country

To make it even more complex, most of these roofs are trusses with SIPs as the top member. I will give it more thought once I have a basic layout done for the floor levels and decide on the overall appearance. I know how to do sections with the thick foam and just add lines/polys for the sheathing layers and splines, having done that in Vectorworks. Slow and tedious even with copy and paste. Lots of CD's but definitely not any power here........

I thought I saw something like that in Sketchup but it was a while ago.

I'm sorry Perry but I do not understand. I get adjusting the framing thickness but the "50ft." and turning off auto framing??? I usually have quite a few full sections and they will look odd if I just leave them with thick undefined spaces. I will use details but that doesn't help with sections unless I misunderstand something (quite possible though....)

Timely subject. I am just starting a SIP panel project and would have had problems with the roof. It would be much better having roof systems similar to walls so they would work for material lists but I will let the SIP guys worry about their panels for now. My cross-sections are definitely going to take more time though.

Something I had drilled into me in a construction marketing class...... Exteriors should be similar to good interiors, nice decor but nothing too distracting. You are marketing to a wide range of tastes and very bright colours are limiting. The house/building should shine not the plants. I am very interested to hear the help you receive on the ray trace settings.

Thank you. I will have a look at them this weekend.

This is for commercial to residential party walls. I need a certified system that meets the fire and sound code requirements. The easiest system that achieves that uses channels. In residential I would use isoboard with sound batt insulation.

Thanks Curt. That is what I have done. Nothing for a material list though using this method. All of my fire/sound walls use these.

Is there something I can use in a wall structure for resilient sound channels or should I just show an air space and call it up? Library searches are brutal

I was really interested in the Dalton because of the Con Doc instructions and thought I could download the PDF and follow along with the process. Guess I can do it myself with my layout template but not quite the same. I am doing pretty well with the Plan drawings (other than all the working from top down and then the different foundation level) but need to translate these into good working drawings. Slowly but surely they are all coming together.

Thanks Mick. I was interested in checking the links back to the plan to see the type of Anno Sets they used for the views.

As Mick said "another Nugget". Thank you Kirk.

I was just having a look at the new "Dalton Remodel" that has been posted. When I looked at the back deck I realized the closed roof area is floating above the decking and has no supports. I was also hoping for a full plan with a layout to see exactly what was turned off and on and how they set up the different views but not to be. I haven't watched the videos yet but would think that someone would have checked the drawing before it was posted as an example. My contractors would not be very happy with something like this. I will keep looking for better samples. Maybe the other new posts are correct but I don't think they have sample layouts attached.

I think DJP complicated it a bit by saying to move them manually. The OP needs to read all the replies not just the first one. Scott stupid??? I don't think so.

I'm sure X8 is already well along in development. They would never have it ready otherwise. X9 may still be in the planning stage.

Rashid. Thanks for the tip to turn on the main layers only for dimensioning. It has made this task so much easier. Much clearer for some construction documents too. Another new Layer Set....

The nice thing about Vectorworks elevations is that they are to scale......

I cannot watch the video on my iPad because it requires Adobe Flash Player. Has anyone found a decent app that will do this?

Thanks everyone for the help. The living area p-line works great with a little editing. The difference in lower and upper floor area was basically the stairwell. It is only calculated in on the lower level but reshaping the p- line on the main level to include the open above space gives the proper area. Joe also explained how to make one of the shower walls "no definition" so the room dimensions are now correct. It sure takes a village to draw a home plan at this stage of my learning curve.

Once I've got something off I'll give those a try Joe and Perry. The living area p-line sounds good and I am using X7. FYI. I did a polygon in VW and the Main Floor area is 2501.7 Sq. Ft. based on the main layer of the exterior walls. Chief tells me the main floor living area is 2413 and the lower level (exact same perimeter dimensions) is 2906. Does not make any sense to me but I have read that they don't make sense to anyone so that is definitely getting turned off in preferences or defaults (whichever).

Joe. Exterior room goes around all my covered decks and entry too. Back to my nice polygon in Vectorworks. It'll only take a minute.

Joe. I tried using the exterior room but I have a large attached garage. I will try detaching those walls and maybe that will work for this. The wall beside the toilet seems to be the problem with the Ensuite size as I disconnected the shower wall so it is now part of the room. I'll just type something in for now and check the rest of the rooms for the same issue. Graham. I checked this out but it is too much for a morning problem. I have bookmarked it for review when I am not quite so rushed. Thank you both for the fast response. Now back to the drawing board:-(

I am trying to get a design out for a bank appraisal. They would like the room sizes on the labels but it is impossible to get them correct??? An Ensuite that is 14'-8" x 9'-0" is shown as 5'-7" deep because it has a shower and wall beside the toilet. Do I have to all of these type of situations manually? I know there are some macros that may possibly work but I sure don't have time to find and learn them in time to get this drawing out by the afternoon. If it the manual route, please let me know and I will do it. To get a correct area for each floor I am going to draw a polygon of the exterior walls in Vectorworks. Why oh why can we not draw a polygon around the main exterior walls and have it show the perimeter and area? If we can, please correct me, call me whatever name you want and I will get this out the door. PS. Sorry for the rant but problems on Saturday morning bring out the worst in me;-( I'd rather be riding or fishing but here I sit........

If it updated every time you made a change, I'm sure it would slow everything down. I think just doing an update when you are actually working in the layout might be easier on the system. I know in Vectorworks it takes a bit of time and resources to update all the viewports so I just do it when necessary.

I really don't care about auto save or even auto update, I would just like an indication that an update is needed.