Boogdaddy

I have been in residential design for 40 years. I am a bit of a dinosaur in that up until 2 years ago I did all drawing/drafting by hand with pen/pencil and paper/vellum. Since purchasing CA X12 in early 2020, I have gotten up to speed with CA (relative speed LOL) and completed a few custom designs-all standard stick framed homes. The plans I have completed in CA are not perfect, and I'm sure those proficient with CA can easily spot flaws and things I could or should have done differently, but all of the plans I've done so far in CA have been built and with almost zero construction issues. I personally built one of my designs. I do not have any knowledge or background creating CAD details or drawing in CAD as CA is my first foray into drawing on the computer. I live in a rural area east of Dallas and Barndominiums are fairly prominent in my area. I know many of you do not like the word Barndominium and it's possible relation to Condominiums/multi-family projects, but in this area of the world it is a commonly used and understood term. I actually have built one personally here on our ranch that has a shop portion and a residence in it for my elderly mother. I can and have drawn these by hand with zero problem, but I now have a Barndo project that I want to complete in CA. This project will be for me personally and built on our land. I need some help with completing the metal building shell part of the plan. The metal building will be built using I-Beam columns, steel roof trusses and will have M-Panel exterior sheeting. All other walls interior to the metal structure will be standard wood frame. I have completed a 1/8" scale preliminary design by hand. I still have some design kinks to work out but it's fairly complete. I'd like to move onto construction documents in CA. Given that the metal building portion of the plan will have to come first, I don't even know how or where to start. In a perfect world I would prefer to do this type of training/tutoring in person, but I realize there's probably no one who can help that is nearby. So I'm guessing I'll have to settle for Zoom meetings. I'd like to build a relationship with someone who speaks my language, has some patience with me and that can give me help on this project and other future projects in short meetings. I may need an hour or more on some occasions and I might only need 15 minutes other times. I am happy to provide a .pdf of the preliminary plan and/or photographs of my existing shop to illustrate the type of construction that is commonly done in this area. Thanks!

Thanks guys!

I have a 2 story house. I'm doing a metal insert fireplace located in a lower level interior room with a 9' ceiling. The chimney flue above on the second floor will be within a storage closet, and obviously just interior wall type up to the attic/roof above. the chimney above the roof will have siding. In the lower level room with the fireplace, the 3 walls surrounding the metal fireplace insert will have masonry veneer or possibly a manufactured stone. What is the best practice for drawing the walls with the masonry veneer on the lower level? Copy and modify a wall from the Library to show the masonry veneer? Or is there a more accepted way to do this?

@Alaskan_Son Thanks Michael!!

@solver-I'll give that a try. Thank You.

@solver-I've edited the original post. Hopefully I did it correctly. Thanks

@solver-How do I do that? Attach the entire plan file from CA? I did search here for info regarding how to upload images, what file types are acceptable, etc., but I couldn't find it.

I'm having trouble with two walls related to some U-Shaped stairs. Per the attached image, I need the wall indicated to slope up with the stairs and the slope ceiling under the stairs. I've viewed the online content, including Chief's training videos on "Create a room under a staircase". I've also viewed @SNestor's video on How to Create and Edit U-Shaped Stairs. It was very helpful-thanks Steve! I think the issue I'm having is in my plan, I need the room under the staircase to extend beyond the limits of the stairs themselves, and all of the examples, training and videos I've sourced show rooms beneath stairs that are wholly within the limits of the stair. WILLIAMS.plan

Got it. Thanks

Thanks. The first sight has downloads. Now if I can figure out how to open the .dxf or .dwg files I'll be in business. I might need a program or app that will open those. And I'm on a Mac and I don't know if that is an issue.

How did you pull just this one parking detail from the TAS? I've tried pulling from the standards online and from the downloaded PDF version of TAS on my laptop. This is probably more about me being a dinosaur who hand drew everything for the last 35+ years. I just started using CA and CAD in the last 6 months and I seem to struggle with what are probably simple issues for veteran CAD users but are foreign to me. I also found the Accessible CAD Blocks in the CA Library. They are very close to what I'm looking for, but some notes and dimensions are not compliant with TAS and I need some more details that aren't there. As mentioned, I do have the entire TAS Requirements on my computer. And I'm aware of all of the graphics. But I can't seem to "copy and paste" just the graphics or sections I need into my plan file. I've cut and pasted into my last plan file with no issues, so I'm guessing I'm doing something wrong. I had planned on some hands-on in class training with one of the CA training companies, but the COVID lockdown hit the same week I purchased the hardware and software.

I don't know if such resource exists, but I'm looking for a resource that might offer accessibility details that are downloadable (free or pay). I am VERY familiar with the Texas Accessibility Standards...I don't need assistance with understanding TAS. I just need the drawing details, primarily for the most often used elements such as Parking Areas, Restrooms, Path of Travel/Accessible Routes, Ramps....etc. Does anyone know of a resource? Thanks

@SNestor I've used your process shown in the video using the Molding Polyline tool. The shape came out just how I want it to. However, when I went to add the stone to the base, it's orienting the stone vertically rather than horizontally. I also tried it using various brick and stone finishes-they always end up oriented vertically. Same for adding Cedar to the wood post. The cedar grain is horizontal instead of running vertically along the post. Any ideas?

@SNestor-The video was very helpful. Thanks!

