katalyst777

Here's one example of a render I did in my Pro 2017 for another post. The "Mirror" material is applied to the Floor surface of the room, and then I used a rug extended over the entire room with the wood material applied and set it to be partially transparent in order to create the shiny floor surface effect. The mirror and other transparent material trick works well for creating reflections with most flat surfaces, like countertops. Doesn't work on curved things, and reflections can't show other reflections. It's a neat workaround, but if I had to be doing this often would definitely be worth the upgrade to Premier and additional capabilities of ray tracing. Luckily for me, floor plans and more bare bones renders are my bread and butter, but this was fun to tinker with. Another example! Pond in the Gazebo sample plan with a reflection. Might be a little too reflective, but for outside views, you can set your door and window glass to "Mirror" as well. Just make sure to change it back for interior views. (I like using the "Gunmetal" glass for the pool instead of any of the water materials.) Since I just tested this in a trial version of Architectural to make sure it works there, another tip to keep in mind for creating shiny floors is that for versions that have the "Slab" or "Custom Countertop" tools, it is easier to use them and place breaks to create the same shape as the room, instead of multiple resized Rug symbols from the Library Browser.

Use Room Dividers (might be called Invisible Walls in 2015, not sure) to create a small garage room where you want the stairs. Then remove the checkmark next to Ceiling Over this Room in its Specification dialog, and put in your stairs. You might want to use the 3D camera view to raise it up through the ceiling by holding down the Control key on your keyboard. I couldn't find any in the Library, but these import okay. https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model.html?id=866da18e-f8ed-43e9-b16c-93cde97f60f5 https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model.html?id=6849cfa809fdcefec5c648b106f544a6 There's one other folding Attic Stair in the 3D Warehouse that I found, but it's got 138,440 polygons and took forever to try to import, so I gave up on it. KB-00888: Importing 3D Symbols

Tried to adjust a few materials and add some accessories to better match your original example, and found a better hair dryer model at http://archive3d.net/?a=download&id=b4c9fe23 I think you'll agree that based on this, Home Designer is more than capable of creating much better renderings than your $10 software example.

I suspect that Marcy did the same as I did to set the countertop material as "Shiny," or maybe when she was choosing replacement materials for the missing ones she chose one that was already set as "Shiny." Not sure on the bedroom light without seeing the latest copy of the plan it came from, but how many other "lights" are "on" in the Adjust Lights dialog (most video cards won't display more than 8 lights as on at a time)? Are the two lamps identical with their materials and light settings (might just want to delete the one and copy/paste the other one to make sure they are the same).

Most of the rendering complaints I see in the forum are video card issues, not with the general quality? You can create shiny floors in Home Designer too. Make the floor material in the room "Mirror" Use a rug/soffit/closed box shape resized to cover the entire floor. Apply the floor material (plank/tile/whatever) to the rug, then edit that material to be slightly transparent. (35% is what I used for the attached example just from one of the samples included in the program, I'd want to tweak the lighting and other materials more if this was a real project.) Do a Final View with Shadows. For what it's worth, here is also one attempt to recreate your hair salon image in Home Designer Pro 2017. I didn't have any salon type chairs, so those I did have to import from Trimble's 3D Warehouse. Everything else is from the library. I would need to tweak the lighting to get the trey to show up brighter, and I could probably find a better material for the folding screens, but I think it's decent for a first try.

You haven't "been able to troubleshoot" it, or do you mean that you haven't been able to fix it? Regardless of whether it makes sense to you personally that you should go through the article, have you at least tried it? It's resolved countless other posts with people describing the exact same thing as what you are with black views and material displays. Does your video card meet the system requirements? What is it? Did you update its driver? Did you go through and make changes in Render Preferences? If you've done all that and it's still happening, then follow the instructions on sending the plan and system files into the company's Support team. They're better able to help with this kind of question than us other users here in the forum where we help more with how to use the programs than problems with them.

I can't find any roof planes in the plan you attached, but it sounds like you just created it too high. Double check all the videos and articles on manual roofs and make sure you understand the roof baseline stuff and editing manual roof planes. If you already have a version of the plan where it's drawn wrong, select the roof plane and use Transform/Replicate to move it down by putting in -2'8" for the Z axis.

