glennw

If the button is greyed out, it probably means that you are in a vector view and not a render view. With the view open, go ...3D...Rendering Techniques...Standard. You should then be able to toggle on the textures on. Or use the standard camera in the first place and not the vector camera. Ah, Michael posted as I was posting. Michael, You not only have to be in a 3D view, you have to be in a Standard 3D view. You can toggle textures in a standard view and patterns in a vector view.

Jerry, Are these material textures, or picture type images? If they are material textures, you can ...3D...Materials...Plan Materials...Purge. If they are picture type images that have been imported into the plan, you can open their dbx and uncheck Save In Plan

Bob, I believe that when Joe mentioned "column", he was talking about the schedule column, not the real world object.

Guys, There may be some useful 3D people in this plan. I think they look better in a render than images - images are too realistic for a render and look out of place. I would go for images in a ray trace every time. You will probably have to play around with the materials on some of the people. Glenns 3D people.zip

Greg, Yusuf was on the right track. You can find the setting at Preferences...Render...General Options...Zoom Using Field of view. You probably have this setting checked. Uncheck it. When you use this setting and zoom in using the scroll wheel, the camera's field of view decreases to give the effect of zooming in. The camera doesn't actually move in though - it just appears that way. The camera actually stays in the same place and it's the field of view that changes. With this setting checked, when you zoom in far enough, the field of view is down as far as it can go (10 deg), so the zooming stops. Tile a plan and 3D view and see what happens to the camera and it's field of view as you zoom in. This setting has been removed from X8. http://screencast.com/t/XaFAA5l7

Sal, You will need to turn off the rail that comes with the ramp and use a railing wall with "Follow Stairs" checked. You then have access to the bottom rail setting.

Johnny, Without looking at your plan... My quick answer is to use Linear for Terrain Surface Smoothing. I will look at your plan now... or give me a Skype call if you want to talk.

This also works for cad objects. Just make sure you are in a cad tool (line, Circle, etc). You can then do a Shift select and only get cad items.

I agree with Michael. You need to do a bit of homework yourself and/or get some training, Most users on here won't feel like helping unless they can see that you have made an effort to help yourself first. This shouldn't be the first port of call for you to learn the basics.

Tools...Screen Capture...Capture Screen.

You can add the number of bolts on a per wall basis through the wall's Components dbx. Not auto - but can be done manually. The total number of bolts will be reflected in the ML. If you use the same spelling in all walls, say BOLTS, the ML will total all the bolts in the project. Or, you can use a different name for the bolts in each wall (perhaps "BOLTS 1"), and the bolts will be listed separately for each wall.

Alan, The way I told you is to force exact ortho. With that setting set to Orthogonal the object will only move perpendicular to itself. Just ignore the fact that the cursor can slide horizontally - it makes no difference to the movement of the object, the line will still only move perpendicular to itself and it will not slide sideways. Chief will not think that you want something other than 90 deg! If you select Polar and drag the line, it will stay parallel to itself, BUT, you can also drag sideways to displace the line that way as well as perpendicular. Have a play with both settings and note the difference. I will do a vid. http://screencast.com/t/ADn7qnRXPd

Good one Sam. A bit of futzing around, but it does work.

Perry, There is a setting that may help in some situations, although it turns off everything not in the scene, not just the lights and is only good for the Floor Camera. It's 3D... 3D View Defaults...Restrict Floor camera To Room.

I don't think the material makes any difference. You can change it's category after generating a ML by clicking the drop down box in the ID column and selecting another category. I don't know a way to change the category before generating the ML.

Alan, I think I know what you mean. When you try and drag a line, you can move it perpendicular to the original, BUT it can also slide along it's length at other than perpendicular to the line. I assume that the line is not changing it's angle. This behavior is controlled by Preferences...Edit,,,Behaviors...Primary Movement Method. I bet yours is set to Polar - this will allow you to drag along angle snaps. Change it to Orthogonal. You will now only be allowed to drag the line in a perpendicular direction, it will not be able to slide along the Allowed Angles.

You could try Wall Specification...Structure...Wall Intersections... or maybe Build Framing...Wall...Miter Ends of Angled Walls...Horizontal Frame Through.

You start by reading the manual.

OK, so you want to use the full height doors and have a false panel behind them from the stair side. You could use a double wall and specify the doors as "Not Through" in the Double Wall Options section.

You can also place an icon (Current Cad Layer) on your toolbar and/or use a shortcut (I use CC).

Draw the tower as an internal room. Give the room a very high ceiling. Draw a polyline around the room and convert it to a Hole In Roof. Roof the tower. I would have let Chief auto build all the roofs and then there is no roof work to do manually. Chief will even build the cricket that you will need on he upslope side of the tower. Your toilet floor is at 0" whilst the rest of your floors are at 4". The doors show through to the stairs because they are too high (higher than the stairs). Why is the ceiling height over the stairs different from the rest of floor 2?

Terry, Open the door's dbx. General panel...Interior doors...check "Separate Trim and Materials on Each Side"

Preferences...General...New Plans...Imperial Units.

No, you can't rotate the crosshairs. But you can get the same functionality by using Additional Angles and then turning on Display Angle Snap grid. This will add the Additional Angle to the 7.5 degree increments. You can then also see the angle you are dragging in the status bar as a check. The only drawback is that you have to have the 7.5deg increments as well as your additional angle, which gets a bit confusing as to what the angle is, but a quick check on the status bar will confirm the angle and it is easy to dynamically drag the line around to the correct angle.

I don't think you can snap a line to the centre of a wall thickness. . You could draw your line snapping to one of the wall layers and then use the Centre Object tool and select the wall to centre on.