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Thanks William. That's a lot of work to rotate something. I practice it several times. I got the time down to 41 seconds. I did the same thing in AutoCAD once. It took 5 seconds. In CA it takes 12 clicks to rotate a line at a user specified point and get out of the rotate about a certain point command and delete the temporary point. And most of these a going through menus. In AutoCAD it took 4 clicks to accomplish the same thing. One was a keyboard command (type RO, enter) then click the line to rotate, click the point you line to rotate about, then move the cursor where you want the line to rotate to. Type RO, enter then click, click, click and your done. This is using AutoCAD 14 which came out in the late 90's. I hope CA plans on making some needed changes to improve the speed of the CAD portion of their program. If AutoCAD was able to figure this out 20 plus years ago I'm sure that programmer at CA will be able to figure it out as well. That is if they want to. Thanks, Mike

How do I rotate a line or object at a user defined rotation point? CA wants to rotate at the objects center point. There must be a way that the user can decide where that want the rotating point to be. Does anyone know how to do this ? Thanks, Mike

I see in the line specification DBX under arrow the auto position head is checked. The line is grayed out so I can not uncheck it. How do I uncheck that box ? Thanks, Mike

I created a framing extend callout with text above a line with an arrow at each end. When I move the text the lines move with the text. I do not have any idea why this is happening. There is nothing special that I did, I have attached my plan so you can see what I mean. There are two callouts that are clouded. The top one is the way I drew it. The bottom one is after I moved the text away from the line. Can someone take a look at my plan and let me know why this is happening and how to prevent it from happening in the future. Thanks, Mike 2016-23 Design 2.plan

I am having a problem with objects I drew on the floor plan showing up on the framing plan. I have several callouts on the floor plan with a line with arrow pointing to an object in the plan. When I switch to the framing annotation set the lines with arrows show up as well. The floor plan notes do not show up in the framing set. The notes were automatically given a different layer name for the notes added to the floor plan v. notes added to the framing plan. How do I get the lines with arrows to do the same ? The layer name they were given was CAD default. Thanks, Mike

There was a similar bill that was passed about 10 years ago. The same reasons were given in that bill as this new bill. That bill also gave the cities the right to govern setbacks, height limits and lot coverage. I found out about that new law before the local building departments did. I submitted my first set of ADU plans to the City of Simi Valley about a month after that bill went into effect. They of course tried to deny my plans for plan check submittal until I went through the variance process. I then showed them the new law passed by the state of California. They were shocked that they were never informed by the state. This left all of the cities in Ventura county out of compliance with the new law. Fortunately I was able to get a couple of project through before the cities in Ventura County got together and went through the law with a fine tooth comb. What they found was the sate had given them a lot of control over ADU. It looks like this new law does the same. That law also allowed the local jurisdictions to regulated the heights, setbacks and lot coverage required to built a ADU. The City of Simi Valley came up with a rule that in order to build an ADU you are required to have 2 times the minimum lot area required for that zone. Other cities imposed a 150% increase in the minimum lot are in order to build a ADU. This new law says that local ordinances deny approval based on water and sewer services. Well California has been in a drought for many years, I can not imagine cities not using that fact to deny approval of ADU's. Last time this bill was passed the planning departments hated it and did everything they could to restrict ADU's going up everywhere. I can not imagine they will not try and do the same this time. Under the new law, second units are allowed on any lot with a single-family home, but local ordinances can say where they will or won’t be permitted based on factors such as water and sewer services, traffic flow and public safety. The amended law will allow accessory units up to 1,200 square feet, but allows jurisdictions to impose lower limits and establish standards governing height, setback, lot coverage, landscaping and architectural review.

