kylejmarsh

I don't think I'm being a prima-donna here either. Perhaps I'm spoiled now since I've started playing around with TwinMotion and Blender, but these programs are modeling far more complex geometry and the feedback is almost instantaneous. Screen Recording 2021-03-01 at 3.39.21 PM.mov

You could change the framing layer in your existing walls or turn it into something else like an air gap or just pick a random color. Then when you create the framing on auto it won't frame those walls. Alternatively you could just click your new walls and down in the bottom panel create the framing for just those ('manually')

How can I speed up layout? Seems ridiculous that moving some text WITHIN LAYOUT and not even touching my synced viewports has such an awful lag time. I have a fast computer and the modeling is plenty smooth. I also have used lots of other cad software and even old, clunky dried-up CAD software doesn't have the terrible lag that working in Layout has. I've devised ways around it - trying to do everything in my model and nothing or as little as possible in Layout - but this is just bad and seems unnecessary. What is going on within the code when moving text like this takes a few seconds? Is this common or am I an outlier? I've posted a video of the lag time here - can anybody else corroborate this lag? Is it time for a (nother) computer upgrade, or will even DeepBlue have a similar lag time? Is it some secret setting within chief that is slowing me down like this? Screen Recording 2021-03-01 at 3.31.31 PM.mov Screen Recording 2021-03-01 at 3.23.19 PM.mov

It's still intermittent from what I can see. The 144 helps. Maybe check to see if the ones that are fixed have the 'live view - update always' option checked. The other thing - make sure you zoom into the page quite a bit before hitting the print/export button - this will make sure that when your views render they do it with nice fine linework instead of ugly fat lines. But to answer your question - I haven't seen an official fix happen.

Another neat thing I just learned is you get access to all these textures and models on the MegaScan website: https://quixel.com/megascans

Yeah as an Apple user it's pretty much the only rendering program that can utilize a graphics card, especially my AMD 580 Radeon which has basically been sitting dormant... it kinda kicks on with Chief... but not like this that baby is pegged when I use this program it's kinda nuts. Been playing around with it all afternoon and there's all kind of light settings too - exposure, sky color, background, sun intensity, cloud cover - any setting I could hope for on the exterior. Why did I not get this sooner? Figured out how to export a proper 'render' and not just a screenshot of the live rendering - lol my grass is out of control! But look at that grass! Beautiful, realistic grass! And I can choose the length, the cut style, the 'dryness' (brown tint)... this is awesome

Update: Twinmotion Interior vs. Chief Interior I realize both are lacking in basic skill and execution, but are useful for comparing basic rendering settings of both. Both are screenshots from the fluid (no wait) rendering - TM operates much like 'standard' view in chief:

Did I mention that the rendering updates in real time? So I can just paint on some grass, change the time of day, month, north arrow.... yep could become a pretty good time waster lol but I bet I could get some pretty neat rendering out of this software. I will repost when I get a few really good ones...

So I have been looking to enhance my renderings a bit, and have been diving into some of the information about Blender rendering engine. It's really great, but also very complicated stuff and I think eventually I want to get good at Blender because there's just so much you can do with it - modify the meshes, add displacement/bump (battens/stones/etc). But after about a few hours or so I'm still only able to create something like this, which is not a real rendering but shows how powerful the texturing is in Blender - notice how I've added battens to the siding, ribs to the roofing, texture (incorrect texture, but this is just testing out the tool) to the stone: OK so as a MAC user there really are only a few options for GPU rendering (the rest are CPU based, just like chief is on the mac). Well I have this sweet GPU so I want to put it to work for me. What other options do I have? Well a while back I downloaded the Unreal Engine and the Twinmotion app, but never really looked too hard at it. Well, I should have. This thing is awesome. You get textures, grasses, skylines, depth of field, normal/bump mapping (no true displacement like Blender, that's the only issue with it, but the bump mapping is pretty convincing) - you get people, etc etc etc. So here is the best rendering I could come up with in chief as far as normal mapping/bump mapping to show some texture on the board+batten siding, some stone texture, etc. and to render it in a nice lighting: I'm finding the chief materials to be a bit hard to work, but if you get the normal maps and bump maps in there they can be pretty convincing too. OK so not bad for chief above. But with about an hour of 'learning' the program and exporting to collada + importing into Twinmotion, and messing with the cameras etc. I was able to come up with this: Soft shadows, materias masking, and a lot more. I chunked some of their included plants in there and they look good and cast realistic shadows too. Battens look pretty good. Woodgrain has some texture on the columns.... look close at the stone though, the normal maps are inverted in twinmotion because they use a DirectX normal map with is somehow inverted from the OpenGL normal map.... so still some kinks to work out but I'd say it's pretty exciting. So nothing really to ask but just wanted to share this with everybody - so far my experience using TwinMotion gives me hope for using it in the future. There is currently a trial license you can use unlimited (?) while you try it out. Anybody else using twinmotion? Got tips, materials, example renderings, etc?

