ValleyGuy

I've done this before with placing a pass through (with frame and trims, w/o a label) in the wall with frame to fit wall checked. Build both windows separately w/o trims, w/ frame recessed 1" - uncheck fit to wall. Mull together and add the desired label. Center it in the pass through. It doesn't mull the mulled unit to the pass through, so you'll need to move both items, but it looks good.

You could try opening it up for specification and under the label tab, put a measurement in of how far you want to offset it.

@Gawdzira ahhh, I see what you are talking about now... good point. As Doug pointed out, it's probably a good idea to make a suggestion then. I guess I rarely see these two dims that close together because of maybe my work flow, dimension arrangement, and a little dumb luck. Work flow: I usually move walls into position using the temp dimensions while drawing, then apply the permanent dimensions afterwards. Dimension arrangement: a very large portion of my dimension lines are placed outside of the actual foot print -exterior wall dimensions, and intersecting interior wall dimensions. In your example, my temp dims are on the inside of the footprint and my permanent dims are on the outside-easily distinguishable. I do see what you are talking about with dims my dims completely inside. Maybe I just unknowingly made a habit to make the selection point on the wall far away from any permanent dimensions, thus keeping the temp dims separated..... ignorance is bliss sometimes. Thanks for bringing that to my attention... now I won't look at them the same way again.... it's like that noise in my truck that I never heard before my mechanic pointed it out and now I can't stop hearing it . You make a suggestion, I'll support you on it.

I don't think I have ever seen two temp dimensions like you have. Not sure what is different or where else to look other than the defaults.

I totally agree with Rene, you will spend endless hours fussing with a plan when an experienced guy with a piece of paper and a pencil could have an even better and more complete take off done much much sooner. Each house can be built in many different configurations and with many different material products that all have specific consequences in regards to the material takeoff list. Unless your company only builds one specific wall configuration, you may end up with many, many, many different wall types with many different macros. Chief doesn't draw caulking, tape, wind bracing, fasteners, .... the stuff that changes significantly just by changing the layer order of a wall. Your code requirements may need to be accounted for in the macros as well because of something as simple as reversing the foam and OSB layers, or placing and opening too close to a wall corner. I can't even imagine the time that you will need to spend maintaining your 'macro system' as products, install techniques and building codes all change and adapt. CA comes up with new features year after year that may affect them too. Heck, I can't even imagine how much time and effort you will need to invest to learn about macros in CA to get a good enough handle to write or maintain them properly at that level. After working in a building supply business, take offs are much easier, faster and more accurately done outside of CA than using CA. I'd use CA to provide information like surface area and as DBCooper suggested, manipulate the material / buy list to help out with some of the numbers. After going down this path in CA at the start, I humbly admit that I wasted a lot of time.

Steve does this mean you and I won't be able to RT with our iMac's? I'm not well versed in computer logistics, I just hope the thing works when I turn it on in the morning lol. This machine still gets me from point A to point B well enough, so you won't be breaking my heart saying that my iMac won't do it. I agree, it is nice to see CA putting in some hard work for us Mac users, thank you CA.

You are welcome. I don't have any other programs that I use the space mouse on so I have nothing to compare it to in that regard. I understand the "no joy" a bit, I did almost send the thing back at the start because I was having so many problems with very little set up help offered at the start. Even the instructions manual is geared toward PC equipment. The joystick freezing up when both mice are moving at the same time is a bit frustrating, but getting more tolerable the more disciplined I get at completely letting go of my roller ball mouse. Thank goodness exiting CA and re launching it only takes 20 seconds. I really only use the joystick in plan view while building the model, and a few times I built the whole house without using the joystick at all. I like how the joystick really excels when doing a customer walk-through though, where I have very little roller ball mouse interference grief. It's the buttons that I really appreciate the most and I'm trying to keep the mind frame as I do with all the other tools I work with ... it is what it is and does only what it does. So I try and minimize the self-inflicted frustrations. Good luck with giving it a second chance.

You are quite welcome Lisa, I'm glad that I could help while also sparking a memory of yesteryears. I'm not exactly sure how the MacBook is with the 3D mouse as I have an iMac, but I suspect that it should work the same. I wonder if the MacBook with additional exterior monitors may be an issue as I've heard of a couple of people having tool bar issues - both on MacBooks. Good luck with it, and hopefully Christmas comes early for you.

We do these all the time here, and I struggled with this for quite a while too. This works for me, you might want to tinker with it to get your appropriate thicknesses, heights, etc to fit your needs.

Thanks, it works well. I'm very happy with it, well worth the investment and the effort to get it up and running.

