mslewis620

Homebuilder & infrequent CA user. Looking for an experienced user to help sketch front porch elevation with cast stone for existing home. I've attached a head of pic of the front elevation of the house, inspiration pic (although my door won't be arched) & a very rough sketch of what I've proposed. I've measured the front porch but not the rest of the house. I have a survey that I've roughed out a floor plan from but there are a lot moving parts on this house and it really doesn't matter. We've settled on replacing the front door with a taller steel unit & separating the window above. Want to keep the arch but it needs to shift slightly. Trying to give them a better elevation but beyond my expertise with cast stone. Also looking for help in adding auto/fixed screens to a covered porch including a walk door. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks, Martha 4300 Park Front Elevation head on.pdf 6' w x 11' h front doors.pdf

Thanks - helps a lot!

Looks great - so you just used cabinet panels, columns and added them to your elevation?

Good start - I will try that out and see how it looks. Thanks for the help!

Assuming I will need to use polyline solids to create the paneling. Just didn't know if there was a simpler solution. Not your typical exterior finish.

SOMETHING SIMILAR TO THIS BUT THE DOOR WOULD BE RECESSED AND THE AREA AROUND THE DOOR WOULD BE WOOD PANELING INSTEAD OF BRICK OR SIDING.

Would like some advice - working on a traditional two story colonial style spec home. The builder wants a paneled entry with pediment roof (no dentil) supported by two columns and recessed front door. Considering an round/arch top entry door with a corresponding arch in the face of the pediment. Market here is moving away from the sleek modern boxes to cozy traditional elevations but with a little less gingerbread. What's best way to accomplish this?

It's definitely not the crosshairs - maybe the image doesn't properly reflect the situation. I've adjusted the margins to no avail. It's showing up as a big purple box outline that prints about 2/3 of the screen. Now I have a bigger issue. Frequently go back and forth between work and home without issue until today. X8 won't open no matter what I do. Deactivated my license at work and X8 won't open at home. Lots of work to do so may have to go back to office tonight. Bummer.

On my drawing sheet a purple box keeps showing up that when I try to save a plan as a pdf it cuts off the page at the bottom of the purple box. I've looked at everything I can think of to get rid of it. I can't select it to delete it. Any suggestions?

1st I need immediate help with a roof. I'm bogged down in a plan and need to finish asap. This project started out as a spec house and it sold before starting construction. Buyers have changed a few things including the addition of an exercise room in the attic space and I have to get creative with the roof to make the stairs work and have enough head room. City has some serious restrictions that impact my roof options. 2nd I am transitioning from running my own design/build firm in California where in a year I might work on 3-4 plans to moving to Dallas to work for my family's custom homebuilding business where I'm designing more than one house a month - many are new construction but some are major remodels. I'm also supervising the construction of 5-6 projects at a time which further impacts my ability to devote hours to learning more about CA. I've used CA for at least 10 years but I need to almost go back to the beginning and learn some of the things I glossed over. I've just done the minimum to get a permit and then handled all the details on site with no issues. However I'm not building every house I'm designing so I need to provide a complete set of construction drawings. I'm a quick study - I would love to learn how to do things correctly as opposed to just having someone fix them for me.

OK I just realized I can rotate the view but the room labels are wonky even when I deselect rotate with plan. Any thoughts?

Client brought a set of CAD plans to me to modify. I prefer the front door of the house to be at the bottom of the page as most of my subs are used to that orientation. On this set, the front door is at the top of the page. Everyone has trouble reading the plans. I should have set it up my way from the beginning so now I have an almost complete floor plan that I would love to flip. I know this is different than just reversing the plan or is it?

Have clients who are fed up with their architect and wants to start construction on their house ASAP. There is an odd parking court that essentially you would have to be the best driver in the world to navigate and they have 3 children rapidly approaching the driving age so they realized this is a major mistake. Want to make some modifications to floor plan that will require touching just about everything in the plan set - site, roof, elevations, floor plans, etc. The modifications are not going to take long but the thought of redoing everything that was done in CAD is daunting. Any suggestions from the veterans on how best to approach this task? When I use the import feature everything shows up as tiny miniature layouts all over the page.

Actually you were right. I thought I had everything turned on but I didn't. Thanks for the input!