I'm trying to figure out how to show how to partially wrap a cedar post with stone up to about 2'-3' high so that the post is exposed above the stone. Something similar to the photo attached. Can anyone give me some direction? I have CA X12.

Thanks @solver !

@DzinEye I understand. If it seems like I was being defensive or unappreciative of Solver's responses, that is definitely not my intent. My goal is to learn and understand, and at the very least I'm obviously doing something different in my searches than he's doing. Every time he's replied to search, he's included his own search with relevant results even though I've searched using exactly the same words or nearly the same. I'd love to know how to fix that so that I don't keep doing it. As I said, I'm new and this is a whole new world for me. I've actually come farther, faster than I'd hoped for. I've got my first plan nearly as complete as I would've done a hand drawn set of plans. Are there mistakes? I'm sure there are, but I figured it would be the perfect first house to do in CA and learn on since I'll be building it and I can identify the mistakes that will invariably reveal themselves in construction.

@solver I understand the need for newer users and those learning to search the Forum first before posting questions so as to minimize wasting the time of those more experienced submitting answers. I am still new to the software and learning and for that matter, I have ZERO CAD experience previous to CA. I've got 35+ years in residential design, drafting and construction, but all of my design and drafting was done the old school way-by hand with pencil/pen and paper/vellum. I think I've initiated a new post 3 or 4 times asking for help to figure something out. You've responded each time with something referring me to utilize the search function. In each of those cases before I posted, I searched multiple times, both on the Forum, Google, YouTube and other places online without success. Only after striking out do I then post asking for assistance. There have been many occasions when I actually did find what I was looking for in a previous post by searching key words, and therefore didn't need to post a question. As I said, I'm new to the software and the forum, and as a newbie I get that I may not always be performing the search with the correct word or phrase to find what I'm looking for, though I always try searching with multiple combinations of words and phrases before I finally give up and post a question. I actually found the download given above (thanks @Kbird1!) before I logged back into the forum and found @Kbird1's reply with the correct switch I was looking for. However, I found it while searching the "All Content" function on CA's main website, and NOT by utilizing the Forum search function. I see the screenshot of the results you've received Jamb Switch @solver. I used those exacts words and variations thereof several times before I posted yesterday and I never found any post(s) on Jamb Switches in the 7 or 8 pages of Forum search results I looked through, let alone the relevant one which contains the download. After seeing your search results in the screenshot above, to check myself I repeated the search just now using the words Jamb Switch. Attached is a .pdf of my search result. As you can see, apart from my post now showing up in the results at the top, the rest of the entires look NOTHING like the results you got. Perhaps I am doing or not doing something in my search of the Forum that is not giving me the same results you seem to get. If so, I'd love to know what I'm doing wrong. While it is the case that I'm new to CAD and new to this Forum, I am fully computer literate and belong to many other forums on unrelated topics and never seem to have any problem with those other search functions. Showing results for 'jamb switch'. - ChiefTalk Forum.pdf

@tommy1 I agree...I'm never going to show that in a render. And I'm still new to CAD/BIM and learning more about the software everyday. Thanks for the input.

Thank you for the reply. Hmmm....I'm not finding that particular door light switch in my Library no matter what combination of wording I use. That's definitely the type of jamb switch I'm wanting-with the centered actuator. Did you download a manufacturer or bonus catalog that had it?

I'm not sure what is meant by the "Automatic Door Switch" symbol in CA's Library. Does Automatic Door Switch = Jamb Switch? I am trying to figure out how to place a jamb switch, such as would be placed on the hinge side of a door to a storage closet or pantry and turns on the light inside when the door is opened.

Thanks @Chopsaw. That was what I was doing wrong.

Thank you for the responses...I'm getting closer! I have drawn the basic outline of the gravel driveway and the concrete driveway in front of the garage. For the gravel portion, I drew as a CAD polyline and converted to the larger polyline to Terrain Feature and changed material to Gravel. When I try to convert the inner oval shape of the circular gravel driveway on the plan view to Terrain Feature and change it to grass it doesn't work. It still shows solid gravel oval (as in Overview attached). If I check "Make Hole" in the dialog box, it'll show up, but only as a void. I've noted what I'm trying to achieve in the Plan View. I'm sure I'm doing something wrong, but I have no idea what.

@Kiwideziner Thank you for your response. Is this best done by converting to Road (Perimeter), Sidewalk Perimeter or Terrain Feature? Or is there another option? And will the converted circular portion of the drive merge to the Spline Driveway portion without trouble or is there a specific process to merge them?

I'm having trouble figuring out how to do a driveway the way I want in CA. I have watched tutorial videos, searched YouTube and read tutorials on this, and also searched the forums here for a how to accomplish this. I did find one forum post that suggested doing the circle driveway portion in CAD, converting to a ROAD (not a driveway-maybe they're treated as the same by CA?) and then placing a hole in the circle/oval. However, I can't figure out how to convert the circular portion from a CAD polyline to ROAD or DRIVEWAY. I don't know if this is because most of the info I could access online was based on older versions of CA (and mostly much older), though I would think the process would be largely the same. Perhaps CA has provided different tools in the later/latest version. I'm running X12. I've had some success using the Spline Driveway tool doing some of the curved portion from the road to the the circular portion, but beyond that I'm stumped. I've hand-sketched a quick site plan to explain what I'm hoping to accomplish in CA. Site Plan.pdf