mthd97

You may have heard the saying “that a bad tradesman always blames his tools”. First we must learn how to use our tools correctly. I’m am very sure if you went over to the “R” word you will probably use the “F” more often. Probably just a simple user error. That has never happened to me in 25 years of using CA.

8 hours ago, Doug_N said:

Concrete stairs are neither radical nor new.  They are common and used, perhaps on more than half of all projects in one place or another.  CA made a great step in making a railing wall that would follow stairs allowing for great flexibility in railing styles.  Unfortunately some common stairs can't be done at all using the stair tool.  

 

One example is stairs like this 

Yes I agree and it would certainly be very nice to see these common stair types made available in CA. Perhaps someone could create a visual list in the suggestions forum of the common stair types needed ?

I got a space mouse last year with a CAD mouse wireless compact. They are great to use and work differently in each type of CAD application.
 

I am interested as to how you find it to work with CA ? I seem to prefer mouse navigation in the 3D window, probably because that’s what I am used to in CA. I am always ready to learn new tricks in CA with a space mouse.

I think it would be great to have more customisation for common stair types but you have to draw the line somewhere. 

With a highly radical stair design, you are probably better off creating it by some other means ? Let’s face it, you can’t create every stair type out there with the main function in the program.

That’s cool ! We all look forward to seeing the improvements in X16. 

Read that post above and you can get a tiny glimpse of what is coming in X16 from the VP.

I have been doing them the old way since V6.

DJP did a video a while ago that shows what we basically do. It’s not quite perfect and there are other ways of getting around it. But here is his excellent video on that old method.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EHcBxh6wW0

If anybody has a more accurate method then please post.

3 hours ago, KnotSquare said:

@mthd97

 

Checking out the video link now. What did you mean by. "See if it is possible ti give it a negative value in order for it to deduct from the siding ?" realizing the question marks were likely referencing a concept, not a tried and true method. Negative space or thickness?

Hi Mark. I didn’t mean that the WMR would cut your siding out. I meant that if it had a negative value in the ML, so that it would deduct from the total area of your siding.
 

My other suggestion was to have no siding at all, on that particular Gable as others have suggested above. Then use a WMR to draw the siding that you need in manually and look for it in the ML calculations. 
 

Anyway you have figured it out by the looks ?
 

Yes it would be good if we had a method of cutting out materials to stop them from making the ML inaccurate.
 

One of the Chief Masters here might have a trick or two up their sleeves, to get that roof that meets that gable to cut out that siding triangle that you do not need ?

Hi, Have you tried using a “Wall Material Region” and see how that reflects in the ML ? See if it is possible ti give it a negative value in order for it to deduct from the siding ?

If that doesn’t work then you could leave that gable with no siding and use the WMR to create siding for that gable.

Please see this video on FMR & WMR. I am sure you will figure it out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vxvwbt_R7_g

Hi Rickster, I asked in a question thread about a year ago and got a reply directly from Chief Architect staff saying to use that particular method.

Please see this article for details on why.

https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00279/opening-legacy-files.html

No problems !

5 hours ago, Rickster said:

 

Hey mth97,

 

Couldn't you just plot a PDF of the layouts for filing those projects and leave the CAD files where they are until you really need them? 

I have setup a New Layout file for the newer Chief X6. I then copy the .PL* plans to an X6 file folder THEN import them.  The existence of an X6 folder in the project folder indicates their maybe something for this project elsewhere. I copy them as Chief has a nasty habit of cutting those PL* files and place them elsewhere. Then all you have to is resend those prints to your newer layout. once you've place them into their new file folders. 

Hi, If you are ok with just 2D plan files as either PDF or DWG, sure you can do something like that.

I have recently taken a very complex split level home including the terrain from V9.5 and saved it in X8 along with the old layout file and they both look fine. I can also open the plan in X10 to work on it and it all looks right. The layouts I can only work in X8 for now but that’s cool, I am ok with working in X8 or doing new layouts in X10 after a re-modeling.

It even works fine in going from windows to Mac as I did above. 
 

Well done to CA for making it relatively straight forward.

As mentioned above I also recommend that you save all your past work to a suitable sized USB drive. You can definitely use much older files in newer versions of CA via CAX8 saving. See the information on the website for directions. Have fun archiving.

I recently bought a brand new gaming computer with XP pro installed on it for Archiving purposes. I got it from eBay. I have never seen XP work so fast.

