RL-inc

I use X8 for all kinds of kitchen and bath remodeling. Quick and easy to get the needed walls in exact locations so that you have an accurate base to work from. Perspectives are great for clients to understand the overall design and the elevations are easily revised to create all the cabinet details any cabinet shop would need to get going.

The override is to use a ceiling beam

Define walls in the structure tab to have only single rim joist

You need to make sure thathat the deck is defined as a deck or porch, so even sort of exterior room. CA think that it is just another interior room and adjusts the doors according.

Wish I could with this guy.....but I have a special per square ft price for him

Much agreed as Rich said- Never thought of he tab function and drawing walls to proper dims as I go- Thanks Michael

Very true Lew- I have one builder that has Home Designer and knows that I can send him plan files to "edit and revise"..... Wish that had never come up. The plan files he send back are COMPLETELY jacked up.... and the he says "well can't you just clean up my design and finalize the drawings" Right.....

Heck of a good job for your first stab at a design in CA. A few things I saw- 1-In regards to the main floor free spans mentioned above,the truss company will design girders to pick up the loads and transfer them to bearing locations- most likely exterior wall lines but sometimes interior bearing lines or points can be used to reduce large loads at the ends of those girders. 2- Also, as Brown Tiger mentioned the joist spans in the basement are far to great. Some bearing walls or beams to cut down on those spans will be required. These walls or beams can possibly be incorporated into picking up truss loads from above as well. As a rule I try to get the truss designer involved as early on in the framing layout process as I can so that we can account for chasing these loads to the foundation. It may help to remember that you should trace your load paths fro top to bottom- and adjust walls accordingly when possible. ( I didn't mean to get too in depth on the structural side- but structural and architectural design go hand in hand when considering overall building efficiency.) 3- Regarding dimensions you are needing several more interior dimensions on both floors. Also when dimensioning to window and door openings try to locate the centers of each. Walls should be to face of framing. Good looking design overall. Keep after it -the details will come!

Spent way too many years in the field laying out for framing crews. I always wanted my walls pulled from the outside face of stud on the exterior wall to the face of stud on the next wall- the hook framing and go to framing. As for doors and windows - hook outside wall on face of stud and then pull to center of opening. This allows to layout the header for each opening and mark on top of plates for easy identification. Had one builder that drew his own plans and always dimensioned to the wall- dimensioned the 3 1/2" wall- then from that wall to the next. Had to get him straightened out right away

Do you mean that you want a separate layout box that contains only the kitchen that is of a different scale than the main floor plan? If so- send a separate view to layout at a larger scale - on it's own layer set maybe? Then crop the layout box to fit.

agreed on the p-line solid- just takes a minute

Scott- Sorry to be so late in responding. I won't be able to attend the GTM - with all melt off and water damage we are having I am crazy right now. Thanks for the offer and I hope to attend one in the future.

Always thought temp dimensions should have the ability to move dimension lines. Maybe an idea for X9?

Scott I don't have X9 yet Willol that matter for the GTM

I couldn't agree more with the jump in with both feet and go baby go attitude. I have almost 25 tears of framing experience as well as running construction crews as my own GC. I bought CA about 12 years ago in V9 with the philosophy that I had never seen a project that I couldn't figure out and CA wasn't going to be the first. The best part is CA makes the process easy if you understand how construction really works....and it sounds like you do. One of the greatest design tools I have to sell is my real world experience....and have been told so by many clients. This forum is a great resource and the people here are incredibly helpful. Take all the training you can get and charge a fair rate based on what is going on around you. If you had confidence in your ability in the field you will make this jump successful....no doubt.

Ah..... very nice.

David Shoot me a message through my website or direct email if you like. Would like to view some of your work or see your website if you have one. We can compare weather notes too

DZ When you say that when you "remove a wall or window it shows from the background automatically" are you meaning that you select the lines in the cad detail of the existing structure and delete them? I'm guessing I'm not getting your exact process because that seems a bit labor intensive .

Much agreed on backup copies of any plan before revisions begin. Can always delete duplicated after the design is final. In regard to the roof heights being changed after the room ceilings are dropped you have 2 options 1 select all planes and change the baseline height for all but if any are different for a given area you will need to select and edit those individually. 2 select all planes and use the transform replicate tool to lower all -12" in the z axis. I have used this method many times and you will find that the baseline heights for each plane will revise accordingly.

You are so right AK son. Gave Joe his props and one for you as well. One of my new years resolutions was to try and contribute to this forum more consistently. Always appreciate the good advice and hope I can return the efforts in the new year.

Sounds like that alone is worth the price of admission

Just as Joey said- create exterior room polyline and edit to desired layer. I actually save each polyline on its own layer and then edit with any given revision to keep updated calculations readily available.

Great- Thanks for the heads up

Also- much agreed with Humble- in most remodels new walls will conflict with existing demo wall locations. Door and windows too. CA doesn't like these conditions at all. Separate demo and remodel plans eliminate those conflicts.

I do many addition remodel projects and have to create as-built drawings as the base plan. My method is: 1- Create the as-built and use it as the basis for new design ideas 2- Copy design ideas and revise until we have client sign off 3- Use the a copy of the as-built plan as the basis for the demolition plan- this plan will have all of the demo wall types and layers 4- Keep the demolition plan, final addition- remodel design plan and the associated layout file together in one folder ( i.e.. John Doe const doc folder) (This layout file can be updated for either the demo plan or new work as needed for building department corrections, etc... without the concern of either plan file disrupting the other) I always keep the original as-built completely separate for reference later in case of conflicts in the field.