Sydney23

When the design work is done and the time comes to output to layout, I normally have to spend 5-20 minutes tidying up each elevation/section in layout - getting rid of spurious lines mainly (largely due to CA wanting to create a complex buildable structure rather than what I normally need which is mainly just a simplified structure outline with main features - windows, doors, etc). The problem is, if the client then wants a change, or I spot something that needs changing in the plan, I have to decide - am I going to try and edit the changes within layout or spend an awful lot of time updating the layout elevation from the revised plan and start all over agan with the layout edits? Is there any way of preserving layout edits? Or selectively updating elevations/sectios from plan to layout? This might be a technical/logical impossibility, I haven't spent time trying to work it out. I am still X6, I guess I'm partly asking if this has been added since? Many thanks.

Hi again, Thanks for the input. It started working as normal again, I have no idea why, I guess some kind of software glitch. Or possibly something to do with the unsual foundations abutting anothe building, which was causing rooms not to be seen as rooms (which also messed up floor levels). Or my fault for not updating my CA!....

I am trying put a bed into a 95 degree corner (don't ask!) and CA is forcing it to match the angle of one wall when I want it flat against the other wall. I always thought you could stop this by holding CTRL or switching off 'Bumping/Pushing', but CA is over-riding me regardless. Feeling like a beginner again!

Hi Mick, I tried that method too, no luck as there is no option for labels during making the CAD block on this item. If the method Eric found works in X9 I'll just add it to my list of excuses for upgrading from X6!!

Hi Eric, Thanks for that. I just tried it in plan view and elevation and didn't work either time - the new library item's label is still a way away from the item when placed. I deleted the previous version in the library to make sure that wasn't corrupting things. Might be an X6 thing?

And now I'm looking at a wall elevation with a 220v socket on it and the automatic label is right over the 3D symbol so the symbol is barely visible. Can I adjust the default position of that label too?

Hi, I have just created a new 2D symbol for an old library downlight and it seems to be working OK. But the label is a long way from the new (smaller) symbol in plan view. I know I can set that offset for each instance of the light via their properties/dialogues, but that would mean selecting and changing every single downlight. Is there a way of adjusting the Y offset for the label for the new library item, so that every time I put it in a plan the label is closer to the symbol in plan view? Or for all electrical items? Pretty sure I've adjusted this in the past but I've been away from CA for 2 years. BTW, I'm still using x6. Thanks.

Just trying to fix a plan that was taking 30 seconds after every single move of the mouse or touch of a key.... Switched off 'rotate plan view' and everything good again. I had stupidly rushed into this drawing just sticking with north as straight up. Bad move. CA seems to work best with a non rotated plan view, can get badly slow otherwise. Note to self - stick with designing with buildings at 0 and 90 degrees as far as possible. This could make designing multiple units at differing angles tricky. BTW, I've been building the last couple of years, back to drawings now, might even have to update my CA from... X6!!

We are a small architecture business near London (UK) and need help setting up plans of existing buildings so that we can do the design and changes. We will do measured surveys and take photos of features to enable someone to put together the plans of the existing set up. This will speed up our work doing the design. Our plans are used by builders to quote from, structural engineers for calculations, and also for council planners to decide on whether to grant planning permission. In addition, our clients appreciate 3D drawings to help visualise the changes. Please get in touch if you have experience of working remotely, across timezones. Please advise of your hourly rate, or whether you are able to quote upfront for jobs. This is a general query - there is no specific job needing doing yet, but there are a number in the pipeline (so this doesn't need to be someone with immediate availability). Some experience of UK design and building is helpful. Thanks Ruth Fraser Office Manager Zollikon Architecture

I absolutely think they should, yes, but I think CA gives them the same ref and then just puts the number of them under quantity. I find that very confusing as if the built opening is slightly out from the plans and you change one window's dims just before purchase, the window then gets its own CA ref number. I would prefer if we could assign numbers and LOCK THEM. Having CA change them without very explicit permission from the user is guaranteed to introduce errors unless you know CA very well and are 100% switched on - I've found it way too easy to make expensive errors.

Does anyone know if there are any user-editable fields within the Windows component / schedule table that don't lose their data if I change the size of the window?I just need a place to enter some notes (e.g. "re-measure on site", "don't order till XYZ date", etc) but I need them locked to that window - not disappearing without warning...

Perry, what a superb time-saving tip. I will definitely try and implement this. Thanks!!

Thanks for the excellent advice. Had a query, searched, watched a video. Done. It means I get a lunch break today

Yep, mine just crashed as well, can't restore them and can't remember exactly how I had them. I'm using X6. Just incredible, never known any other software to do this in 30+ years of computing.

Fixed it for the time being by getting rid of my basement floor (CA's Floor 1) and putting all the walls/dims etc into CA's 'Floor 0'. Not how I've done it before but it fixed a few things and I don't have time to get it better than this. Haven't the foggiest why it didn't work before or why it is working now, but it'll have to do for now.

Right, now I have the levels I want by forcing it via room dialigues rather than the floor defaults. But it's not right, **now all my windows are obscured by brickwork!** I've seen this before and fixed it by changing floor heights but I just can't get them working in this plan for some reason (see above). Anyone?...

