Alaskan_Son

Totally agree. Not even sure how those words made it through. Seems to me like they usually automatically get edited out by the system.

Glad I could help.

Just to give you an idea of what the sun alone will do, here's a very quick example. Turned off all light sources except for the sun and didn't mess with any materials or settings other than the sun position and lighting intensity. 7 passes...3 minutes. Edit: Accidentally left the ray trace running. Here's 36 passes and 15 minutes.

Opened up your plan and messed with it a bit. Looks like you need to actually add a North Pointer and Sun Angle to your plan. Brightens up nicely... Note: I deleted my previous post because after opening your plan I realized it didn't really apply.

The ones with dollar amounts also have the little SSA ribbon up in the right hand corner.

There are quite a few options including but not limited to: 1. The soffit tool (one of the more popular options). 2. Creating room dividers and adjusting the ceiling height and structure settings for the individual areas. 3. Using ceiling planes (probably one of the better methods in my opinion). 4. Using polyline solids (many will disagree, but this is usually my personal favorite). 5. Much more complicated, but you can build soffits using an additional "Floor" with very short ceiling heights. I'm sure the list could go on. These are just the methods that come to mind.

Why not use the Layer Hider tool instead? Just checked and you CANNOT "uncheck" a layer using the Layer Painter tool in X7 either.

You might have to zip it first.

Very nice Christopher!

You're welcome. Glad I could help.

Ya, that's what I was envisioning. With the railing width you're using though you would need a bigger newel or block anyway. Use a smaller rail or larger corner post and it should look just fine.

You know Glenn...not sure whether I want to give you a hug or punch you in the face sometimes. That's an awesome tip. Not sure I've ever used that tool before. Thank you : )

We can't make it look good without adding an extra newel post. Adding an extra newel could fix it though. Here's something to think about... That connection isn't possible to perfect in real life either. It would need a newel post or plinth block of some sort for the transition.

Sorry, don't have X8 yet. Waiting for full public release to make sure kinks are worked out. To be fair though, I'm not so sure I'll be able to fix that connection issue. Again, that's sort of a secondary issue though.

Sure we have. Granted that connection between railing sections doesn't look great, but that's a secondary issue and wasn't part of Dennis' request.

How does that connection look using railing provided through the stair DBX?

Yes. Completely independent control of bottom rail, top rail, newels, newel spacing, panel material, and panel width.

Is this maybe what you're missing?

There are quite a few little issues in my opinion... 1. Whether or not brick is "load bearing" is somewhat debatable and depends on the seismic zone, product, and installation details. 2. a 3-4" concrete wall is not even allowable per IRC with the exception of pier and curtain wall foundations (which I suppose this may or may not be). 3. Based on the height and thickness of that 3-4" section, I'm not sure it's even possible to meet the minimum edge separation and embedment depth requirements for those j bolts...and if it is, they would have to be set absolutely perfectly and rotated so that the j was running parallel with the foundation wall (and not perpendicular as drawn up). 4. Based on that drawing, the j-bolts would not be placed properly centered in the sill plate as that should be (likely violating code in many areas...and rightly so). 5. Not necessarily a design flaw, but the j-bolts in the lower wall section would also need special attention to make sure the proper embedment depth and edge clearances were met. To make sure this happened, they should probably actually be placed at a slight angle (or maybe using a different bolt design). I don't know, maybe I'm wrong, but I definitely don't think I could find an engineer around here willing to sign off on that detail.

Ya, I deleted my post because it seemed like you were saying the same thing and you posted first (I was actually typing mine up when you posted). I guess the only thing I posted that you didn't was that I don't personally have that problem and that perhaps if the OP attached a plan we might be able to figure something out. How about it OP? Can you attach a plan?

Don't want to get too far off subject here, but that really looks like a faulty design to me. That little 3" or 4" thick foundation section looks like a failure waiting to happen.

I personally create a lot of camera views too during my workflow and spend a lot of time closing them. I'm usually forced to use the tabs as selecting the individual cameras seems to take even longer and can be a little more difficult to sort through.

I was hoping you would attach the actual Sketchup model (as opposed to a screenshot) however, from looking at the picture, I can see that it would not require a complex 3D moulding and would only need a 2D CAD profile. Place that piece of railing into your plan, take a cross section camera view through the middle of it, and create a CAD Detail From View. Make sure the CAD lines, arcs, splines, etc. that from your moulding profile form a complete polyline (as opposed to separate segments), and then select that polyline and Add To Library. You can now use that moulding for your railing.

If there's a faster way I would like to know it as well.

Again...attach the plan. Specifically one that is causing you problems. Otherwise we're just guessing.