dshall

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.

If the framer can't figure out that the angled text is for the post, I need a new framer.

Yes, I was doing that until recently..... I kind of gave up on that.

I think if I was moving from X5 to X7 with a plan I would use the same file. However I did this just recently and the plan file was slower, but it was a good decision for my case. This guy is talking about going from v.6 to v. X7, isn't that 11 versions ago? I didn't know they had roofs back then. If my old file was 11 version old, I think I would start over.

Here is the vid. http://youtu.be/Ay93nLgBy8A

would a window work?

Oh mon Cherie, do not give up on the labels, I will do a quick vid for you.

Great question. I agree with what you have found out. Looks good in 3d but does translate well to plan. This is the reason I never use post and beams with walls, rarely work well weber translated to plan view.

Start over.

Nice Jim, thanks. However I never need one here in SOCAL, Nice tip Mick. Which got me to thinking..... how about a double action door.... of course in the door dbx you can spec double swing... now you can also spec to show the door open in 3d.... now the question is, it's double swinging, it is shown open in 3d, but you want it to swing in the opposite direction in 3d, can you do it? Yes, jiggle it and gaggle it and you can have the door swing out instead of in in a 3d view......... Mick, your tip just got me playing with options, thanks.

Thanks 9emmmm for following up, much appreciated. I would of never of guessed what was going on.