madcowscarnival

This morning, started working on the idea of importing CAD as closed polylines and, In the off chance that anybody in the future tries to cheat the system, I found a semi-cheat code. In CAD program, hatch the entities you want to apply materials to, with separate hatch entities. When you import into CA, select the "Hatch entities can be imported as solid-filled polylines" Nice! * import this into an elevation view for material painting on walls* When the drawing comes in, ctrl+select the new hatch entities (all can be selected at for action) -> Explode CAD blocks Without deselecting, use pline convert to Polyline solid. Huzzah, now the CAD-defined hatched areas are paintable to the limits of those lines with Chiefs superior material work. DB, I would not have given this a second look without your reply, thank you.

Thanks DB, I was hoping there was a cheat code or something to get around making and converting lots of polylines (individual windows/trim/etc).

Is it possible to "apply" a surface finish and color to a cad detail? A designer sent me his 2-D cad elevation and wants to know if its possible to apply surface finishes and color on that elevation. I do not want to redraw his file, would be a waste of time, but it would be great if I could quickly point-n-fill the various finishes. He's an old-school cad user, his program has some hatches, but no means to color. If there were discrete bounded shapes, I know I could convert to a solid then apply the finish. I tried making the full elevation into a solid, but that doesn't work, and I doubt it would recognize areas divided by lines anyway. Is there some other way to accomplish this, like how the fill tool in Microsoft paint works? Thanks all. Elevation finish-color.plan

I've never performed this operation before and don't know the correct way to search. I sent a camera view (general reference for a guy) to the layout. The "picture" on layout I want to scale down to fit in a smaller area on the sheet. However, when I use "hold C drag corner" resizing, it just resizes the bounding box, and clips the picture, which remains the original size. Is it possible to resize/scale down the camera view? Unlike the ortho view where I could simply send over at a smaller scale, the options in scaling are grayed out. Thanks all.

Tundra, thanks. Apparently that was not selected in my default settings.

I feel sure I've seen them displayed in plan view before, but: Is there a way to display the posts in plan view, just a little square that I can call out size? (County did not like my 4 ~ evenly spaced 6x6 posts at front railing w/ 2 ~ 2x10 header note). I checked to see if it was a layer I didn't have turned on but the all-on layer doesn't display them either. Hopefully just missing a setting somewhere, but site and internet search haven't yielded an answer to my specific question. Thanks all.

DB, thanks. I'd never used that parallel/perp tool before, just what I needed. Never had to deal with something outside of CA line/angle snaps. I am still on X11, don't use the program as a full-time product.

Extra question, just to reduce effort. Is it possible to precisely rotate the already fully drawn garage to this off-angle?

I have a client who wants a very specific front and rear wall dimension in a breezeway addition in order to order to orient a new garage with the driveway. This gives me a wall with an angle of ~99 deg - I've tried & the contractor has tried to talk 'em out of it, no dice. I did get the off-angle wall to snap to the corners of the breezeway wall corners, but I cannot figure out how to get a simple CAD line to snap perpendicular to that wall (perp is turned on in Pref->Snaps, and works everywhere else, just not this off angle). I'm going to try to create the square garage with CAD lines then trace walls over them. Is what I'm trying to do possible?

Rene, Thank you for the reply. Yes, here is a screen grab with a side by side. Autocad makes that leader "tail" automatically, when I move the text, the horizontal segment stays the same length and horizontal in relation to the text. Chief's single segment leader moves around with the text just fine (top). The lower leader on the right is how I would like it to look, but when the text is moved around, the joint stays put requiring additional repositioning. It's not a critical thing, just something I've thought about for long enough that I'd like to find a solution.

This is a really petty (and lazy) question, but I'm not having luck with searching. Is there a way to make CA create a fixed length, horizontal segment at the end of the leader (similar to ACad leaders) automatically? I know its easy to add a second segment, but I have difficulty making them all "match" horiz. length? Something that would also stay fixed if I needed to reposition the text box. Thank you for any ideas.

Hey folks, I'm trying to autobuild a crawlspace foundation for a "house" directly adjacent to a post-frame building foundation (trench footing at the building perimeter, slab above). In CA settings a monolithic slab under the post-frame, walls with footings under the "house". When I go through the foundation dialog box, it doesn't appear that I can specify separate areas for different types. I did attempt to define foundation in the room type structure tab, but when it ultimately builds, it just does same type throughout. Is what I am attempting possible or do I need to draw the foundation plan "by hand". I have not had any luck with internet searching, which in general seems to be getting completely over-loaded with bot-spam articles. Thank you for any input.

