Charlie

If I ever have to change a whole floor's elevation, I go in select interior walls and to change to "no room definition" and then select the whole interior area as one room - change your defaults and set to new default.  Then go back and set walls as room def walls.  Can be tricky - do a save as first.

Interesting topic for a couple of reasons. First of which - it is one of my projects and J of KY is working on it with me and we have to figure it out.  I have been using CA since V2 or 3 - so I know a tricky situation when I see it.  I try to always look at a project and sort out how to approach it and set it up before I begin.  When this was laid out with garage at floor 1 (this was done since all the terrain elevations were derived from that floor level) I started thinking that then floor 2 (where most of the new construction will occur) will be easier to control if it was floor 1 as it will at 0" floor.  This test plan has garage at floor 0, new additions above will be floor 1.  Terrain data has been adjusted from field measurements to get it relative to the new floor zero (lowered 112.25"). I assumed an 18" engineered floor system at floor 1 and set the floor 0 default floor ht to -112.25" and that gives be the 93 1/2" ceiling ht below (existing block w/ a plate).

Always a different way to get these results in CA, but I wanted to have relatively simple approach nailed down early in these drawings as I do not want to go in later and have to tweak all the room elevations.  This way the lower garage (and there will be another lower garage added next to it) will be easy to control and all the new construction above will be at 0" floor ht, terrain will all be referenced from 0".  If I change floor joist size, I can change the building pad ht.

Peters, Tim 2237 Bonnycastle Ave_Existing test 2.plan

Nice.

I have had this happen when there is a room below - even at foundation level.  Maybe a basement access stair down there? I had one the other day - made the walls for that lower room no room def  and the trim appeared.

That room divider pony wall is a good trick. Never occurred to me.

That looks like an arcade.  I would do that w/ arched doors in a custom wall and molding polylines.  Use doorway;arch;broken arch;no casing.

Ditto above, just put them on the electric connection layer.

I think we should have sounds and effects that we can turn on when doing 3D views - interactive meetings w/ clients would be a riot.   When roof planes join, when walls snap, windows are placed, etc.   - you get a cool sound.  Maybe a little smoke burst.  It seems this would be easy to do since all the video games do it.  It would make work much more fun.

this site has all the stuff - 

http://www.bfxr.net/

Open each unit separately.  Top unit - suppress label; do not include in schedule. Mull unit, open and check show component labels. This worked for me and showed only the lower unit in the schedule.

Use another window make fixed glass, change glass material to trim color place above the big window, no sill, etc. and mull it.

Here is another job that is finished.  Front steps were the hardest part as there are lots of terrain breaks and little slabs. Putting the components on different layers is the key, so you can lock them or turn them off.

I am doing a fairly large site topo right now.  I have a regular survey and a screen capture of the contours from our city's online maps.  I import the survey in and put it on its own layer, rotate as needed and lock it.   I do the same thing for the contour jpeg.  Then I use terrain elevation data spline lines and trace over the primary contour lines.  It is a bit hard to manage all the lines, but I zoom in on each contour line and it is not too bad.  Locking the trace layers is the key.

I was using CA2, because I remember when roofs came out in V4 - that was a huge thing. Before V4 I used it for plans and interiors, but had to go to the "boards" to do the elevations. 

Interesting to see how everybody measures. I do a lot of older homes and they have lots of different wall thicknesses. My system works pretty well and it is the one which with I am comfortable.  I have an old laser, teflon coated 25' tape, 100' tape, module from a smart level (it will give you roof pitches in a snap), stud finder/laser level, camera and.........paper and pen.  I do overall exterior dimensions,  all the wall thicknesses, each room overall and each wall -  wall to openings to wall. That is the best method as it will end up giving you multiple dimensions for each wall in case they don't add up correctly in the model or you have forgotten one. I also do not like to see 1/4" increments in my models, so I round down to the nearest 1/2".  This way in the field the room will be incrementally bigger than life.  I figure the contractors would rather have a little more room than a little less. 

Charlie

3D model shows the terrain as a hollow form, so there is no real volume - it is just a skin.   I need to extrude it some how.  This could be tough.

I would not post it, if it was easy.  I exported it out as a 3D model - working that approach. Ran a material list - nothing.  CA does not count dirt apparently.

Is there anyway to get the terrain perimeter to show volume?  I am hoping to calculate the old terrain volume vs a new re contoured terrain to figure the amount of dirt removed.

Charlie

Jon,

Looks just like it - nice interior finishes on your model.  I work on tons of the 1900-1925 houses, there are rows of them here.  

Charlie

No questions - just showing terrain model. 10 hours counting the house shell.

You can do the same process with an elevation view. It will paste right in place.

I did an attic to BR conversion a few months ago with a 6' ht door to a closet in the clipped area of the room and the permit writer wanted the ht of the closet specified.  She said it was not a legal closet if it was not of a certain ht. - never heard that before and I am still not sure if she was correct - I pulled it out, anyway, to get the permit.  Should have kept it low, said well, it's not a bedroom then and not worried about egress, etc, but I tend to try to get egress, anyway - hate to see someone get stuck in a fire.

Nice trick with the extra invisible wall layer. 

Glen,

What are your settings for that rail?

I do a lot of "box gutters - working on one right now.  Build your roof with no overhang and no gutter, make your molding and apply it.  

Make all your posts, brackets and beams from slabs and poly lines. For a hip roof - make a separate model with invisible walls, open below, no floor.  Set the framing up as you want and build roofs. Shoot a 3D, turn the 3D into a symbol and bring it into your post model.