ValleyGuy

Hey Gene, I'm not sure if you've already found a solution or not yet. I was struggling with this as I needed an ADA ramp for a nursing home. I ran into a few issues as well, newels can be off set but the top rail doesn't follow suit, once the newels are off set they can't be extended down. Here is what I did: -make a symbol for a panel - mine was 5'8" long (max recommended ADA rail brkt spacing with newel posts). I used two vertical 2x4's for the top and bottom of a 42" angle cut baluster and then put the 2x6 cap on the top. Choose a material that you can also use for the newels as the newels will show through the 2x6 cap. Also included in the panel sandwich is a 6" space of 'no material'. This helped to centre the 1.5" baluster and 1.5" vertical 2x4's (3" thick) on the 3.5"newel post. Note: when you make this into a symbol put the no material on the bottom layer of plan view, then the 2x4's, then the balusters with the cap centred between the 2x4 and balusters. Do it the other way around and you will have your panel all messed up when you build the complete unit on the ramp. - Make the ramp, I used the ramp tool (as a ramp and as a flat catwalk - just uncheck the automatic height in the ramp specification and set the Slope rise to 0" for a flat runway) - Open up the ramp section. Under Railing; set the height (I used 45 inches to accommodate everything), check off Panels, uncheck top and bottom rails, raise the bottom up 1-1/2". Under Newels / Balusters; Square newels, 3-1/2", offset is negative 2.5", and spacing to 6', go to the library for your new panel symbol (mine is Millwork 28 .... yes it took me at least that may times to figure it out lol), don't worry about the panel thickness. Change the material of the newels to match your top 2x6 cap, and let it fly. - As for the downward extensions of the newel posts, I just made another symbol and strategically placed them in for the photo shoot. I must say that it was a pain every time I had to move the ramp a little bit, so I suggest waiting until last to insert those. It would be really nice if CA would be able to have the top rail off set with the newel posts and save some of this grief. It would also be nice if the deck framing would show up and could be manipulated like regular deck framing.Other than that, the ramp tool works pretty good.

Glenn you nailed it! Thank you. They had me doing all kinds of stuff, but looking back through the thread, we never did try this.

I am getting a black ROW and Column on my materials list. It was there with X12 where both the row and column were completely blacked out. And now X13 there is at least the dividing lines showing in a contrasting colour. The CA tech guys have had me change every colour option on my computer with nothing working yet. I sent a zippered file to the tech department and they could open it up fine in proper working order. As far as I can tell, it happens on every plan, even the pre-set CA right out of the box. I don't seem to be having any other issues with the screen / computer / program. Does anyone know what might be the cause? As you can see from the picture, it makes it tough to see what the columns are. I have an iMac 27", new last December when I signed on with CA and am running X13 Premier.

