dshall

I was talking with a Buddy a little bit ago, and he said things have been a bit tough for the last 9 months. Last year somehow I had my best year, but I would not say I have been buried. I don't want to be buried, so that is good. It seems like I have just enough work to keep me coming in every day which is a true blessing. It seems like there will be a spurt of new jobs, and then a lull, another spurt of new jobs and then another lull. I guess I keep busy during the lulls with the spurt of projects. So what is your experience? Are you guys buried or treading water?

For the last two jobs, my client had to pay between 150 & 250 for Calcs. I think they are tired of doing the work for free. For big time clients, Calcs are free.

I believe the downside to this is it will be unique to this plan, whereas with Joe's import method, any new or existing plan will have access to the macro. Isn't this so?

This did catch me by surprise the other day. You are correct that if you do a non room def for an INTERIOR wall, it does not work, however for an EXTERIOR wall it does work. Apparently when I did this a while back, I tested on exterior wall and it did work. Thanks for clarifying this. I get it, not the greatest method of changing a wall material. Hopefully CA will fix this with X8.

Thanks Jan..... BTW, if you go on to GOOGLE EARH PRO ...... you maybe able to save the dollar and get the same info, see pic.

....... netroline I believe covers all counties but until yesterday it did not work for me...... And today NETROLINE does not work, thanks to Alan L. I might have access to a plat map outside of San Diego County.

You are absolutely correct.... I was being a bit lazy.

Worked lile a dream, thanks Joe.

Thanks Alan. I appreciate the help. I think I will also talk to Larry or Jan about using the San Diego Site, but as a back up for projects I work on in RIVERSIDE COUNTY, I have one going on up there right now, I will need something like FASTWEB which I assume covers more counties....... netroline I believe covers all counties but until yesterday it did not work for me...... good to have a back up like FAST WEB, thanks again Alan for what you can do.

Joe, I imagine this is some really good stuff that somehow I think CA should provide. But, in any case, I really appreciate what you did, however, I do not how to use it. The attached pic shows what I have when I downloaded your file. Would you mind explaining how I use this in a plan, thanks a ton.

BTW, for a two story house, I bet I could put the terrain on LEVEL 26 and make it work.

My son uses REVIT, I can blow him out of the water using CA. You must learn to use the terrain tools. I can do just about any terrain in CA. The only issues I was referring to was what happens when it comes to PLAN VIEWS, i.e. what the plan view looks like without a lot of CAD work, hence the request for better ref layer control. I am sure there are some videos detailing how to work with terrain, if interested, I would recommend you watch them.

Checking in: The Moakster's suggestion, it does no cover SOCAL, useless for me Alan's Fast Web, I used this before, it became more and more restricted, stop using it, just checked it out, they wanted password etc, I did not go any further Perry's system, they wanted a subscription, could not figure how to get on, gave up Larry's County system, I got on, bought plat map for 5.00, I think they will mail it to me, they said I could view it for 10 days but I do not know how to do that, I gave up My County system (SDGIS) their web site only recognizes internet explorer, I am on a MAC, no internet Explorer, I use internet explorer on my PC, for some reason the monitor is huge, I can't read the maps anymore.... Netroline, I tried it today..... IT WORKED! I was able to get a plat map for the first time in 4 months..... I cannot explain it..... Mick's suggestion of using Perry to get plats was a thought, but he was talking 6.00 per plat, I doubt Perry wants to be bothered getting plats for me.... thanks Mick, but not a whole lot of help... soooooo, Netroline is working for now, fingers crossed, 3.50 for a plat map if quick and efficient is well worth it.

Not true, you mess with the site on the level the terrain is drawn. You can put the terrain on any level therefore you choose the best level to manipulate the terrain....... I will beg off and let someone with more knowledge of terrains explain a possible workaround.

I think you understand how this works and you probably understand a solution that will work best for you...... CONSIDERING THE LIMITATIONS YOU ARE FACED WITH.

A great question. To sum up what I think the question is....... If I have a four level house..... where do I put the terrain? I have a garage at level 1, and I have patios at levels 2,3,&4 as I climb up the hill....... so again, how do I show patios and driveways at all four levels. As a general rule, I always put the terrain on level 1. Even if I have walk out basement and garage and driveway at level above basement level. (Note, my basements are always on level one). So for the driveway on level 2 to show in plan, I need to use ref sets to show the driveway on level 2 even though it is drawn on level one because THE TERRAIN IS ON LEVEL ONE. So here is the problem and the limitations....(I know if I use CAD blah blah blah everything is possible, but I want things to be auto, I HATE CAD...... IT IS NOT LIVE).....So here is the problem and the limitations.... in situations such as the scenario described above, to show patios in a plan even though the patio might be actually drawn on another level........ there is not a super good solution, the super good solution will be available when CA gives us the ability to use more than one REF SET with a LAYOUT VIEW sent to layout. CA NEEDS TO LET US USE MORE THAN ONE REF SET AND MORE THAT ONE LEVEL WITH SAID REF SET TO ANY VIEW SENT TO LAYOUT.............

Thanks Tom, however I can not read the map. I am assuming I need to go to a site that charges me a nominal fee to get a tiff file.... still searching for a good consistent site to get the map. I do not want to spend time trying to figure out a web site. I would much rather pay 3.00 each time, get my map and move on..... it seems that I have lost that ability lately.... I will check out The Moakster;s method..... Larry's looks promising too.

I used FASTWEB 10 years ago, they started limiting me to a couple a month and then it became to much of a hassle so I switched to NETROLINE until now they can't give me maps.

absolutely

Holy Kamoly, I have been dreaming about your lobster rolls ever since we decided to make this trip. I will definitely keep in touch. BTW, down here in SOCAL we have "lobsters", but nothing like those. In fact our lobster do not have claws. We call them "bugs". Back when we were scuba diving, during "lobster" season, we would scuba dive down at night and catch them, boil them and eat them. But nothing beats a Maine Lobster.

Are you talking Portland Oregon or Portland Maine? If you are talking Maine, Lynn and I will be up there in October 2016 to see the colors. Maybe we can get together for lunch as we cruise through. Anyway, keep it in mind Moakster, it will be nice to meet you.

Jeez Mon Cherie, you are making a lot of sense. Yeah, why do we need the work "POST"? If you use auto labels, you are stuck with the word post. So what is the solution? You cannot use WIDTH x DEPTH, because then lumber sizes will not auto revert to nominal sizes........ SO WHAT IS THE SOLUTION? ....... well, if we pick auto labeling, give us the size, LEAVE OFF THE WORD POST, and if we want the word post, we can add that into the SPECIFY LABEL box ourselves. Great comment Mon Cherie, I question why we need the arrow, and I question why we need the word "POST".

Does this mean we can never have left justified text for our post call outs? If this is the case, I cannot imagine they will ever be able to improve the stairs, left justified text seems so much easier to program than stairs.

Hey guys, I almost feel stupid asking this but where and how do you get your ASSESSORS MAPS. It seems like every time I find a site to retrieve APM's, It's good for 8 months and then somebody changes the method to retrieve them and I have to start over. I have used title companies, the SANGIS system, NETROLINE, and a couple of others, what do you guys use? Is it free?

Thanks Michael for the Link. I will try it when I have time unless you want to do a vid to explain how to use it. It amazes me how some of you guys find these neat web sites that have all this information.