I don't think you can with those two versions, see KB-00516: Sharing a Plan File With a Home Designer User Chief Architect X8 <=> Home Designer 2017 Chief Architect X7 <=> Home Designer 2016 Chief Architect X6 <=> Home Designer 2015 Chief Architect X5 <=> Home Designer 2014 Chief Architect X4 <=> Home Designer 2012 Chief Architect X3 <=> Home Designer 10 Chief Architect X2 <=> Home Designer 9 Chief Architect X1 <=> Home Designer 8

I just discovered the 3D Text tool in the free version of SketchUp Make. There are a lot of YouTube videos and tutorials out there, but the short of it is that this is going to make creating building signage so much easier, and better looking, than what I had been doing in Home Designer with creating custom Stretch to Fit materials.

Your image doesn't show the floor plan and what terrain elevation lines you've already placed, but my guess is something there isn't set correctly. Check out these Knowledge Base articles. KB-00990: Creating a Retaining Wall KB-00854: Stepping Terrain for a Terraced Flower Bed

Check out this earlier thread for European information on using the software. https://hometalk.chiefarchitect.com/index.php?/topic/2446-uk-construction-with-chief-architect-or-home-designer-pro/ I got by with modeling existing real estate floor plans, rooms, and mostly the outside of homes with workarounds in Architectural for many years before I reached the point of needing to upgrade to Pro for modeling some more complex roofs. If this is just a hobby for you though, you may never need to get a more advanced version.

Never heard of picture frame molding but looking at the image, it just looks like Wainscoting to me. There's some symbols in the Library for that under Millwork. They won't follow a stair but in the rest of the room they'll look okay. KB-01011: Applying Wainscoting to a Wall The Premier version has molding tools that would let you model it pretty quickly for following a stair if you really need it in your designs, but they aren't available in any Home Designer as far as I know.

That wall shouldn't be in the middle of the existing room, it should be on the floor above. Then, as solver says, use the "Roof Cuts Wall at Bottom" setting in the Wall Specification dialog on the Roof panel.

You'll probably need to edit the wall polyline. This article says it only applies to Premier, but it explains how it works fairly well in Pro as well. https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00370/adding-drywall-to-part-of-an-exterior-wall.html

Looks like you need to raise up the roof planes. Did you accidentally draw them on Floor 1 instead of Floor 2? Just from looking at the picture, you probably don't even need to create them manually, you should be able to just build that roof automatically.

Yep, the mouse cursor icon is telling you that there is a broken wall connection that needs to be fixed, the circle is showing you where the problem is. Generally just pulling a wall back from the problem connection, then reconnecting takes care of it.

What type of fireplace? This site has some info that might help you out. http://www.bobvila.com/articles/how-to-build-a-fireplace/

I used the Architectural version for many years before some of the houses I needed to model really required the more complex roof tools. If you run in to any roadblocks along the way, post here and we'll try to help!

Great!

KB-00071: Changing the Color or Material of a Single Wall

Place a Doorway in a wall Place the Nanawall symbol inside or outside of the room in the general area wherever there is space for it Resize the Doorway so that the Nanawall object will fit inside of it Select the Nanawall symbol and use Center Object to center it within the wall and doorway

You can create pretty much any shape using the Change Line/Arc and Break Line edit buttons. This article has a good explanation. It uses road markings but pretty much the same steps apply to any closed polyline based objects in this software. https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/support/article/KB-00864/creating-road-markings.html

Yep, it's probably just you. I started with Deluxe version 7 eons ago and while I have skipped some versions along the way, whenever I've upgraded I've always seen improvement in the rendering. Check out this earlier thread for some suggestions on improving your 3D renders. Best 3D Camera View Renderings - https://hometalk.chiefarchitect.com/index.php?/topic/2468-best-3d-camera-view-renderings/

If you are experiencing crashes, they may not even have the same cause as what AniaBogustawa encountered. I would suggest going through this Knowledge Base article first. KB-03049: Troubleshooting Chief Architect Software Crashing on Windows

https://hometalk.chiefarchitect.com/index.php?/topic/1868-disable-mouldings-on-individual-walls-in-a-room/