Chrisb222

If Closed Stringer is selected you get two outer stringers, which is typically how standard stairs I order are built. Unless they're 4' or wider, then the stair company adds a center cut stringer. I specify risers in standard basement stairs, but what's weird in CA is when I uncheck Open Risers, to show a riser, CA adds an Underside material that I don't want. Even weirder, if I specify "Air Gap" as the Underside material (to try and hide it), the risers show on a front 3D view, but disappear from a rear 3D view. (Standard view- Air Gap doesn't seem invisible in vector view.) Not sure how to get rid of the Underside material to show risers without it...you would think "Underside" would be a user choice.

That's because the dimension line is referencing markers.... for some reason. (?) The dimension line must reference the wall to use it to move the wall. Right now it's referencing markers... for some reason. Connect the dimension to the wall and you can then use the dimension to move the wall. That's because the dimensions are referencing different planes of the walls. When the dimensions all reference the same information they add up to the same.

+1 Chris, you might want to edit the thread title to something relevant, it may help others in the future with a similar question. Line weights: probably the line weight settings in your layer sets but we would just be guessing without looking at your plan and layout. If you post them someone can track it down. With regards to ray tracing, it's all trial and error. You'll have to play around with the settings until you get the results you're after. It's a steep learning curve with no real easy road to expertise. But if you're only dealing with faded color it's probably faster and simpler to post-adjust in Photoshop or similar program.

ESPECIALLY when working in concrete. (Sorry, had to throw that in...)

Thanks for the reply. It seems odd that railings give access to wall layer settings but don't use them. It would be nice to have the same control over the plan display of railings that we have with walls. Oh well. I'll look into your workaround. Thanks again.

Hi, I want to edit the railing lines seen in plan view. So far I haven't been able to figure out how. I can edit wall lines and achieve any look I want. Railings however do not respond to my commands. Attached is a pic of a test plan, and the test plan. In the test plan, I have edited both the exterior wall and the railing wall to have a transparent fill, and to display only an outer line, 80 width, green color. The plan view of the railing does not comply. Any thoughts? Thanks railing_lines.plan

You want seamless textures. Google it, you can get anything you want free, just have to register with one of the libraries. Seamless textures look much better than many of the tiled OOB chief textures. Mainly I use them for shingles, brick, stone, and grass. IMO those are the worst offenders for making a render look unrealistic. There are plenty of awesome seamless grass textures that will eliminate your need to create 3D grass. EDIT: Or the post-render Photoshop grass as Rene describes above. But seamless textures look good and you don't have to go to another program.

Using Adjust Material Definition tool, open Define Material for the wall, Pattern tab. Under Pattern Source click "Use Custom Pattern File" Under Custom Pattern options, File, click Browse navigate to your CA Patterns Folder in CA Data folder Choose ChiefSiding.pat Under Pattern popup, choose Stucco You'll need to play around with Scale, I find 0.1 works well.

The two planes are not at different heights. Their locations relative to the walls beneath them are different. A wall closer to the high edge will need to be higher to reach the roof plane. A wall closer to the low edge will be lower.

You're in the right place. In your pic where you drew a yellow box around "Lumber" that's grayed out, the arrow is pointing to the subflooring (plywood). Click on the joist and you can change it to "Lumber" Clicking in the "Thickness" field for Layer 2 also moves the arrow to the joist and allows the Type change.

I bought an HP T520 about a year ago to replace an HP DJ120 that stopped working. The T520 is MUCH faster and better print quality. Normal quality Arch D prints come out as fast as letter size on my laser printer. Roll feeding is less problematic than with my 120. I'm very pleased with the price for performance, although it does act strange at times. A reboot fixes that, and I would buy it again knowing how it acts. Trying to figure out how to dispose of the 120.

Not sure I'm following you. Are you creating multiple separate plan drawings of the same building / project for different views? If so, yes, the program is designed to keep everything on a single plan drawing and allow you to control what is displayed. It's very doable but not easy to explain. Many videos and threads on the topic regarding Layer Sets, Annotation Sets, and Saved Plan Views. Good luck!

To explain a little further, the Layer drop-down list and Default checkbox allow you to specify (change) which layer the object is on. When you drew the CAD box, the program followed your instructions and placed it on your CAD, Roof layer like you wanted, right? The checkbox is not checked because the object is on your CAD, Roof layer, not on the program's default layer for CAD. Checking the Default box moves the object to its default layer, in this case the CAD, Default layer. Alternatively you can select from other available layers to move the object to using the Layer drop-down list, or create another new layer right there using the "Define" button, something I do often as it seems easier to create the new layer this way, when wanting an object to be on a new layer.

Use File > Export > Export Picture from Chief, select PNG as the output format. PNG will result in higher quality compared with JPEG.

I like putting a big shadow across the front yard on my exterior renderings and couldn't get this look with PBR, or even anything close... esp with no plant shadows. I'm a little bummed that PBR isn't going to work for me but at least I don't have to upgrade now. 10 passes, 2 minutes with my humble CPU Intel graphics...

That's more like what I'm used to getting from tree shadows. Thanks for your help.

Wow, they don't seem as realistic as Ray Traced plant shadows. Are those Chief plants? I get no shadow whatsoever from trees but it's probably my graphics. Guess I'll continue to stick with Ray Tracing... thanks

I just started playing with PBR again and cannot see plant shadows. Is this normal?

Agreed. Many people probably don't realize that JPEG is a lossy format (meaning that in compression, data is "lost" that results in image degradation), while PNG is lossless, which can make a difference depending on the amount of compression applied to the JPEG. Very minimal compression JPEG settings can approach a lossless state, but since Chief (unlike other programs) doesn't give you any control over the amount of JPEG compression it's best to go with PNG for the highest quality. Which is exactly what the Help Assistant within Chief recommends for image export.

You also have tons of control over the rise of the staircase via the tread depth and riser height settings in the stair dialog box.

Now that you have them reaching the next level, select the stairs in the floor plan view, and drag the end to where you want it. It should automatically adjust the threads to fit, but you might not like the result.

Hover over the dimension you want to change. If your pointer changes to a hand, you can click the dimension to open it and edit it. If it does not change, at least two conditions are possible: 1) the dimension is not connected to that object in a way that allows that dimension to be edited. Connecting the dimension to the object may allow you to edit the dimension. 2) you're zoomed out too far. When locating objects using temporary dimensions, at times you must zoom in to activate the hand cursor that allows you to edit the dimension. Other conditions may also cause dimensions to not be editable, perhaps other users will say if there are.

The "missing lines" are there, they're just being cancelled out by another line in the exact same location. Do some editing of your lines to eliminate overlapping lines and all is well.

How are you changing the color? Material Eyedropper/Painter? That's my assumption since I don't know how else you're changing the color of one of the stuccos and also changing its texture.... Some Stuccos have a Texture Source, and can have colors blended either with the Eyedropper/Painter or through Define Material, "Blend with Texture." Other stuccos do not have a Texture Source and in that case the Material Painter > Toggle Blend/Replace will do nothing, and the Material Painter will apply the source object's color --- and its texture. You must be working with one of these stuccos. You can, as Eric noted, change the color of any of the stuccos through Material Definitions > General > Colors. However if you need to match another object's color without changing the stucco's texture, use the eyedropper within the Define Material color selector:

Fantastic! Very interesting and lovely design and decorating, super photorealistic, simply a pleasure to view.