Chops - I tried that but nothing happened.

Just starting to use X8 and quickly sketching a possible option for a client and when I went to full camera I am only getting a view of the garage slab and a vista - nothing else. Not sure what to check to resolve the issue. Another odd problem is my room label text is almost invisible at 1/128" and shows up as custom text.

Existing house has a second story gable addition added to back of house - to create a master bath and closet they built under the existing roof to 7'3" ceiling. Adding a new master bedroom so part of the middle section of the house will have a 2-story elevation. I've done plans with 1 1/2 stories or rooms completely under the roof with dormers but never half in half out like this. Leaving the master bath alone which is centered under the main ridge of the house front to back and adding the bedroom off to the side but with gabled ceiling. Front part of house has 16/12 roof then switches to 10/12 for the back section. Anyone have suggestions on the best way to set up room defaults so the roof generates properly. Realize I will need to do some manual manipulations once it's generated. 3605 Potomac Downstairs bath rev.plan

Looking for advice on a complicated remodel. Normally I would set up my floor default then if needed adjust a room or two for ceiling and floor height changes. Adding a partial second story to the center section of a house with different ceiling and floor elevations in almost every single room. Some rooms have 8' ceilings, one steps down two steps then has an 11' ceiling another steps down 6" with 9.5' ceilings. There was an addition done at some point that further complicated matters with angles and more steps and ceiling heights. To make matters worse, when the living room 19'xwas framed the ceiling must have sagged so the ceiling framing was 2x6 then they put a 16" LVL on top and strapped everything to it with a 2x12 running perpendicular to the whole mess. And that room has the tallest ceiling in the area of the 2nd-story addition. Builder prefers to overbuild the entire thing so as not to disturb the electrical, HVAC, etc so it means in rooms with 8' ceilings the subfloor for the 2nd story will be as much as 45" in some areas. It's a large house (6,000SF after) so scale is important to the owner. the rest of the house has a 15/12 roof so the roof is almost overwhelming the house as a single story structure. Any of you pros have suggestions I'm willing to listen. Don't want to spend hours setting it up then have it blow up at the end.

Jim - maybe I've watched a different video but the one I saw online was for the entire house to be one and half story. Cape Cod I believe. For some reason when I try to do just the garage it's not working correctly.

So Jere - what I thinking you are saying is built a really short second story so the roof will sit at the 12' plate?

X6 current user - having trouble setting room defaults for garage only to allow a room under roof with a lowered ceiling. 1st- 10' clgs 2nd - 9' clgs - 6/12 roof Garage - 12' plate height max with 16/12 roof - common is this urban setting Trying to create master closet above part of garage - want to lower ceiling in garage to 10' to match rest of house. With 16/12 it's possible to quickly get a nice size closet out of the space. No matter what I do it pops back to something I don't want. I've manually manipulated a lot of the roof/ceiling so in cross section it appears to be ok but when I check the defaults it's giving me a 10' absolute elevation which is not what I want. I'm sure it's something obvious but I can't figure it out and don't want to spend the whole day on it. Plan is in the rough stage but I like to nail this part down now rather than later. Need square footage to show subs etc. 2732 Amherst Plan.plan

Used edit area tool and seems to have kept everything I need except one small wall where it joined. Thanks!

Here's the survey so you can see the angle. 10233 Inwood Road Corrected Survey copy 2.pdf

Far into my existing floor plan - just found out that one dimension on the survey is off nearly 4.5'. The family room end of the house was an addition that has odd angles. I finally called the surveyor after measuring the house 3 times. I need to manipulate about 25% of the first floor and change the angle as well to make it work out. Any recommendations on the easiest way to accomplish this or should I just delete that area and start over. Every room in this house is at a different elevation with varying ceiling heights so I hate to go backward.

Far into my existing floor plan - just found out that one dimension on the survey is off nearly 4.5'. The family room end of the house was an addition that has odd angles. I finally called the surveyor after measuring the house 3 times. I need to manipulate about 25% of the first floor and change the angle as well to make it work out. Any recommendations on the easiest way to accomplish this or should I just delete that area and start over. Every room in this house is at a different elevation with varying ceiling heights so I hate to go backward.