Richard_Morrison

So, apparently they do it by guessing based on information provided by someone who doesn't know what they are doing. These drawings might be okay for starting a discussion with a client, but it would scare the heck out of me to design anything for a permit based on these non-educated guesses. The drawings have a very deceptive appearance of precision. Personally, I would look at Magicplan.app, used with an iPad Pro (with LiDAR). You can scan a single room in under a minute with all door/window openings shown reasonably accurately. It draws everything in 3D and draws all this automatically for you with dimensions, from which you can then export a DXF file to import into Chief. If you want even more accuracy (which isn't that bad with LiDAR), you can use this in conjunction with a Bluetooth laser measuring device. AND take integrated photos with notes.

The only problem with this system is that if you have to rotate and move the house, it's more difficult since you're going to be rotating and dragging the entire site around, rather than the house. Sure, you can block it, but I still think it's a little counter-intuitive. Plan Footprint let's you just drag and rotate a single polyline around.

Personally, I would keep the 2D site plan in a CAD Detail, and use the Plan Footprint to rotate the building in the 2D Detail so you don't waste the work you've done. If you need 3D of the entire house with a 3D site, then a separate 3D file could work using a 3D symbol of the house.

Magicplan.app You can use it with Bluetooth laser or iPad Pro with LiDAR. It works with normal iPhone or iPad, but not nearly as accurate.

We've always had layer sets. (I believe.) Then Annotation (now called Default) Sets were introduced, which was a game changer. You could set all of the defaults for layers PLUS annotation types (dimensions, text, callouts, etc.) for a specific plan type -- all at one drop-down. Think of Plan Views simply as Annotation Sets on steroids. You get the layers AND annotations you had before, PLUS a saved floor and zoomed view, PLUS associated reference layers -- all through one drop down menu. AND as a bonus, you get to display multiple plan views side by side, if you wish. Why wouldn't you want that convenience? However, you can still use Layer Sets, Default Sets, and Plan Views independently. It's just that you can control more at one time with Plan Views. As you use these, the distinctions will become clear.

Yes, you will need to check all CAD Details and Cross Sections, as well the plans

Before I submit this as a suggestion, have I missed a way to automatically have walls frame to the bottom of lookouts? Currently, there is a full depth rafter put at the exterior face of framing and lookouts are notched into this. Generally, I would prefer that the top plates be at the bottom of the lookouts and omit the last notched rafter. I can futz around and get this, but hoping there's an easier way.

You may be happier with a single wall trimmed by an invisible wall at an angle, with the shorter "wall" created by a polyline solid.

Why do you laugh? It's used in countries outside of the U.S. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Building_Code

It could be a corrupted symbol, too.

One way to get rid of it is to go to your cabinet defaults, turn on backsplash, and set default height to 0".

This is obviously an OLD thread. Have any of you discovered solutions for the display of these 3D crawlspace vents, other than the pony wall solution, possibly with the advent of new features in the interim?

I think that these were eliminated since we have more flexibility with the glass panel door being able to have different non-uniform panel frame widths. It would be great if you could add your version to your signature. This is one of those questions where the version really matters.

I guess that was a little imprecise. I was referring to any view that is using OpenGL. There is a significantly longer delay with the initial generation, but after the view generates, you can spin it just fine.

I have a Surface Pro 6 - i7 w/16 GB RAM. For everything except rendering it's great. If you can stick to vector views, it's very fast. As mentioned above, for regular work, you will want a larger secondary monitor. It can do rendering just fine, but nowhere close to a dedicated graphics card.