Pretty much 2/3 of the county.... I moved from Edmonton and I think that there are more people in city of Edmonton than this whole province lol

@DefinedDesign @Michael_Gia I think I managed a couple of videos, here are the links. I'm sure there are all kinds of people using 3D mice on CA with all kinds of different techniques and different skill levels. I've only had it a few months now and here are some of the things that I have done with it. Maybe others could add some tips or ideas for you as well. The set up of the mouse video https://youtu.be/iDKokC_19N4 The In-Use Demo video https://youtu.be/R_HcESgGvXM

@DefinedDesign @Michael_Gia @mthd97hey everyone, thanks for your enthusiasm and confidence with my skills to make a video. I never made one yet, but it looks pretty straight forward and easy on YouTube lol. I'll try and make one tomorrow. Today is a milestone birthday for my wife and I have my hands full, ...and all the counter tops, sinks, fridge, the neighbour's fridge... Hats off to all those comfortable in the kitchen. I draw and have built houses, apartments, even an airport hanger... but cooking finger foods and baking snacks for 75 guests .... food is an evil necessity!! Who would have thought that the most dangerous thing in the kitchen was a vegetable? ... I guess peppers leave a residue even after you wash your hands... lesson learned = Don't touch your eyes!

What kind of wonky are you experiencing? The only tool bar issue that I have seen is the floating toolbar stacks tools more vertical than the preferred horizontal once in a while. (I moved the 'selected item' tool bar from the bottom of the screen to be floating part way up the screen)

Thanks, both of those were made from pics off the good old internet and use of CA's help files / videos to make a material and size it. CA is pretty good as I have really no idea how use all the mapping and bumping features whatsoever, and this iMac keeps me out of all the fancy rendering.

These are great, are they stand alone mock-ups only or have you got a system to make them active on the house plan cameras? I've got 3D solids saved in the library along with some materials to paste on for mockups but I haven't figured out how to peel back wall layers on an individual basis when it is an active type situation, other than use a wall material region or use the delete surface tool.

I achieved a similar crude example for a wall using the wall material region tool - cut to the parent layer. Just made a few different regions adding one more material layer for each region. I never tried doing it for the roof before. It would be a great idea for the "suggestions" though.

We do it around here once in a while too. Make a room divider wall directly above the tray ceiling room below and adjust the floor & ceiling measurements. Then build three individual floor joists (and line them up), install a crown mldg to hide the gap. The cross section looks almost like the real thing.

Thanks guys. I have used the import tools before, which is kind of like moving the new defaults (walls, layer sets, SPV's,...) into the old plan / version. I was looking for more direction on some of the other time consuming work items like: items on two different layer set lines (sono tubes are now on 'front' or 'rear'). Fill pattern scale, line wt & transparency changes that need updating (drainage stone fill for the room 'sub-soil' is different) . I think the combination of the copy and paste as well as the style palette pasting will help greatly. I haven't really spent much time with style palettes and after looking at your video, it may handle a large portion of what I am looking for. Like you said, it really is just a matter of updating / changing all the items in the plan as req'd, and right now it is a lot. I suspect that this work will become less involved as the changing of things slows down and the plan items become more consistent. Growing pains, mine just happened to start a little later in life lol.

There are a couple of ways, 1) Select the header from the plan view. With the headers toggled on, select the window, then tab to get to the header (bottom left corner will say what you have selected... window, wall, header...). Open it up and you will see the 'Framing Specification (Header)' as shown in my first post above. 2) choose the wall and open the wall framing, choose the header and open it up.

In the window defaults, under framing. The actual individual window framing header will then need to be placed on the new layer set line, and this will need to be selected individually in plan view once the wall is framed.

I am looking for a system to start using past projects that I can access the information from the working .plan file to efficiently transition to my current version of CA. I have been drawing (using CA Premier) for a long enough time now that I have customers asking if I have certain types of plans (bungalows, two story, duplex, garages,...) that they can look at. Basically, what's in my portfolio that they might be able to use / adapt easily. Whether inspiration or just a place to begin, this part is easily enough satisfied by saved PDF files sorted into 'types' saved on my computer. However, actually using the .plan file information is where I struggle. I have made a lot of changes in the last three years since starting in X12, my template now is light years from the OOB starting place. I like the changes that I have in place with my current X15 template and do not want to reuse the older plan templates. I can open an older version of CA and carry on with the old line weights, colours, layer sets, SPV's ....(unwanted defaults) without missing a beat. Or I can open an older version plan in the current version of CA and have all kinds of issues with deleted / changed things. As even my wall definitions have changed, copy and paste / importing from the old to the new is such a pain. I haven't tried using a CAD pic of an old plan view, then use make walls in a current template yet, would this be a viable option? Has anyone done this? What does everyone else do to reuse old plans while taking advantage of the current template?

Here is one that I just stumbled onto that may be of interest to all of us that try and hide markers and CAD lines by making them small or colour matched - you know, the ones that we put in the elevation story pole. Just put them on a layer that you toggle off and the dimension will stay. So make them big and bold and then make them disappear. No more trying to grab an itty bitty line to adjust it a 1/16".

I forgot a couple of points: I turned the window layer line colour to white - this removed the glazing. (I suspect that you may already have a specific SPV and layer set for this particular drawing.) I believe that I had to adjust the view draw order of the header to make sure that it was on top.

Brett is definitely on the right track for the white windows showing in a floor plan. It isn't that hard to get the window look that you are after while maintaining a dynamic plan should you move a window. Two things that may be of concern: the white rectangle is the header and the header is larger than the actual window size. Secondly, this method has a solid wall width header size that may mess with the material take off, if you use that feature. This should get you close .