para-CAD

excellent question, Sweeney i have fought with that as well like many things easy to frame correctly in reality not so easy to produce virtually and that's okay unless the virtual is a sales tool

I attended a CA training seminar where the guy next to me had a MASSIVE Predator (I think it was over 17"). I had a moment of envy just at the shear size and actual desktop replacement capability. Honestly, the smart guys here have posted quite a bit of good info on CA being more processor focused. I don't remember the details but the threads are out there. Get a laptop that can drive a couple of 4K monitors. And an NVMe SSD. That's about all I can suggest from my experience.

Genuineness....Competence....On point. You have the makings of a great online training future!

Here's what they look like in reality. When houses are expensive out here, people find all kinds of ways to keeps the costs down.

So rather than act like this is the way it's supposed to be and just accept it, why doesn't chief build this level of data retrieval into their program without the need for the customer to do additional work. If some of you can figure this out...then so can CA and they should market this capability...user friendliness. Totally odd to NOT be more service oriented, in my opinion. And the macro I bought never worked so I'm a bit jaded by the whole process.

That's helpful. Seems like spreadsheet logic from the 80s though. If they could feed directly to an embedded excel table that would be best. The power of excel, updating as the model is adjusted. Thanks for that video! That guy up north (of even you) is top shelf.

I searched the reference manual and did a search on this forum with no success, so that means that someone here has cracked that nut....or maybe this could be a suggestion. I have a builder who wants the schedules in excel. I can do that, but it takes steps and is not dynamically linked. The optimal condition would be: 1. make a change in the model 2. schedule is updated in chief 3. through OLE, that data is updated in excel. Is this "do-able"? I'd like to see an option to export to excel and to Object Link Embed to excel. Even Word, PowerPoint....whichever.

ahhhhhhhhhhhhh..CAD detail......ha!

I turned all ALL LAYERS and I don't see a schedule anywhere...at a loss.

So I went to add the Window schedule to a plan I'm working on, and on the 3rd floor the window label replaces the actual window size label. That's expected. A Square polyline with a W01 in it or whatever. But then I went down a floor and there is the square, expected, label PLUS a hexagon window label with a different number in it...almost like there are two windows located at the location....but there is not. Here's a video for reference.

My iMac is old so I had Puget Systems build me a windows machine. It works great. Back in X7 days, I would share plan files created on my mac with a windows CA user and the text would often get all out of whack. Not sure if that's still a thing. I love the macOS as a platform but their H/W could be more robust if it carries a "pro" moniker.

Hmmm I just place a back clipped cross section on a plan view and then the section view appears. I never stop to consider what type of view it is utilizing. I hope that this can be changed to just work. I guess I will add this to my workflow to always check what view I'm in. It's amazing how these small things can completely burn through time until they become known. So my "work around" was to export the section to .dwg and "clean it up" in AutoCAD LT. Then I imported it back to CA into a blank, new file. The text was all BOLD and needed repair, but then I was able to take a CAD detail of it and add it to the layout. Thanks for all the quick responses. This site is way more user friendly than the manual (and who really reads any manual /sarc)

So I searched with "cad detail from view - section view" and found nothing. It this the expected behavior - no 2D CAD/editable lines from Section views? I want to make a CAD Detail from View of a Section so I can remove some of the lines that aren't necessary. The Icon and file menu to make a CAD Detail from view are GRAYED OUT when I have the section window active. However, when I am in PLAN view, it's A-OK and works. I'm now going to read up on this feature in the 700 page manual. Either I have a setting misconfigured or CAD Detail from view doesn't work on all items (but should). Plan view (option available) Section view (option not available)

Thanks. I never imagined that the layout layer defaults would be driving the label on the incoming item from a plan. It's defaulted ON and I had reached the point where I was tired of wasting 4 extra mouse actions to remove it every time I sent something to layout. This is now OFF in my template file. Y-E-E-E-S-S-S-S!!

Very cool way to add depth to the information being conveyed. Top shelf work as always!

Where is the check box to permanently disable the automatic label that appears just below the bottom of the exported item on the layout page? It defaults to Elevation [space] and then a number. I never use this and so every time I export to layout I have to "o,o", Open Object, and Suppress Label. I haven't found where I can set that in Preferences or Default Settings to never come on. Thanks in advance for help with this.

I bought the Feb 1, 2017 version. I never got it to work. Maybe I will reach out to the other CA pro and see if what he has is useful. It would be nice to have much more of CA automated.

As clunky as it was, Solid Builder was great for creating individual walls by labelled type. Instead of Wall Detail - 32 I would number walls in reverse site raising order - X01, X02 for exterior and N01 or N02 for interior. It would generate a separate 8 1/2" x 11" sheet per wall so it could be fabricated in the shop and loaded in the order we wanted to erect them. Not sure if that's what you're doing. Just chiming in.

Thanks everyone. Yes...builder was printing from Apple's native Preview app. When he tried Acrobat Reader, it printed fine, no issues. Crisis averted.

So this is the second time a client builder of mine has taken an Arch D scaled PDF plan and printed it to 11x17 [ANSI B] on an HP Officejet 7612 and also an HP Officejet 8600 Premium from an Apple computer and the pages with exported 3D images all print with a solid black background. (Those are all the variables I can think of). When I send the same PDF file to my Brother MFC laser printer it prints 8.5x11 fine.....no black issues. Since I can't reproduce the condition I can't troubleshoot it. Has anyone else experienced and more importantly - SOLVED this? Thanks in advance for any and all help! - Mike

There's an archive folder?

Sounds scammy to me. But then again, I'm working on my degree in Curmudgeonology

Thanks Mike. I will be on this a while. Not 101st SigDet / 5th Grp. Take care.

Can the background image be more realistically locked when viewed through a walk through, or is NO background the recommended setting? 3D Background Locked Please (HB).m4v

Mike, Very nice! Thanks for the input. (BTW I used to live in Clarksville back during Y2K - 3/5 SFG(A) FTCKY) That's a great place to live....second only to the pacific coast. I've framed over 300 structures in my life and every set of plans from designers or architects were lacking or not accurate and so as the framer I got to "figure it out". There was however one architect from Louisville, KY who was amazing, Nick Feldman i think his name was. He drew things as they are in reality. I told myself that some day I would draw plans that could double as cut-sheets (which is what I did as a framer to catch errors before I found them on the jobsite). I still have people question why I go to this depth.....uh......because I'm an American and that's how I want to it. I never want to compete for the cheapest, Wal-mart customer. I have just enough word of mouth from some great builders and some one-off home owners that I stay busy. I never do price per SQ/FT because that seems like a lazy way to ball park. I really like the images that you posted. I am re-inspired to carry on with what I have. I can't be on-site with this client so I am trying to provide enough clear 2D and 3D for him to have less questions and more doing. I've attached some shots of the plan...I take NO credit for the engineering. The owner's good friend is a PE and hand sketched everything in amazing detail. Take care and thanks for the comments.