Alaskan_Son

Did you watch the second video in Ross's post? The gentleman in the video talks about terrain very briefly but once he gets past that, I believe he addresses the issue you are trying to figure out. He's using an older version of the program, but the basics are still the same and work with or without the terrain.

Thanks Mickey. Its just a crappy video (a hommage to Scott's "crappy" ray traces) but hopefully it helped someone. I've only made a few but I've quickly realized that I learn a lot simply making one and often times what I learn or what someone else may learn watching them may have absolutely zero to do with the subject matter.

I think the reference to AutoCAD was due to the way you're creating your set of working drawings. It appears as if you are doing it all right inside of the plan file rather than using a layout file to create your plan set. If that's what works for you...go for it, but its highly unusual (I for one have never seen anyone else do it that way). The "standard" procedure is to send your plan and elevation views to layout (which become your working drawings). If you want to combine them all into one set of plans for printing, I personally wouldn't use a layout file to do that, I would just combine multiple layouts into one PDF.

Without a specific plan or picture to go off its hard to guess exactly what you're after but I would start in one of 2 places. First... Default Settings>Window>General>Options>Minimum Separation...change this to zero. Second...explore the possibility of building the window out of a single unit and use muntins.

Please bear in mind that there are a huge number of variables that come into play. People like Scott donate many many many hours to help people like you and I sort through their problems and it is extremely common for the OP to miscommunicate what exactly they are doing or to overlook any number of variables or settings that may come into play. In this example, Scott took 10 minutes of his time trying to solve your issue not realizing you were using cameras...something he would have known if you had attached the plan. Its just a good idea to get into the habit of attaching the plan (even a stripped down version with just enough information top show your problem). It takes a ton of the guesswork out and saves everyone a lot of time.

A quick video... http://screencast.com/t/PAsgE5rl

We already use Sketchup. I actually prefer Chief though for most things... Plus, natively created Chief symbols usually behave much better than those created in Sketchup.

It actually doesn't work for anything except a rectangular cross section.

Ya, that would work. It limits what can be done with boolean operations though which is what I am really after. It would be nice if we were either able to convert a moulding to a solid or a symbol to a solid. Ima gonna post a suggestion.

Ya, I guess I should have clarified. See my last post above. The functionality I'm after would require the ability to create a moulding path not just a straight line.

Here's a quick example... I created this ladder recently, and while I was able to build it with primitive solids, it would have been much quicker and easier if I were able to use mouldings to create the side rails.

Is there any method of converting a moulding to a primitive solid? Seems like it should be an easy thing to do...select a moulding, convert to solid. Am I missing something or is there really no way to do this?

Yep. Colored, LIVE, vector views would be a nice addition to CA's capabiliites. Not anywhere near the top of my priority list, but a good suggestion and a useful feature. For now, its a bit of a pain but we can layer multiple views in layout to get close, however its not the same.

I think turning off the layer IS the option.

Nice job Johnny

I've personally never wanted any of those colors or fills in layout. As far as I know, the only way to do that is to send it as an image.

Hmmm...Still kinda cool, but after running some tests, it appears you can only use + and - and that only one calculation can be performed at a time (i.e. 2"+2", NOT 2"+2"+3").

Thats AWESOME!!! Thanks for that little tip!

What I believe you are seeing is framing material...plywood and/or stud material. Just use Adjust Material Definition (rainbow tool) and change the color.

I think most of us make those parts from moulding polylines...at least I do.

Thanks Larry!! Good stuff. I personally just learned a lot from that. You get another point.

If you read back though you'll see that I gave myself the rest of that answer too.

You know what...thank YOU for posting the plan. It is EXTREMELY helpful. In fact I'm going to start giving people points for posting the plan. Giving you one right now.

This conversation was a little outside my interest zone until this statement... Whoa! That sounds crazy. If that works for you than have at it, but I don't see any benefit other than perhaps easier sorting. That could be done using the project browser in one single plan though.

Not sure I like that answer but it is helpful none the less. As it turns out, it will also work if you select right or left side...just not centered. I guess what I'll do is select either right or left and then move the callout back to where I want it (essentially centering it). Thank you Scott, not exactly what I was hoping but that got me where I needed to be : )