Ray trace not working!

[Shogyn]

I'm new to the program(1 week) and wanted to see how the ray tracing worked. So far it has crashed every time that I've tried. I get the same error message each time..Chief Architect has stopped working, windows will look for a solution,blah,blah. Can anyone explain all the correct settings I should have in my preferences(I've tried multiple configurations). Or are there certain settings that I should have checked or unchecked in my nvidia control panel?

I thought I would export it so I can try a stand alone renderer but I cannot export my plan in any format but picture. Nothing else (dwg,dxf,3ds) works.

Do I have to be in a certain view to render it? I've tried perspective,floor camera,etc. Nothing but crashes.

Any and all help greatly appreciated!!!

My specs...

CA Premium X5
Intel Core 2Quad CPU Q6600 2.4GHz
4GB Ram 64bit
Nvidia GT220 1GB

[ivancyr]

Hi Shogyn,

I looked at the benchmark test of your video card....looks a tad weak for CA...but I am admittedly no expert. I would suggest asking the tech folks at HQ for specifics. I'm running a GT 630M 1Gb and it is a lower rated card...but it is almost 4x better than yours is showing on the test.

Regarding 3ds export, you must be in a 3D view in order to export. Only layers that you might see are exported...ie overview of 1st floor will only export those surfaces. If you have the electrical layer turned off for example, you won't have any bedside lamps in your exported file if the lamps were left in their regular default layer option.

Hope this helps.

[gawdzira]

How many lights do you have in your scene? Interior or exterior? Even if it is an exterior you may need to delete or shut off lights. Max about 7 lights or it is going to crash.

[McQueen3D]

That computer should still be able to run Chief OK albeit a little slower. It shouldn't crash like that.
I'd send the error and debug info to tech support before buying any new hardware.

[Shogyn]

Thanks for the quick replies everyone. Much appreciated!

As for lighting I am only using sunlight, it's just a couple of rooms, no furniture,no lighting. I even unchecked default sun,didn't help.
No matter what boxes I check or uncheck in preferences, there's no working configuration.

As for the exporting, no matter what format I choose(besides picture) it does absolutely nothing when I click 'export'. No error messages,no crash, just seems impossible to do. Hence my inability to render anything at all. I try and see what tech has to say. Thanks again!

[gawdzira]

Post your plan and someone will give a try at rendering.That could show if it is your machine or a corrupt file.

[lbuttery]

you should probably contact tech support

using the Raytraces is not suppose to be that difficult

getting "good" or "great" results may take time/effort
but getting "something" should work OOB

Lew

[Shogyn]

Not sure if I'm doing this right or not. When I save my plan on the desktop it creates a plan and a jpg file. I had to open an account on Cloud in order to attach, and it said the plan file was not valid. So as far as I know it only attached the jpg.

[lbuttery]

the .jpg is just a thumbnail
that feature can be turned off in preferences

they are generally only used if you intend to have a database of plans
and need a visual reminder to each plan

just about everyone turns that feature off

to post a plan it must be zipped first
you also need to close the plan in chief before zipping

post the plan here
but also contact tech support to discuss your issues

Lew

[Shogyn]

Zipped the .plan file and attached. This is just the latest plan I've tried to render, nothing previous has worked either. Thanks if anyone can render this for me so at least I can see what's possible when it's working correctly. If it's corrupt the there must be something wrong with my X5. I've uninstalled and already reinstalled the program though, with no difference.

Thanks again.

[Architex]

The video card should be fine. That is what I am using and have never had a crash.

[Athenian_CAD]

Video card's not really used for ray tracing. It depends on the CPU.

It does launch a separate process for the ray tracing though, maybe security software on your system is blocking Chief from being able to do that?

[Shogyn]

I checked in the windows log at all the times X5 stopped working for me. Of course they're all the same, every time I click the ray trace button. Below is what is listed each time. Anyone able to tell what this means? Will send to techs.


Problem signature
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: Chief Architect Premier X5.exe
Application Version: 15.1.0.25
Application Timestamp: 504d3ac2
Fault Module Name: StackHash_6d54
Fault Module Version: 6.0.6002.18541
Fault Module Timestamp: 4ec3e855
Exception Code: c0000374
Exception Offset: 00000000000acb17
OS Version: 6.0.6002.2.2.0.256.1
Locale ID: 4105
Additional Information 1: 6d54
Additional Information 2: aa7ce7dadf4130c5f5d715fddc87f3db
Additional Information 3: eee0
Additional Information 4: d8ca6e7bb84abd6284caafd307b971d9

[Athenian_CAD]

You should probably start out by updating, it looks like you're using an old Build.