Thank you for the responses. TeaTime, that shift click is the handy trick I was hoping for.

I can't search for it, because I can't quite explain my question... Say I want to make a 24"x24" shape be able to move around a room with precise dimensions. But when I try to move it by dimensions it just pulls that one "side" of the object (i.e. stretches it to 30.5"x24"). I did try converting to a polyline solid but same issue. I'm just trying to create a very rudimentary space planning layout. I think it's possible to do this, I just don't have a clue where to look. Thanks for any help.

Mr. Rabbit, Excellent, thank you for the suggestion. It actually led me to try a different approach, dropping the porch ceiling height which allowed the garage hip to plane out on top of the shed.

Existing house layout with addition.plan I'm going to reach out for some roof help or ideas on this addition. Situation is a large residential addition to an existing house (inlaw res) provided by a designer. I'm just the engineer primarily just to specify structural for the addition, and opened my mouth and said maybe I could model the whole thing in 3-D (though it has been excellent practice and relatively enjoyable). Existing house has the three different pitches and room height changes on the "right" side. Addition starts at the 3-car garage and continues to the "right". I was able to successfully match the original Arch drawings from the 70s and create a model of the addition plans. The builder (my contact) and Owner's want to increase the height of the addition great room and kitchen (meaningless without the addition layout) but is large interior area at the far "right". I managed to model it, and though I don't particularly like the "dueling peaks" at the rear gable, I think they can live with that. I'm kind of stuck on how to tie the front porch shed into the garage corner hip without that sliver of fascia. It may not even be possible but if anyone is so incline to make a suggestion, I'm all ears. And thank you.

Brett, Thanks. I had not considered doing it like that. Actually a preferable method too (I may want to show windows on exstg. for ortho views.

I've modeled an existing house with a fairly complex roof in a drawing file. I now need to show a fairly extensive addition on this house. I want to leave the existing roof model completely untouched then use auto build on the addition roof. Is the appropriate move to make the existing house a block in the drawing (sounds too simplistic)? Or make a model in this drawing file, start a new one for the addition and place the existing model in there?

Ah, unfortunately for me, TeaTime is correct. I checked the help index it doesn't even contain the term "girt" (presumably as a build member or in general discussion). I have built a post-frame building from the "older" CA videos so can create girts well enough. That will just have to do. Thanks.

I can do it manually, but is it possible to define a stud wall with girts on the outside face (metal sheating outside of that). I have a 1.5" fir framing layer defined, but it just adds (typical) vertical members outside of the stud-framing layer. In framing ortho I can grab one of those members rotate it, increase width to 3.5", move it to initial position, then multi copy up the wall. More out of curiosity than anything, is it possible to define that 1.5" fur framing layer rotated 90 degrees in the Wall Type Definition? This is not typical to what we normally have around here (post-frame for girts), but I get one or two a year that want to build like this.

I read a similar thread, but it was in regards to dimension behavior at each end of a rail "wall". Is there a way/setting to allow a dimension to locate the center of a "post-to-beam" in an automatic railing on a porch. i.e. a 54' long porch, automatic 5x5 posts at 8' spacing result in posts at ~6'-9"? The 54' number worked out well, but I would like to show post to post dimensions when it divides out to something like 7' 4-5/8" (made up number). I know I can create a CAD detail and set up dims with that, just curious if there is a non-manual option available.

Chris, with sheepish appreciation, thank you. That was it 100%.

Going to be hard to describe... When specifying my room type, as I select different types (bedroom, bonus, utility, etc.) the dialog box automatically places that type in the "Room Name" box. If I change the Room Type, it automatically changes the text in the Room Name to the new Type. I have a file open currently where the "Room Name" box just stays empty unless I manually type in the text. No automatic "update" of room type in the name box. I tried going into the Room Label Default and placing the room type macro, but then if I do want to place custom text in the "Room Name" I end up getting double label info. I'm certain this is a behavior setting that I somehow messed up. I can open another plan in the same instance of CA which does have the "expected" behavior. Thank you for any ideas.

Excellent, I don't know that I've ever manipulated those options, it was just set on default. I must have seen someone else's plan previously. Thank you.

I'm trying to figure out how to display posts in a railing in regular plan view. Unfortunately all my searching has led to displaying posts in 3-D, but they show up just fine in camera/ortho views. I feel certain I've seen it displayed before, but even with "all on" I can't find a layer that would display these posts. Edit: they are "built" (and displayed correctly in 3-D) at ~8.4' on center.