Chris_Boswell

I find that to get the terrain shape I really want, there's no substitute for spending lots of time to adjust the "Terrain Elevation Data Contour" lines around point-by-point. It is important to have high resolution for your contour lines, like elevation data contour lines that represent 1' differences rather than 1 line for every 2' or every 5'. Using the terrain modification tools helps for getting things just in the ballpark, but to really dial it in, you gotta do it by hand adding lots of extra points. It does take some study to get the hang of how terrain elevation contour lines describe the shape of the land, especially when it's fairly steep. When you do get it the shape you want, then apply a terrain feature texture over the desired dry stream bed area of like "stream stone" from the manufacturers catalogs.

There is now an alternative to the client viewer, that's easy to use, even for someone who is not very computer savy. It's an online service called Real5D. Real5D enables someone (like you or anyone) to do a tour through a "Virtual Reality" of your 3D design/model, interactively, online, in real time, in a very easy manner. It's very impressive, check it out at real5d.com. It also enables you do virtual meetings at the virtual model/site with others. I learned of Real5D when I met the CEO, Balazs Farago, of this new little, high-tech, startup company, based in San Francisco, at a friend's dinner party. He pulled out his laptop and gave me a demo: Real5D Introduction ("https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SROgEPF5OxI"). The real5d.com website is interesting, lots of models to tour. Real5D uses multi-player, online, role-playing-game technology to turn your design/model into an online virtual reality. I sent Balazs a .3ds file of my latest project and his staff put it online for me, it's fantastic! You can tour a recent version of my latest design yourself at: Boswell-Boulder-Creek-house ("http://project.real5d.com/5d/projects/boulder_creek") I've had virtual meetings with people, online at the virtual site I designed and modeled using CA-X6. We talked, I pointed to things using a virtual laser pointer. It's totally legit. For it to work, you have to download a free, thin client app. and the Mac version is still in beta. But, I think this service could be very useful to architects and designers who use Chief Architect, like to share their portfolio with prospective clients or to have virtual on-site meetings with clients within the design/model to talk about design changes and so on.

X6 is supposed to be able to import DAE and SKP file formats--both are types which SketchUp can export. I haven't got it to work yet, but if I can, that will be great for making custom shaped objects. -Chris