PMMully

X13: I have a plan that is a full blueprint of an existing home for multiple renovations. As a result there are many dimensions. The work will be performed in phases requiring separate plan viewpoints focusing on the work included in any one permit. What I want to do is turn off all dimensions in a plan except those that are focused on the permit work. An example is moving one structural wall in a 2-story house. I just need 2-3 dimensions to show the wall movement as the floor plan is not significant as compared to the engineering detail. But I want to retain all the dimensions for the rest of the plan. What is the fastest way to achieve this? I looked at the various layer sets and layer set control of dimension types. What would be great is to turn off all dimensions, add my manual, point2point, end2end, etc., but they all appear to be associated with the core dimensions layer versus granularity of these types. The reference guide is not giving me any real ideas. Am I missing some control here? Or, is the answer just to put a few dimensions on their own layer (assuming that can be done). TIA = Thanks in Advance!

Wow..... lucky me! Thank 'yall so much, stopped me from thinking I was nuts (ok... well as best I can...)!

Thanks @MarkMc, as I was driving this AM, I thought about that file association bit. Nice to have that validation. One last question, the last 5 files at the bottom, on the same day, there is an XXX_auto_save.plan/layout, XXX_auto_save_bak.plan/layout, and finally an XXXAutoBackup.plan I looked in the reference. Apparently the auto_save is for normal operation, the "bak" file is for abnormal termination, which is clearly what happened a few hours later. But I can not find any reference to the _AutoBackup in the reference manual. Any idea where this file came from?

I have an unusual one for me. I have X12 and X13 on same box. I do most work in x13. I have PLAN that I was up late last night working in X13. I hit the "Win-L" key to lock the screen when done. To my recollection I did not close out X13, nor did I do a manual save. Maybe windows flaked out, and auto-rebooted on an upgrade. Bottom line, for some reason I lost some very detailed tedious work (ugh). My autosave is set for every 10 minutes. I went into manage autoarchive management, and I see a few saved the plan and layout file about the right time. They are under the X13 archieve, all looks good. But when I click on one, it jumps into X12, and asks if I want to do a CA upgrade, any ideas? The CA setup looks legit. I have negated the invitation to upgrade to date as to not honk everything up :-). The screen shot follows, I am interested in the ~2AM times at the end. What is the "BAK" files versus the not "BAK" files on the same day (all this AM)?

In my area I am only seeing Revit in large public sector government stuff, used to document existing buildings, etc., taking advantage of all the collaboration and project management stuff. The feds are the only ones that will pay for that type of detail and precision around configuration management. In the commercial private sector world (i.e. offices, retail space, etc.), I mainly see Autocad. In the small public sector stuff, I see some revit here and there, but mostly autocad. If I pursue thing.. and if I get the job, I will stick to the basics. Use CA for all the concepts, but when it get locked down, each MEP will get to do their own thing and supply a sealed PDF. Thanks for the inputs all.

Never a silver bullet, and the configuration mgmt on these big projects can be a full time job. No surprises, thanks for the input. Here in Merritt Island, would love the chance to connect. East of Orlando on the coast.

I have a big commercial job potential, i am wary due to all the details in the various requirements for MEP. Has anyone been doing this in CA? What I am seeing in the field is each MEP is engineered, and supplied separately (assuming in Autocad). Looking for any advice.

When edit from library, it looks like it opens a temporary CAD block, which looks to be a "scratch plan". That works.

How robust is the out of the box experience with this overall? My truss company would love to see this as well.

@SNestorideas for the next session?

So put a macro in the actual cad detail, I have done such on a working view. But, I referenced a standing "thing", like ceiling height. I will have to look on how to manage this.

So when you edit the block, and it says "this or all instances", that apparently is only to that plan then. Since a lot of this stuff is looked at by PEs, I have to keep the change management tight. So it sounds like the right process to manage this (probably up to100 details over time) might look like this: Do the initial work in the warehouse plan (you have to do the work somewhere). Commit the work to the library Destroy the initial work in the library as it is no longer really needed (as long as you backup your library) Do all future cad block edits from the library itself. When you edit from the library, where will the actual work be done, if you have no plan open, will it open the original plan file? Or is it a scratch plan, etc.? Thinking about plan templates in this regard.