I installed CAV9.5 & 10 on it but I had to install the HASP driver manually from the actual dongle. All works good now. I spent $800 AU or approximately $500 USD because I have heaps of plans stored in CAV10 and earlier.

To move my legacy plans and layouts to later versions of CA, I open them in X8 and save them, then work on them in that version or later if possible.

Not a simple exercise.

Hi, it looks like that railing defining the entry porch area with the pillars is showing underneath ?

1) You could try tweaking the railing settings in the DBX to see if you can hide the top frame.

3) You could also try thickening the roof over the entry porch area to cover the frame.

4) You could delete the railing and keep the roof and build the post and supports manually.

5) Or create a flat ceiling plane to place under the roof area to cover the showing frame. 
6) A combination of those methods mentioned above until it looks right.

7) Wait for a current Chief Master to provide you with a suggestion.

Have fun troubleshooting !
 

3 hours ago, Chopsaw said:

 

 Pretty sure those flat areas are for the overhanging soffit area so regular sloped ceiling planes should be all that is required.

You would certainly think so ? Will Chief X15 build a truss like that above automatically or would it need to be manually created first ?

Hi there, might be best to start a new thread question. Ceiling planes work in X14 and way back. Tray ceilings will also work in X14. Try a nested tray ceiling for the flat outer edge and maybe raked ceiling planes for the inner part. Search for videos on CA nested tray ceilings.

9 hours ago, cbdesign said:

McCudden_Existing.planUnavailable

 

Plan is attached! @mthd97 I tried the railing suggestion but had the same results, good thought though! Thank you!

McCudden_Existing.plan 9.25 MB · 5 downloads

I see you have X14, see my reply to Chrisb222 on other possible solutions. 
 

There are lots of ways to make this look correct in 3D as other CA users can show you. 
 

Have fun trying the different methods.

9 hours ago, Chrisb222 said:

 

Easiest method is railing wall set as post to beam, but getting the notched section seen in the original pic is tough to reproduce auto:

 

Hi, are you able turn off the beam display and have the posts go the full height?

Otherwise it might be better to just place 3D posts and make a polyline solid or a soffit for the flat ceiling plane. Then use slabs for the steps.

Hi, you can use a railing to define your front entry porch room and to display your posts. That might fix your ceiling as well.

21 hours ago, Chopsaw said:

 

Quite likely that is the issue if you overlooked that step.

 

Tools > Layout > Referenced Plan Files...

Yes all good now ! I saved the referenced plan files from off my USB to the file location on my PC. 
 

Thanks.

On 3/5/2019 at 8:38 AM, Evolution said:

I don't think so.  If I understand what you want to do? I usually open the layout then select the floor plan in layout which should open the link plan file.  Then with both open, Save the open plan with a new .plan name, copy the name, then save the layout as .layout with the new plan name. Example gardenhouse.layout open select floor plan, click on it, then gardenhouse.plan opens. Now save gardenhouse.plan as maybe? gardenhouse2.plan, save the layout as gardenhouse2.layout.

Is that what you are trying to achieve? More trouble than re-linking?

 

After searching for information, I found your reply and I might need to use your suggestion on how to link an old layout to a plan and save them. I asked the question on the 11th of Dec 2023.
 

Thanks. 

9 hours ago, BenPalmer said:

I deal with lots of 9.5 legacy files and haven't seen this issue, but I admit I typically create a new layout anyway (due to new codes, notes logos, etc), so I may not have experienced simply due to not fully testing the converted layout file.  I'd be happy to test it out on my end if you want to send it to me directly.

I will need to create a new layout set anyway but I was just hoping to find a way to quickly reference the layout in the newer version of CA.

Thanks.

10 hours ago, Chopsaw said:

Just a guess but did you verify the new layout file is properly linked to the new plan file ?

No I just saved it in the same location as the new plan file.

I will have a look and see how I can link them together.

Thanks.

Hi, I was following the instructions on the CA help website about opening older files Via CAX8 and saving them as X8 files. I was able to open a legacy V9.5 layout file but after saving it as an X8 layout file, it wouldn’t display the layout any longer. I still have my old layout file to view but it looks like I cannot edit it to save it in X8. I also have the old plan file that does save in X8 and can be worked on in X10. I just need to create a new layouts for it and take it from there by the looks ? Anybody else had a similar issue with much older legacy files ?