Yes a background pdf in plan view, for example tracing over a site plan or as-built pdf, will really slow things down. Better to export it to an image then import it.

It's tough - unless you want to import some kind of geometry or use polygons, you'll have to be satisfied with the 'bump' map that chief includes. You could also try out Blender - I've just started using it and exporting my Chief models - and then in blender you can do all sorts of neat things to the geometry like add really great textures, create offsets/displacement like you've described, and a bunch of other stuff. Still getting into it but seems like, for me, this is going to be a part of my future workflow. Good luck

Could be furniture, cars, other objects that are driving up your model size. Chief does get laggy when you get into big houses. I've complained about this before but you really can't be too critical here or you get a bunch of downvotes.

How do you like the 3d mouse with Chief? Which one did you go with?

I typically stack a Plan View and a Top Orthographic view to create these - the plan view can add things like room names and dimensions, while the ortho view can show textures, etc... Also you'll need a translucent rectangle between the two because the ortho top view comes in too color-saturated.

I suggest making a CAD DETAIL page called 'site plan' or whatever to import the cad file, then you can pick through it and use the parts you want. I always flatten it to a single Chief layer so it doesn't add a bunch of stupid layers to my nice layer list, but that's me...

Like beams? check the ALDO to make sure theyre displayed. then check their heights maybe theyre too high/low

Correct. This would be a simple courtesy to their SSA customers, and allow them to gut-check their boardroom decisions with those who actually use the software every day. Seems like good business to me

This is a great trick I never knew about, thanks for posting. Do you think we'll ever get a chance to define the muntin profiles? Most good window companies allow you to choose a profile for these items - it's minor but seems like something that could be an easy add

Makes sense - so 'Elevation Region' gets used, but not the 'flat region'. So basically we can use: Elevation Region - for flat areas. make sure 'interior is flat' is checked Elevation Line - used for defined areas of elevation, like along retaining walls and foundaiton walls where the elevation should appear even. Also used on roads/driveways in the way you've shown to make a flat but pitched item like a driveway Elevation Point - used for everything else. Often a survey will come back with elevation points that you can use to match. Other settings: - Flatten Pad turned off - Low Smoothing for Terrain Seems about right.

Great suggestions Mark3D - that was a very helpful graphic! I've been wondering how to get driveways to do it correctly. How do you get flat regions? Just two parallel elevation lines?

I disagree about the Elevation Points. You can put one at each corner of your house along the foundation. Then, you make your 'fill' for the terrain perimeter a grid of 20x20, and put one elevation point at each grid intersection. This is how the surveyors do it it seems - plus their data usually comes through in points. I almost exclusively use points and elevation regions - terrain breaks and terrain walls completely eff the model not worth messing with. Use polyline solids for these walls. Also forget about 'flatten pad' that is your enemy. Here's my crash course to a somewhat workable terrain model. I wish Chief oh mighty Chief would bless us with a full suite of functioning terrain tools but until then, these work to hack it. 1. Your basic toolbelt: 2. Notice the polyline solid terrain wall - it's not the CHief retaining wall tool because that will drive you nuts 3. remember to label your elevation points Something to note - on this plan I just did the generic 36" subfloor to terrain in the terrain perimeter dialog - but on most projects I'll find the actual elevation data - around here it's about 900' - and I'll set my floor height 'above terrain' which is (actualy above sea level height) then useful to the civil engineer for figuring out my true floor heights. Then I punch in the actual terrain contours from the site plan and put them at their actual number. This gives an accurate terrain model. If my civil engineer can give me data points, I convert them (or re-do them) to elevation points in the model, and viola! everything lines up and I have some fair bit of control.

