javatom

Save your wall definitions and import them into the plan you are working on. You can then change any of the new plans walls into one of your wall types.

Create a fireplace wall with brick as the outside layer. Go to an elevation view, create a material region on the wall and set it to "cut finish layer of parent object".

Rooms are defined by normal walls. If you are using an attic wall you could open the walls DBX and check the box for telling it to "define room".

Align the walls of both floors and define the room as "open below".

Make sure you have checked "automatically regenerate deck framing".

You can group select items and use the transform/replicate tool to move it in the Z axis to the correct position for the new floor.

It sounds like you have a need for really big files. When you start created the real plans (for construction), maybe you could use a version without all the extra marketing stuff and it will work faster with that version.

Turning the layers off will help with rebuilding the 3d. If all that extraneous BS is important to you, I guess you will have to live with the speed it is going. I personally, would delete it all. I'm starting to realize that you must be a homeowner not a professional designer. You can get help here either way. I can always tell an amateur created plan because it has all of these items. Some professions use some of them but not all. For instance, an interior designer may have a need for one room to have furniture and objects but they would not care about trees. A landscape designer would have the trees but not the furniture. Hopefully you get the idea.

If I understand your foundation question correctly, you control the stem wall height with item C in the DBX

I use plot lines for elevations, never live view. If you have a 3d image you can use live view if you check "update on demand". PDF files imported into a layout are usually a problem. I even try to not use jpeg images. Two plan files feeding into one layout is alright. Another thing that will slow everything down is a 3d live image that is water color and line style overlay. It takes a while to rebuild the image. Another thing to check is extraneous items that have nothing to do with plans. Toasters, wall art, even furniture. Delete it all unless you really need it. Check the face count of items you have placed in the plan. Just as an example, one washing machine may have 300 face count and another one may have 2000. All these things add up.

I use -21". It satisfies the 6" foundation exposure requirement and makes for easy math on the risers (3 at 7").

Well, I guess that's your problem. Try to get rid of unnecessary items.

The layer set that those views are using has the layer "casing, exterior" turned off. If you turn it back on, it will be there.

I see that on my end also. It is interesting that a fresh camera shot does not have the problem, only your saved views.

If you move the wall on the left side of the stair over 3" (on both levels), the roof will be there.

I get varied results with dbx changes that should not be changing the roof planes. (raise off plate for instance).

Maybe I'm missing something. Would you just end up with every plan file having the same name for every client?

Man that is funny.

If you want to use Eric's idea, you find the controls under the "open symbol" icon. You would then rotate around the X axis with a negative number.

I may not be understanding the plan view sets correctly. But I can see one advantage to anno sets as king. If you have a layer called "extra items" (self explanatory), and you want to remove those items from view, you simply turn off that layer in the layer set that feeds every instance of a plan view (floors one, two and three). With plan view sets, you would have to alter three different things to accomplish the same task.

If you need total control over the rails, stiles, and slats, you can use a thin roof plane with roof openings placed where desired.

IMO this is the only way to use the program. The sets that CA ships with are less than useless.

You may need to set all your rooms to have no ceiling and then manually add ceiling planes for the variations.

You can always use a Psolid instead of a soffit.

Interior design, truss manufacturing, sips suppliers, log home suppliers, MEP for commercial, structural engineers and surveys, concept plans for developers and probably a lot more than this short list.