I think the software just doesn't think how I think, it's really not intuitive for me. Right now I am swimming in mud trying to understand floor heights/defaults/basements/foundations. This might be because I'm in the UK and we build slightly differently and call some things by different names, but you know, a picture would sometimes save 1000 words... The documentation is very poor. I always look at the manual first but it's so basic it rarely helps. I simply don't know what CA means in its dialogue boxes, for example, "floor under this room". Floor could mean another storey or it could mean a built floor? "Floor" has more than one meaning, so it's confusing. There's no live help. I would pay for the ability to instantly have some guru take over my screen and he could just click away as he talked me through it. Probably only take 10 minutes, job done. But when I need help NOW, I simply can't wait for a group online tutorial in two weeks or wade through countless videos hoping my precise problem might be covered. Time is money and searching, reading watching, trying - often fruitlessly - costs me a tonne. Also, the old forum seemed to have a lot more useful history, I rarely find anything useful in the new one and then end up going to the older one - more time wasted. It's not like I'm completely stupid. I'm educated to post-graduate level and measured as top 1% of graduates in verbal critical reasoning (i.e. understanding stuff). Once you know how with CA it's OK, but stepping out of your/CA's comfort zone is frequently a costly nightmare. Sorry if this sounds negative, but this should be a mature product by now and I'm having a bad CA day today and have projects piling up!

I always have GF set as height 0mm, makes sense in my head. I like to set Floor default heights (floor and finshed ceilings) on site when I do the as-built survey. I've always struggled with anything out the usual with floor heights. But this time I'm beaten. If I want rooms in below ground, I have to create a floor below which in my head should be called Basement or Floor -1, but CA calls it Floor 1. So now my GF is called Floor 2. This is confusing to me. When I'm with a customer, I'm now telling them that Floor 2 is actually the Ground Floor, their basement lounge will be called Floor 1, etc - and they look at me a bit strange... Now, I want to tell CA that the default height for the Ground Floor (CA's Floor 2) should be 0mm and the default height for the basement rooms (CA calls 'Floor 1') should be '0mm minus the thickness of the floor and basement rooms heights', let's say an absolute height of -2400mm. But I can't find out how to change the basement room's floor (CA calls 'Floor 1') to -2400, it insists on it being 0mm. But I want my GF (CA Calls Floor 2) to be 0mm. Then below my basement rooms (CA's Floor 1) I have to add foundations - CA calls Floor 0. I've just spent three hours trying to get this working - and I've been using CA full time for about three years now. I've worked it out in the past by just spending ages clicking on and off the, to me, confusing to the point of meaningless floor settings (floor under this room/floor supplied by the room below etc) but no luck this time. The annoying thing is, if I was faster on CA I could easily double or treble my income - I turned down 7 projects in 4 weeks off work over Christmas/New Year (and I don't do any advertising, all word of mouth). BTW, I'm on X6. Any help for my poor exploding head would be appreciated as I have a queue of customers phoning me asking when their plans will be ready...

It worked, thanks. I suppose the only way to have it per dimension would be to create extra dim layers specifically for that. It might be useful sometimes but my plans are already pretty complex with layers. Anyway, your help achieved my aim, so thanks again.

Just looked and coudn't find how to alter the white borderless box that sits beneath dimension numbers. If I select the dimension and open, I get the choice of alterring the arrow backgroudn colour (even though the arrows I se aren't fillled). Looked in defaults and prefereces, can't find a way. Sometimes the white number background wipes out an inportant feature, so being able to make it transparent (per dimension, not just by layer) would be great.

Thanks Bill, I vaguley remember trying this once and getting horribly confused / couldn't get it to work. But thanks, until CA add this 'real world' functionality I'll try that route again when it's important. It's not on every project, but often enough to make me a tad frustrated.

Is there a way of doing this in a plan? I often review plans with customers and end up with an action list and other comments on a bit of paper. It would be neater if I could keep it within the plan. I know I could use a rich text window and just have a manual list, but a scheduel could have (user defineable?) columns such as: Action Point Ref Action Point Description Requested Date Requested By Deadline Date Who? Done? Hours? etc etc and be linked to callout/marker type points within the plan itself, with links so I can click on Schedule 'item 15' in the table and be taken to comment/to do item 15 location in the plan. There may well be a way of doing this already, it seems obvious, but I've just spent 30 mins trawling around schedules and callouts and can't find a way of doing it. The schedules all seem predefined to other CA defined categories - windows, doors, electrics etc. The layout page tables are no good either as I need something in the plan itself.

If I have a door in a UK standard 300mm cavity wall, or an old 9" solid brick wall, I need to tell CA where to put that door (outer skin/centred/inner skin) and whether the door swings in or outwards. But in CA these two concepts seem locked together. I can only get the door in the right position if I change the swing. The 'recess' option in the door DBX only seems to play around with the jambs/casing, not the door itself. I'm sure I could conquer it by redefining all my walls and main layers, but that will introduce complexity when trying to get multi-layer walls connecting correctly. Is there an easy solution to this? Being able to tell CA where to locate doors in walls, easily, seems a basic requirement to me. For X7, how about a simple door DBX commmand saying "offset door XXXmm from outer surface of wall"?

That's it really. I could never figure out how do it in Home Designer Pro 9, nor X2, nor X5, nor X6. Looking back at the legacy forum (why did that disappear? Just means I have to search in 2 different places for answers?) it seems people were pleading for this to be fixed back in 2008. Whenever I see a customer's house has a bow or bay window I always think "there goes another 3 hours of my life battling with CA". For the avoidance of doubt, I have 4 layer 300mm cavity walls (brick, insulated cavity, concrete block, plaster - as most UK houses have been built (I'm simplifying slightly) since about 1920. I need a bay/bow window with the window frames mulled - no brickwork between each window, just UPVC/timber frame. I've tried manual and messing about with glass walls 1mm thick, changing main layers, pony walls, etc, etc, it's a total drag and usually leads to huge wasted time in 2D CAD at elevations output stage. Am I behind the times? Has this been fixed yet?