This could be an interesting read, maybe has something about the high art of gazebo design, which I'm sure some are quite richly adorned: https://www.amazon.com/Gazebos-Architects-Peter-Joel-Harrison/dp/0963620525/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=architecture+of+gazebo&qid=1597114757&sr=8-4 Here's a nice description "by Peter Joel Harrison. Gazebos : the architects" and builders" companion : the most elegant and useful designs of gazebos and other slight structures in the most fashionable taste : consisting of belvederes, follys, garden temples, gate houses, pavilions, tool houses, tea houses, summer houses)"

I like to use Line Style renderings for my concept sets - and have noticed that when i use them the backgrounds print out black. This when I have them set to 'live view - update on demand' I export using the chief pdf exporter - then open in Preview and the backgrounds look white - then I print and they're black. I have checked the background of the line style viewports, and have even specifically set it to a 'white' background. In the chief menu, I have selected and changed all my window and colors to white as much as possible even, and no change. When the pdf is exported from Preview, after the export from chief, and made into JPEG files for each sheet it will print correctly. Trying to figure out what's going on - pretty sure it's not my printer - and i've tried printing from other PDF readers and no dice. Also, if I print from the 'mac print dialogue' and use the native pdf exporter, the files come out without the black background, but there are other issues (different thread I suppose). My hunch is that it's somewhere in the chief achitect PDF converter, maybe specific to mac computers. Anybody else having this problem? It has been posted about before but never saw resolution. Miller - Concept Layout Cover Test.pdf Miller - Concept Layout - July21.pdf

Sorry if I came off like a ****, think it was a rough day - anyway I'm not saying I know what good architecture is (I certainly try), just that it does exist, so does shitty architecture. And that there are rules to creating harmonious proportions, more than just stepping back and squinting your eyes a bit at it. The fact that there is so much horrendous architecture around us speaks to the lack of any understanding (or even care) about creating beautiful (or even nice-looking) buildings. I'm somewhat discouraged by the position that 'well all architecture is as good as any other architecture'. I think if you are honest with yourself, and avoid the knee-jerk reaction that everything is relative, or that 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder' which is the philosophy of nihilists, and admit that there is such a thing as good design and that it takes effort, knowledge, and attention - you would do yourself and your clients a great service. The most recent resource I've gotten into - and which makes me feel like I mess absolutely everything up somehow (but in a good way) is called the oldhouseguy.com . Here's a great example of a thing everybody 'forgets', which doesn't add any cost to a house but adds a lot of character - the Frieze board. I started spelling it Freeze on my drawings because I figured the builders didn't know how to pronounce it (I was right) and so were leaving it off. Since I changed the spelling I haven't had a single one try to skip it. Not that it proves anything and is a tangent, but is worth noting. The more I learn about historic home design the more I realize just how much knowledge and expertise was baked into these old 'simple' houses our great grandfathers built all over the country. So I've decided to learn more about that craft, instead of just taking it into my own hands - and since doing this the quality of client, and the size of my fees has grown dramatically. You can do what you want, but in this way knowledge has really shown itself to be power - in the form of professional competence.

As people who are supposed to be professionals, it's sad that many keep steering their clients toward houses that belong on mcmansionhell.com - to be sure, I don't agree with the blog authors politics (probably SJW etc) but ironically, she's advocating a return to principles of true Architectural design instead of the shoot from the hip make it up as you go along copy from some online plan version that many people seem to be doing these days - people who are probably consider themselves Conservative but throw all consideration for tradition out the window when it comes to architecture - just because some client has a vague idea they want a 'triple gable' or whatever. There is a beautiful architectural tradition stretching back thousands of years, but we seem to think there is nothing it can teach us - throwing it away and taking the law into our own hands - no wonder there are so many horrendously ugly houses built everywhere these days. Architectural menaces abound - but you don't have to be one yourself! I said it before - read through Get Your House Right at least once so you have some basic idea of traditional home design. It's not a hard read. Your country will thank you for it - and clients will beat a path to your door. Speaking of which - back to work!!