Ross101

Glenn A good suggestion for the metal cladding over the door head, thanks. The "wall material region" is an interesting tool. I can't see exactly what difference checking or unchecking the "Cut Finish Layers of Parent Object" box makes? The Help file suggests it moves the object (in this case a sheet of corrugated metal) either inside or onto the surface of the wall? However it doesn't seem to move. Is this really just a polyline solid applied to a wall? Regards Ross

Glenn That worked perfectly..... THANKS! At some stage I must have mucked around with the material painter and got myself into this....... I'm usually very wary of this tool as I don't fully understand it and it can have unexpected results.... to me anyway. However I did use it on this plan. Thanks again Ross

Hi All I've attached the plan here. The issue I'm trying to solve is as follows: On the plan there is a wall that I've changed into a pony wall with 450mm thick strawbale below (to door/window head height at 2250m AFL) and a thinner corro clad wall above that. (I've noted it in red). The upper part of the wall above the door head does not display correctly. I've also put in a free standing wall just to the north of that wall that appears to have the same specifications in the Wall Specification DBX. It displays correctly. The question is, why doesn't the wall in the house display the same as the free standing wall? Many Thanks Ross 1508 SD 01.plan.zip

Yeah, thanks Terry, although I wasn't after specific design advice. I've built or been involved with 10 or 12 strawbale houses and am aware of the issues and details of baseboards, render types, load bearing vs non-loadbearing construction, thermal breaks, etc etc. Also I'm in Australia (must amend my details on the forum) so some different standards apply. Sorry to sound snippy but anyway, thanks for your reply, and good luck as well.

I'll post the plan next, but I'll just have a bit more of a play with it.... I've now worked out that this problem is specific to this plan. I opened another recent plan and can see a brick wall and see different wall types, textures, etc. It looks like I have done something with this plan only.... at least its not the dreaded "video card issue" Cheers Ross

Dennis, Curt, Mick, Thanks for the replies. I tried flipping the wall, and am aware of my (bad) habit of defining a wall without framing. It's a quick and simple way of getting a view, but I don't think that is what is causing my issue. I've just looked at several wall types and they all appear the same way in the right hand side of the "Wall Specification" DBX. That is, even if I look at a single brick wall with no render coating, it looks the same as the one I posted and in 3D view it looks the same (see attached). Not sure what is going on here? Thanks Ross

Hi All This is probably due to my understanding (or not) of pony walls. I'm trying to get a wall to display as a pony wall, with the change of wall types at 2250mm above floor level. The lower wall is straw bale (450mm thick) The upper wall is stud frame, with corrugated metal cladding (90mm thick). Attached are two screen shots showing my settings, and one screen shot of the external view. I can't get the corrugated metal cladding to display externally above the door head (head 2250 AFL) Both the lower and upper walls have the same external appearance? Thanks Ross PS This may be due to the unusual wall thickness? If the answer isn't obvious I'll post the plan.

Hi All There used to be a single Eucalyptus (Gum Tree) image in the library. I've searched and having no luck finding it. Am I imagining this from the past or has it been removed? Does anyone know where to find a replacement? Thanks Ross Young

Thanks for the replies. It confirms I haven't overlooked an existing tool. It seems like an obvious one to add ...... it would add flexibility in early sketches and allow easy markups as Graham notes. Maybe I'll have to look again at programs like SketchUp, but I'm a fan of being able to do simple things with one program. I've posted something on the Suggestions Forum. Regards Ross

Hi All What I'd like to do is select a tool, possibly a line tool, hold down the left mouse button (or a key) and when I move the cursor around on the screen, a squiggly line would be drawn that follows where the cursor goes. The line could then be selected, coloured, thickened, etc. Why? In this case, to add an indication of vegetation to some graphics of planter boxes, etc. However, it would probably have other uses. Anyway, maybe it already exists somewhere in the program but I can't find it? If not, I'm guessing that I'm going to have to generate this in another program and import it somehow? I've attached a rough idea of what I want to do. Any suggestions gratefully accepted. Regards Ross Young

Most of the above comments and criticisms of iMacs and MacBook Pro's are correct. However I think the original question from Steve wants to know if there is something inherent in the software of the Mac version of CA that reduces its performance compared with the PC version. Yes, the hardware will make a difference but if I run the software on a similar spec'ed Mac or PC, will it give similar performance or are there problems with the Mac CA version that slow it down? As far as criticisms of Mac's go, for the MacBook Pro (which I'm looking at) I'd add the following: 1. You have to purchase a 15" model to get a discrete graphics card rather than just on-board graphics. A discrete graphics card is not an option for the 13" or 11" models and cannot be retrofitted . 2. The graphics card offered for the 15" model is the NVidia GT 650M with 2GB of memory. This is apparently a "mid range" graphics card. There are no other options offered (although it comes in black) . 3. When the battery of your 15" MacBook dies, you cannot buy a new one from eBay or wherever and fit it yourself. It has to go back to an Apple service store and they will replace it, along with the part of the case it is solidly glued too!! Currently this costs about $250, according to on-line information. Apparenly there is no good reason why the battery is glued in and this has only started with the mid 2014 models onward. There is no perfect computer, but has CA done any benchmarking of the two versions on similar spec'ed machines? Thanks Ross Young

I'd also be interested in any comments as I'm about to change from a 6 year old Dell PC to using a MacBook Pro with what looks like lower specs than Steve's. Ross Young

All the above comments are relevant. Also, what do you mainly want to produce or achieve with the software? My advice is to practice with a simple example of what you want to achieve. Eg, if you want to produce 3D views of a building as a design tool, and then go onto produce drawing sets for DA/CC and/or construction documents (that's what I use it for), start with a very simple example of a building (eg, a rectangular plan with a few windows one external door, and a simple roof). Write down a list of the finishes you want it to have (corrugated metal roof, weatherboard cladding, timber windows, slab on ground, etc), then work towards getting that "model" as good as you can, then try to produce a layout set of working drawings, using forums and on-line help suggested above when you get to a problem. the key is to make the intitial project SIMPLE. I'm saying this from experience.........no Taj Mahals for your first model. Good luck with it. Cheers Ross

I had exactly the same problem as the OP........... in 3D views I could see all the edit handles (eg, the 4 sides of a window) when I selected an object, but could not "grab" them by hovering directly on the edit handle. I then discovered that if I hovered a bit above the edit handle I could grab it. This was a bit annoying. I've now read the solution posted at (4).........was able to fix it by checking this box: Preferences > Edit > Cross Hair > Enable in Perspective View This has fixed the issue for me as well. The edit handles can be grabbed by hovering the mouse directly on the edit handle. Cheers Ross

Bill, that was it, thanks. My settings were as follows: Edit Handle Size = 3 Edit Handle Tolerance = 1 I changed this to: Edit handle size = 8 (made the edit handles about the same as they appear in X5) Edit Handle Tolerance = 0 (the recommended default setting in Help). All OK now. Thanks again. Ross

Hi All This must be justt me or a new setting somewhere......... I can't believe nobody else is having this issue. I just downloaded X6 and am using it for the first time. I open a plan and insert a window. I then go to a 3D view (eg, full camera) and select the window. I have no trouble selecting the window in 3D, but when I try to adjust its width or height or position I can't select any of the relevant drag handles. I can see them, But I just can't select them. Similar story with other items (furniture, walls, etc). I have the "Select Objects" icon ticked. The only way I can find to adjust objects is to open them and use the dialogue box........ What am I missing?? Thanks Ross