amddrafting

Is there a way to set up scenes to queue without having to keep every light on? Meaning, if I set the raytrace in que does it remember which lights I had turned on and off for that particular shot? This would be in order to have 8 shots render overnight without me having to baby sit them all day.

That definitely can be handy for existing/ remodel situations. Nice tip Joe. The only thing it doesn't work for is my situation the fact that I'm using the walls to display differently on interior and exterior but need them all to be "Located" and Defining room. I mean, I could use that method, but It would probably just be as much work as the methods I use, with the exception that it might be easier to keep up with changes. I'll see if I can make it work for me.

Yeah, Joe that doesn't get me where I need to go. The only real way to get what I need is to either: a.) Turn on "Walls, Main Layer only"; create a plan foot print by creating CAD details from View; highlight all of the walls and make them dashed. Highlight the CAD lines then create a block. Copy and past in place back in the plan set. Create an interior wall layer and and exterior wall layer, then a layer for the footprint block I just created. Then turn off the interior wall layer and turn on the CAD block. or b.) Copy the plan (and hope I don't forget to make changes to both whenever I need to update changes) Create layer sets and wall sets with each filled depending on which views I need Both take a lot of productivity time and both have issues when it comes to revisions. Why go through all the trouble when there might be an easier way to do this? I think my suggestion holds enough weight to consider. Why shouldn't we be able to control the fill of individual wall without having to create new walls or even new plans, in some cases, to get the wall to display how we want them to display? If we didn't have walls that defined spaces like we do then doing remodels and other things like I'm doing would be a no brainer. You could create two walls put them in the exact same location and have one filled and one not and have each on a different layer and then you could turn on the one you needed when you needed it. But because of how CA works that is impossible. So therefore the simple solution would be an individual control check box in the wall dbx. Check on to display fill, check off to display no fill. Simple as that.

What you described is basically what I've done to this point. I'm more concerned with the fill that is defaulted to the "Walls, Layers" layer that turns the wall fills on and off.

Is there any way to create a copy of this particular layer and set walls to it so that only those wall's layers will turn off? If not then I will make the suggestion that maybe we can get a tool in the wall dbx that will assign the walls "Layers" to the layer set of your choosing. I'm working on a building I want to do separate exterior and interior layouts given the nature of how it's going to be built. I've created separate wall layers so I can display them how I want in each layout, but I can not turn off the interior layer color separately and therefore if I want my exterior walls filled I have to have my interior walls filled too. Me no likey this way.

Hey gang, I've got 3 identical computers running in my office and everything is running the same software and background services, etc. When I use CA on my computer (of course it had to be the one I use for my desk) I've noticed that it lags a lot when rendering a final view with shadows. Something like a technical illustration and running "Final View" with shadows takes much longer on mine than the other 2 computers. Mine will take 30 seconds or more where the other computers render almost instantaneously on the same file. I've also noticed a lot of lag when running CA in 2D view, editing roofs, etc. My question is would this more likely be a RAM or a Video Card issue? No need to ask if I've updated all the latest drivers, blah blah blah. Of course I've done all of that already. Just wondering if anyone who knows more than I do about CA's functionality could help me narrow down what might be faulty in my computer. -Aaron

I'm working on a file that I received from a builder and I can not figure why the frieze texture pattern is displayed differently from eaves to gables. This usually doesn't happen on my default files. I'm wondering if maybe there is a setting that I'm not aware of that is causing this that he has set in this file. Anyone know why this is happening like this?

I like your solution Scott, it probably would work better for tracking in the materials list though.

In this scenario my "posts" are I-Beams and they let me use those. Here's a picture of what I did. I just created a profile for my C-Channel and extruded it as a polyline solid and placed them as needed.

That's what I did in my picture above, but the problem is it won't turn horizontally and if you size it to be 8X2 instead of 2X8 it looks like the bottom profile which is wrong.

Do you mean the material for the wall framing in the wall set up? If so then yes, that's what I set up. However we don't build walls like that. These are steel buildlings that have horizontal C-Channel framing @ 48" o.c. vertically on the wall between steel posts. I can make them using molding poly lines or polyline solids, but I was hoping to get them as framing materials so I can use them in the material list and possibly get a count of all we need with each project without having to do a manual take off.

Here's an example of what issue I'm having

I recently starting drawings for metal building and I'm trying to figure out the best methods for doing wall framing. Typically C-Channel is used for the wall framing ran horizontally between vertical posts. The problem I am having is that when I use a general framing member and turn it into a C-Channel it's only option is to be vertically oriented. I need them to be horizontally oriented. Is there any other way to get it to work or do I just have to manually create C-Channel using polyline solids?

once a plan is open in PC or Mac can they be transferred to one or the other (is the file compatible with both)? Or can you only use it on the original OS?

Hey everyone I've been extremely busy here lately and it has finally allowed me to expand. I'm seeking a full-time draftsman with Chief Architect experience (or just residential drafting experience) in the Lubbock, Texas area. Please contact me or send resumes/portfolios to amddrafting@gmail.com