Chrisb222

Odd... I added a second floor to your Wall Thickness plan, moved the standard Stucco-6 walls out flush with the thick wall, and the windows did not fill in... even using the windows and arched doorway from the other plan... no clue why. Looks nice though! 

Wall Thickness - 2 story.plan

On 5/13/2017 at 11:20 PM, GLOBE-Res said:

I was forced to buy a new computer.

You can get a Win98 machine on eBay for 100 bucks, if your only goal is restoring what you had.

14 hours ago, cv2702 said:

I'm trying to reproduce your output.  What material adjustments did you make to the copper if any?  What were your RT settings?  I just can't get even close to that output.

Make sure in RT settings, on the "Advanced" tab, that "Use Photon Mapping" is check-marked.

With "Use Photon Mapping" checked:

Everything exactly the same, except with "Use Photon Mapping" unchecked:

You can make anything as shiny/reflective as you want using the "Adjust Material Definition" tool.

Vase with stock Polished Copper material:

Same material after material adjustment:

I use a 17.3" HP Pavilion 2.6GHz i7 8GB for remote presentations and it runs X9 just fine. I don't ray trace with it, and rotating a 3D view is slightly jerky but it's fast with static 3D cameras, and the thing only cost $700. HDMI out connects to the client's TV. Perfect for me.

12 minutes ago, Alaskan_Son said:

 

Its actually the material definition that matters the most.  You can use ANY material from the library just so long as the material type is set to Framing...

That's it --- exposed, carpet-wrapped studs WILL be in one of my houses some day... 

22 hours ago, MarkMc said:

The easy way to do that is to make a couple of dozen of your own cabinets and place them in the library,.

Mark, yes I avoid the CA Library cabinets too, but it's frustrating that the "Build" menu has only base and wall cabinets, not sink bases, drawer units etc. When you say make your own and place in library, are you saying those cabinets will now behave like the ones in the "Build" menu? Can you please expand on this advice? Thank you.

Yeah, after upgrading to X9, occasionally I will get the disappearing cursor in the workspace. It comes back after I close some views or open others.

Mac OSX High Sierra, CA X9.

On 6/25/2017 at 5:29 PM, matrix78 said:

How to start using chief architect as a beginner

When you're trying to do something you don't know how to do, go to google, type "site:chiefarchitect.com [keyword]" and you will likely find your answer ([keyword] is whatever you're trying to do). This will restrict your search to the chief website and includes results from the tutorials, the training videos, and the chieftalk blog. This is how I learned very much, and still do.

On 4/28/2016 at 8:02 PM, johnny said:

Another question - why isn't my "tread" width working out to be the same even though they are set the same?  bug?

Hi, reviving this thread because I just used it to learn how to make this type of rake wall / railing, and found that if I deleted a few of the objects connected to your flat ramp (the full height walls, the landing), then hit "undo" to restore them, the tread overhang popped out to match the tread on the angled ramp.

It's weird but I have found that with CA sometimes you have to delete objects then undo the delete, to get it to fix a quirk.

I also got the effect by turning off "Treads" in the ramps, and specifying a bottom rail for the railing that was 3/4"H x 5 1/2"W, with "Raise Bottom" unchecked, which I have used often to generate a shoe plate on a flat railing. It didn't work at the connection of the two rails, however. It won't pass under a newel, and with newels turned off there is no baluster there. (See pic)

)

I like the ramp technique for this problem. Thanks to everyone for the tips in this thread. 

6 hours ago, StephenGreene said:

I spent nearly $3000 and couldn't be happier. Chief is absolutely amazing software.

+1 love it

Experiment with Ambient Light: Color settings in Ray Trace, Lighting panel, with "Use Camera View Settings" unchecked. The default Color setting is white, making it gray will affect the darkness of nighttime ray traces.

This worked for me! Thanks Michael.

8 minutes ago, solver said:

Sometimes a forum search ...

 

 

Haha, funny thing is I did do a forum search and didn't come up with that hit. I also tried writing a macro before posting the thread but was unsuccessful.

Anyway, that worked, thanks Eric!