I have been using a warehouse plan for construction details. When I complete a diagram, I block it, send it to the user library. But it appears that updates via "edit cad block" in the warehouse plan are not being pushed to the user library automagically. I see you can edit the block in the user library as well. I have looked in the help but I do not see any guidance on the best process to use over time. I have just reexported a block, and that works, but it creates "version clutter" in the library. I was hoping to see the "live update" go between the plan and the library. Am I missing something here?

In doing some construction detail work, I have come across the need to reuse text between detail diagrams that are using different annotation sets for scaling on the layouts. For example, I might have a block that says: 4" 3000 PSI fiber mesh reinforced concrete with continuous pour perimeter In one diagram, it may be needed in 1/2", in another 1". This is an occasional use case that is driven by reusing typical detail to create job specific detail. I am checking to see if there is a slick way to do this that "auto-adjusts" to the annotation set in play? So far I have been going in manually and changing it. I had considered putting multiple entries of this in the library but I only want one copy of the text to keep maintenance down.

I realize from other posts the easiest way to do this is just draw the isometric, fair enough. My questions is about what is in our libraries that I may have missed. I see if I search "plumbing" I come up with two plumbing symbol legends, a typical plumbing wall detail, and notes. I also see the various line styles. That is a good start. What I am after is if I am missing anything else that would give me more symbols in one place. For examples, symbols/text like "W.C" or "TLT", for toilets, "Lav", or "Shr", or sink/shower traps pre-draws, etc. I have been getting by with my manual methods but I have learned to ask this forum for better ways as I got a larger project coming.

I found those, it was a symbiology thing via the client. Their first page of every plan has about a 200 symbol legend, all from the CAD teams. I learned that all this stuff is not as standard as I expected either. But thank you!

These are great on the cores. Not sure why the search did not pop these up, most likely my search string. It mattered not, in this particular case I had to conform to some abbreviations/symbols outside of our library that were set by the client. In the sprinklers, I did not have the MEP#4 library installed, thanks for making me aware of this. I had a feeling I was missing it. It is too common to not be there.

Agreed. I believe that is the process I see as well. Just checking there is not anything I am missing. Thanks

Tried that, and as you suggest, many things pop up, but not in particular lighting, sprinklers, etc. The "frog-eye" emergency lighting symbols in the library are solid. I made my own smoke detector symbol. I will likely have to make my own exit sign symbol as well.

Hi all, I would like to devise a method to show my masonry downpours from the tie beam to the footer (#5 rebar and filled cells) on my first floor in the foundation plan (floor 0). The locations are driven by the corners, windows, doors, and a maximum span of 4' between then. I made a new layer called "Downpours", and placed the CAD rebar symbols on this layer on floor 1. On floor 1 I can turn it on/off as expected. But on Floor zero, even though the layer is displayed, it is not showing up. Then I noticed I could not overlay windows and doors either (as a reference). So I went into the reference display, and saw the layer set was on reference display. So I changed it to working layer set, and it all works as expected (had to shut walls off). What I want is just these symbols, driven in placement by corner, window, door, and spacing from floor 1, not the standard reference display layer set. It looks as if I should make a new layer set, and put this one layer into it, and then just change form the reference display set to this new layer set. Am I following the best practice here? I "think" this tracks with some plumbing/toilet/tub/shower threads I have seen? In hindsight, this may not be necessary as many just post a notation on the foundation plan to follow the wall layouts regarding downpour locations. But it is something that makes sense when some refer to the "S" pages over "A" pages when laying out the form boards, etc. It would stop them from having to jump back and forth between pages potentially reducing error. I actually had a plan from a well known architectural firm that subed out to a structural firm. The plan was complicated and big. When we got started, we noted that the dimensions did not match between the two... yikes! We recovered in the field, but that owner did not get what he paid for.

Hi all, looking for some more advanced lighting symbols and notations for the commercial space. I checked the libraries and saw nothing. Am I missing something before I go and create my own? Thanks.

I figured it was a sloppy click of the mouse as I do not remember consciously doing it. It is in my custom template in X12 which I ported to X13. Thanks for the quick response.

I noticed it as I was reviewing the options for creating detail. I never really used it other than for educational purposes, but the core components were ok to grab. https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00766/creating-cad-details.html

I was playing around and noticed this template is not under CAD details in X13, checked in X12 and it is there. Did I delete it by accident or did things change. Could not find anything in release notes.