Chopsaw

Chad,  Not yet a Raytrace expert but go back to your other plan that is good and copy the Define Material Properties that worked for you before.  Maybe Material Class: Polished or Mirror will get you away from the black.  Good Luck.

I don't see anything there that could not be done in Chief. And I bet Rich could do a better ray trace than that.

How may sheets do you have in your set? Just keep clicking and if you use the Project Browser it is easier to keep track of your pages. It might be nice to click and drag if you have 60 or so pages but I don't think there is a way to do that yet.

Yes I noticed that David, I just wondered if the New Chief Architect Save As PDF we use in X8 would be backwards compatible with X3 as an add on. It seems to work fine for that sort of thing for me.

Bunkie .pdf

Emma, I have not seen that issue before.  What file format are your 2 images and have you tried any other PDF generators?  I assume you do not have the Chief Architect Save As PDF.  I wonder if it could be added to X3.

I started that way just to keep it all organized but as I progressed through the problems that arose that last attached Text Grouping that I posted is actually 15 seperate items of cad and cad blocked text and Rich Text. But would it not be great to have something like that -the cad all in one simple block. Sorry I forgot about the 9 other cad touch ups for the extra bold shadow text.

I thought you may have jumped ship on me Glenn but as you can see my original post was a simplified example for illustration purposes.  And what I am trying to do is exactly what Rich Text was designed to do but simple editing can turn into a nightmare even when the original input is not too complicated.  I will talk to tech about this even though they have not been very impressed with my submissions as of late.  

Glenn,

I think that could somewhat represent my situation but likely I have complicated it even more by including different fonts and font sizes as well as colours within the same line or even the same word.

Michael,

You did have me worried a bit at first because your attachment was not working but I always appreciate your advice.

Have a great weekend with your family.

Thank you Michael,  I will try to remember that one for next time or maybe just start drinking to understand the program.  It sure would be nice to just open the DBX and highlight the text you want to change and change only the things you want to change about it. Sometimes there are multiple colours involved and your new trick will not work for that.

Glenn, When I select text to change the colour I can only select a portion with all the same settings and even at that I have had to reset the size after changing the colour in a lot of situations.  If you select more than one single portion with different settings you loose the font and size when changing the colour. 

Has anyone tried to change the text colour of the contents of a Rich Text Box that has say about 15-20 different fonts and or font sizes. This seems to be excessively inefficient. Unless there is something that I have missed, which I hope there is because I do not want to have to make a 20 min video to put in Suggestions Forum.

Thanks,  Chopsaw

Sorry to be a little late with this but maybe for the next time you will have the option of cad blocking a problem area of text and using the Width Factor Settings in the Cad Block Specification DBX under the General tab to Stretch or Compress (scale) a particular font or text situation that is a problem without effecting the height of the text.  Do not try to rotate scaled Cad Blocked Text until tech support gets this problem fixed but you can export to PNG with transparent background and re import then rotate.  Rather shocking that CA and two respected power users are not aware this can be done.

 Learn a new trick every day and you will never be an old dog. 

Sorry to be a little late with this but maybe for the next time you will have the option of cad blocking a problem area of text and using the Width Factor Settings in the Cad Block Specification DBX under the General tab to Stretch or Compress (scale) a particular font or text situation that is a problem without effecting the height of the text. Do not try to rotate scaled Cad Blocked Text until tech support gets this problem fixed you can export to PNG with transparent background and re import then rotate.

What version of software are you using Cripp? You should be able to open your user library and Right Click New> Backdrop... select .jpg file and import then go to your perspective view of your Terrain perimeter apply to background and fit the two together. This will only work if you are happy viewing the entire project from the original camera position or you can take more pictures when that pile of bricks gets cleaned up. Ideally you would need a 360^o   panoramic image but I assume that is not within the budget of your project. Build whatever you like onto the terrain perimeter and plant some grass.

Jay,  Sure glad we got that sorted out. Divorces can be messy.  I will post my X8 test plan that I did the mock up in and you can check out the settings I used and the saved cad detail and elevation view or I would be glad to spend some time with you on Skype if that would help. Just send me a PM.

Galv. Drip Strip.plan

Jay, This is about the best I can figure for now unless someone else has this all figured out with some tools I have not learned yet.  Attachment A Cross Section that can be set to build by default which displays well in 3D ( Attachment C ) and then a cad detail from view of cross section ( Attachment B ) that can be edited to look like you need without much effort. 

However if there is no solution that works for all scenario's then as David says maybe it is suggestion time and CA can take the list from the Build Roof dialogue of Options and make the Edge Flashing, Ridge Vent, Metal Drip Edge at Eave, Metal Drip Edge at Gable, and Valley Flashing function just as the first item of Gutter does in the 3D model and plan rather than just on the material list.

Hope that this helps you along with your divorce from Auto Cad.

I feel your pain Jay,  Please send me an exact scaled and dimensioned sketch of your drip strip and I will see if there is an easier way because we have the same problem here in Canada.

Joe, That works great,and it works for gables to. Thanks.

Jay, You did not ask for it to be over the gutter but I hope with Joe's help you have what you need now.

There was no plan posted but as you can see from my post I made a quick test plan of my own and wondered if you had noticed the same irregularity because if I recall the sequence correctly I had an open ceiling with the normal roof and when I curved it a new ceiling layer appeared.  I can post the test if you want to check it out.

I just made copies to illustrate the motion that I assumed you were looking for.  Just rotate the amount you need without selecting copies.

Jay, In the Build Roof Dialogue under the Gutter tab you can assign a custom molding profile to your fascia typically used for gutter but if you are not using gutter you can put anything you want there and it will be auto.  However if you also want gutter or if you need drip strip on the gable ends you will need to use a molding or 3D molding polyline.  If you get this to work ok post some camera views so others can see.

Try using a temporary point and rotating with Transform and Replicate with About Current Point selected in the DBX.

Perry,  I found there was something strange with the curved roof that made the ceiling surface stick and I also had to select "Use Soffit Surface for Ceiling" under the Structure>Ceiling tab of the room DBX.

Mike,

That does not work for for me either. Warning says "Could not find a roof surface or a ceiling surface over this Soffit."

There could be a way to do that but maybe you could show the actual rafters and put your insulation on top of the roof?

As Michael said that first entry appears to have been entered manually. Did you have several versions of this plan saved under different plan names?  If so you may have inaccurately added hours from a preliminary file to this one.  If that is not the case then there is a problem because normal time tracking will follow in chronological order.  If the recorded hours are actually correct then you had your computer turned on with that file open for over 5 months straight with no idle setting and no power failures. 

You may want to talk to tech support to see if that was a known beta bug, and if they can help you.