser, automatically opens in Firefox on my machine

You misunderstand. What you want is not a miracle, it's easy. I gave you does what you want. In this thread it's a complete cabinet with no seams converted to a symbol. In the symbol thread I showed you how to make a single piece with multiple panels with no seams- place one of those in a blank plan and convert to a symbol the way Michael said to do.

Not sure why I bother

K, so here's a quick vid on what they do. Wainscot.webm

Suggest you try them as "side panel inset" in a cabinet to understand what they do. (In the plan I posted in your other thread the cabinet that was converted to a symbol uses them.)

Yes I make them as need be- Just posted a small library of them in symbols for you and others. Back a ways over there are some door symbol plan "kits" as well.