Here is the update so far... It's not clean and easy thats for sure. There should be an easier way to attach insulation (and vapour barrier!) to a monolithic slab. I'm sure that it must be code most everywhere to have at least a vapour barrier under a monolithic slab. It's too bad that CA doesn't allow editing to the slab structure without losing the curbs or footings. Of course this causes the accuracy of the materials list to suffer a few holes in it as well (like missing slab vapour barrier). If anyone is interested, here are some things that I did. Some things introduced a few issues as more items like O.H. doors were added. Curb / Footing: - I used a 2"x16" Brick ledge, the width of the vertical foam (1-1/2") plus cement board (1/2"), the depth of the curb (4") floor (4") and footing (8") - I put a 1/16" pony wall on the bottom of the 1st floor walls with just the 1-1/2" foam - because more than one layer (foam & cement board) would not show on the brick ledge, only the outer most layer does. - So a poly line molding was used for the cement board, actually two were needed for the cement board. When I added the OH door the cement board was the curb height and therefore too tall for the doorway, so I had to make a shorter molding. Also when the door was added, the bottom part of the pony wall was lost and so the vertical insulation went with it. I made another poly line molding for the insulation under the door. I suspect the same issues will happen with any other doors that need to be added. Monolithic Slab: -as stated earlier, I couldn't edit any of the floor structure successfully. Maybe someone else could give it a try and let me know if you can get vapour barrier and some insulation added without losing the curbs and footings. -I used a poly line solid for the outer insulation part, put a hole in it at the start of the slope. Another solid for the inner most insulation part. And a molding on an angle for the sloped section of insulation. Material List: -Everything somewhat came out fairly well on the materials list. I did quite a bit of ID changes to get the moldings and poly lines to stay with the foundation section. A little adjustment here and there regarding sizes (under slab foam here is usually 2'wide, not 4') and changed some descriptions to explain it's location a little clearer (Rigid insulation became Rigid insulation - under doorway, vertical) -Having said that, the anchor bolts went from 12 pcs to 3 when I added the 8' OH door. Not real world numbers. This lead me to dig into the Ruby Scrip to see about formula adjustments, to which I couldn't find much information. Anyone able to point me in a good direction beyond adding in a fudge factor? It would be nice to adjust the 'Count' column formula and see how it came up with 3 anchor bolts. -I did this trial on just a 10'x10' building with one OH door (just walls, no roof) to see how accurate the materials list was. Most everything was right there as for the numbers. I recommend adding in the "fudge factor" as nobody will be able to use 100% of every pc of material, or you may need to adjust for 'coverage' being less than actual size (rebar has an overlap allowance, but wire mesh does not). Anyone that may have some ideas to help alleviate any of these issues, please jump in. There seems to be way too many adjustments required to use the monolithic slab option with insulation or vapour barrier. As well, too many places are needed to double check the materials list to be confident enough to even call it a 'reliable' tool in hopes of selling it as an added bonus to a client.

Thanks Ryan, I’ve tried to add the foam to the bottom of the floor and can get to exactly where your picture is in the floor structure panel, but as soon as I press enter my curbs and footings disappear. It seems like it’s either a mono slab or a slab with the foam underneath. I’ve tried changing all kinds of things and can’t get it to work. Can you please explain a bit more on the partition wall around the footing? I’ve never used the partition wall yet and there really isn’t much info on it. I did get Gene’s idea of a curb to relief the footing but still needed to manually add in the foam and board from a 1/16” pony wall above. I didn’t check yet if it had any effect on the materials or the measurements. I would say that about 25% of the smaller out buildings are on engineered slabs. Attached are still on 4’ frost walls. I’ve seen more small houses being built on slabs lately.

In my area, we build quite a few garages, as well as the odd home, on engineered monolithic slabs. Engineering drawings are shown like the "this is what I need for permits" picture. We need the horizontal insulation for frost protection and vertical if the building is heated. I would like to not only show this in my plans, but have an accurate materials list. So manually drawing on the cross section won't add it to the materials list. 1) I'm looking to continue the vertical insulation and cement board to cover the footing portion of my mono slab 2) And to have horizontal insulation under the slab. I can handle the 2ft perimeter horizontal foam easily enough. In fact, I used a polyline solid for the entire horizontal foam and it showed nicely in the materials list, however I can't make it form to the footings (on all four walls) for the cross sections. 3) Adding in the stone would be a bonus, and I may need to just use a poly line solid manually. This isn't a deal breaker. My main goal is to minimize the manual manipulation as well as include in the materials list with reasonable accuracy. Is there a thread or a video that anyone can direct me to, or does anyone have a solution for even a part of it?

Sorry guys, I was doing a little house keeping with the signature thing. Thank you Eric for the set up package. And I agree, an FAQ on this would be a great help. I did find one of your earlier thread replies showing how to wrap a thick brick wall that was an exterior wall that came inside and you reversed the layers to get the job done. I was hopeful, but that wasn't the answer this time. You were 100% on with the 0" layer of paint. I gave it a 1/32" layer of paint and it worked perfectly. Thank you. Michael, I haven't run across an invisible wall intersection yet, but thanks for the tip. I'm sure it won't be long before I will need to use that.

I can not seem to get the drywall to wrap the open ended interior walls, like the short wall at the end of a tub. The baseboard wraps, but not the drywall, thus leaving the bare stud exposed. I have searched a lot and have came close to finding the answer twice, but I am still unsuccessful. Is there a setting box somewhere that I need to check that wouldn't have be checked right out of the box? I mean I've only had the program four months, surely I couldn't have messed this thing up that bad....yet.