Alaskan_Son

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 : )

Thanks Scott, Here's a quick example... Sample plan.plan

Okay, so it seems there should be an easy way to do this, but I can't for the life of me find any way to hide a modified cross section line with hiding the whole camera/callout or adding a CAD patch Not something I've ever needed or used before now, but I've recently discovered and started to utilize the ability to cut and reshape cross section lines. As soon as the line is modified however, it is displayed in plan view as a solid line. I can change the line style in layer settings but this affects the callout display as well. There seems to be a setting for cross section line in the camera dbx but I can't seem to find any way to select and change it...its grayed out and I can't find anywhere in defaults or preferences to access it. I'm assuming its something simple that I'm missing. Any help would be appreciated.

I gave you a point too Glenn, although...you didn't really give the answer like Scott did. The build platform setting was actually set correctly. I would give you 2 points Scott, but alas...I cannot.

I agree with you Glenn. I didn't think it should matter either. Just knew that it worked when I changed it to an exterior wall. Should have looked better and caught the zero thickness thing though. Good job Scott.

Gave you a point Scott. I looked through those wall definitions too. I missed the zero thickness though.

As Johnny pointed out, the exterior wall type needs to be changed and those blank areas will cover just fine.

Come to think of it, I think I might see this differently than you do Glenn because we were a high production framing company for a number of years and did quite a bit of work exactly like the OP described (with pre-panelized walls) and so my idea of an automatic cut list (including the information I might want to see and how it is displayed) come from a little different perspective.

Sorry Glenn, I wasn't trying to be sneaky. The OP didn't mention panel optimization specifically, but its kinda part of the whole cut list thing in Solid Builder as I understand it. I still think we're comparing apples and oranges here. I stick by what I said earlier...You can get the same results from Chief, but it takes a lot more work and isn't nearly as automatic. Does that make Solid Builder a better program? No. Just a different tool, more specifically designed with another purpose and specialization in mind.

I wouldn't say I see any "problems" per se. It's just a different tool than Solidbuilder in my opinion. Try pulling up a few solid builder videos if you can find some and you'll see what I'm talking about. Similar things can be done is Chief but not nearly as automatically. I would love if you could prove me wrong because if there's a way chief can create automatic cut lists and perform panel optimization I can use it for a lot more than I do now.

Solidbuilder seems to really shine when it comes to "intelligent" framing tools, panel optimization, cut lists, etc. chief architect definitely has its strong points as well but it's not in those areas. I would call Chief architect a designer or architect's tool and solid builder a framer or builder's tool.

With some work, yes. Automatically, no.