Just now, DRAWZILLA said:

you could just use the room finish schedule to get a square footage if you want

Thanks. I know, but I only have three types of flooring in the entire house; hardwood, tile, and carpet. They can be different colors or styles, that's up to the homeowner, but the type won't change. I also like the graphical look of the floor plan with just shapes of areas that share flooring types. The schedule is tedious and doesn't give totals for like rooms, you would have to add all the hardwood floors together for example.

Hi, I want to convert the rooms into polylines and show total area in rounded sq ft. I have combined the living/dining/kitchen/hall which all receive hardwood. When I assign the Object Specific "Area" macro to the label it gives me area in decimal feet with 6 or 7 decimal places. I would like to round this to ZERO but haven't had luck. I can't use the "Room Area" macro because they're no longer rooms, the macro is not recognized. Any ideas? Thanks. See attached.

@solver

Thanks again Eric.

Thanks to your kind help I can now show my client what they want, and not have to make excuses why I can't.

Just now, solver said:

 

In my example, I used a window with the sash dimensions set to 0", but a pass through might work just as well.

 

The sash is independent from the window.

Great, thanks a million. Working with it now, practicing holding my mouth just right...

2 minutes ago, solver said:

Yes. It's actually 1/1000 thick or something like that, but chief shows it as 0".

 

It's my default Room Divider, and seems to work better than the Chief supplied one.

 

Not sure if makes a difference in what you are doing.

Great idea, I'm going to steal that one too. Not a fan of stock room divider.

On 11/9/2017 at 2:30 PM, solver said:

No bad to do manually if you don't have many windows.

 

 

Eric, so the window you posted here, the tilted sash is placed into a frame. I guess I need to figure out how to do that too. 

Did you place the tilted sash into a frame, then make that assembly a symbol? Or did you just place the sash into a pass-through window?

13 minutes ago, solver said:

Try changing the wall type to Room Divider.

 

Here is a plan with a window showing just the sash.

 

sash.plan

Eric, looking through your plan, it looks like you placed the window in a user-defined wall, My Room Divider, with Insulation Air Space, 0" thickness. 

7 minutes ago, solver said:

Try changing the wall type to Room Divider.

 

Here is a plan with a window showing just the sash.

 

sash.plan

Thank you, yes your plan is just a sash. I'll continue with your instructions. (Room Divider didn't work for me either, wouldn't let me place a window, even after creating a room with them so they expand to 3-1/2")

THANK YOU AGAIN!!

20 hours ago, solver said:

It's really simple to do and learning to make symbols is a good skill to have. Lots that you can do with them.

 

This shows a symbol of the completed house, sitting on a blueprint of the house, in front of the house under construction. Yes, you can make a symbol of an entire structure.

 

 

Draw an exterior wall and place a fixed glass window in it.

 

Select the window and go through unchecking everything except the sash. No Frame, no Sill, no Casing etc.

 

Set the wall to Invisible. In a camera view all you should see is the sash. 

 

Tools>Symbol>Convert to Symbol. Choose Fixture, or Millwork. Check Add to Library and Show Advanced Options.

 

 

When Advanced Options opens, give the symbol a name and click OK.

 

Go back to plan, select the symbol and place it somewhere. Back to camera view to see it.

 

Select it and resize it. You will need to set sizing options so it resizes correctly -- read in reference guide/help etc.

 

 

For an Awning or Hopper window, the symbol needs to be tilted.

 

Play with this setting to get the correct angle.

 

 

And you need to Open Symbol, not Open Object to access this dialog.

 

Post back with questions.

Thank you so much! Unfortunately I can't get past the first step!  Whenever I make the wall invisible, the window disappears. I thought it was something I unchecked in the window DBX so I tried placing a standard window but it disappeared with the wall too (see attached). What am I doing wrong?

(Also, when I uncheck everything in the window DBX, I do not see the sash in 3D. I only see a hole in the wall)

Thanks again, sorry for the trouble! BTW, the house on a house pic is cool!

53 minutes ago, solver said:

I used a fixed glass window with everything turned off except the sash to make a symbol.

 

Then used a window with the sash turned off (maybe a pass through would be easier) for the window.

 

Manually placed the sash symbol in the opening.

 

Should work the same for the awning window, except the symbol would need to be tilted.

Thank you. Not sure I can do that but I appreciate the effort to help me.

3 hours ago, solver said:

No bad to do manually if you don't have many windows.

 

 

Sweet! Is that a Chief window or something you created? Would love to know how you did that...