Thanks for your help. I will try importing the details into the CAD detail window. I like the idea of saving my most commonly used details in a plan file called typical details. Then in each project I'm working on I can added not typical details to this plan, modify details as needed or delete details that do not apply to the project. Then sending that detail plan to a layout the layout sheet. Thanks, Mike

I am starting to import my details that were drawn in AutoCAD into CA. I imported them into a plan file then made the changes to make it look correct in CA such as line weights, layer names and fill patterns. It was suggested to me that I copy them into a layout page then save the details to my library from the layout page. I was told that when importing the details into the layout pages on future projects the details would be inserted at the correct size. I copied and pasted about 10 details from the plan file into the layout page. They came out around 60 times larger then they are suppose to be. I scaled down the details to the correct size. The fill patterns were not scaled down along with the rest of the drawing. Circles that I used to represent rebar now comes out as a plus sign. I have to rescale all of the hatch patterns so they show up in the smaller details. I did save one of the details to the library from the plan file and then in the layout page inserted the detail from the library. Again the detail came out huge. I scaled it down to the correct size. The hatch patterns and circles scaled down with it correctly. When I exploded the detail the circle again showed as plus signs and the hatch patterns disappeared. Is there a better way of importing all of my details that were drawn in AutoCAD over the years. Converting them into CA details and being able to insert them into the layout sheets without them coming in 60 times larger and if I need to explode the detail to make a modification to it, I do not lose the hatch patterns, rebar, etc. ? Thanks, Mike

Thanks for your help. That worked perfectly.

I am setting up my layout sheet in Chief. I wanted to import my typical notes from AutoCAD into a default layout sheet in Chief. I tried to import the DWG file in the layout page but the option for importing DWG files is grayed out. What is the best way to get the DWG file into the layout sheet ? Thanks, Mike

That works great. Thanks Chop Saw. I will also watch the video "Tracing over the plans" this weekend. Thanks Brown Tiger. Merry Christmas To All.

Sounds good, How do I do that?

I am working on a TI job. I received the as-built plans in a PDF format. I imported the floor plan into my plan so I can trace over it. What I would like to do is lighten up the PDF floor plan to a light gray so I can see the walls that I have drawn better. I created a layer for the PDF and assigned it a light gray color. When I look at the PDF floor plans it's still has the dark black lines, nothing changed. With the lines in the PDF so dark it's hard to see the walls I have drawn over them. Is there a way to make the PDF floor plans lighter so I can more easily see the walls I have drawn over them? Thanks, Mike

Thank Jon for your help. Now I am having a problem with the stainless steel refrigerator and dish washer appearing to be black in the break room. There are two areas of remodel. The first being the waiting room which you have been helping me out with and the other being a break room. The break room is off to the right of the partition wall with glass above and is open to the waiting room. I did both ray traces about the same time. The break room worked fine. The waiting room was the problem area. Now that I have turned off all of the lights in the waiting room and added light sources, the wait room is looking good. Now the stainless steel appliances in the break room are not showing correctly and appear to be black. None of the lights were turned off in the break room. I am using the same camera view as before. I made no changes to the break room. Why now would the stainless steel appliances not show correctly ? Thanks, Mike

Thanks everyone for your help. Jon, I like your gym rendering. I can see that you are looking through several mirrors with the crackling effect. You said that " It's all about the lighting. One bad light position or light against the wrong material and fireflies and glass ripples will never ray trace away" Is there there certain distance that we should keep our light sources away from glass and mirrors so we do not get the ripples in the ray trace ? What other materials would be negatively effected by a bad light position ?

Thanks guys for the help. I tried Graham's suggestions and turning off Photon mapping worked. I did not try turning off all of the lights yet. I see in the rendering you posted that it still looks like the fluorescent lights are still turned on. If you turned off the lights in the rendering how did you get the fluorescent light to appear to be turned on ? Thanks, Mike

I am working on a small TI job. In the reception area job we added a 42" high wall with 42" glass panels above. The existing doors in this room have glass panels. When I did a rendering of the new wall with glass panels above the glass doors in the background have a crackling appearance. It should be clear glass. I have attached the file so you can see what I am talking about. Does anyone know why this is happening and how to correct it ? Thanks, Mike PTI_Technologies_Remodel.plan

The perspective views I sent to the layout page kooks nice and dark. After saving the layout to a PDF is when the perspective views lightened up. I would guess its about 50% lighter than in the layout page. Do you make your changes before you send it to the layout page or do you make the changes in the layout page ?

I am working on a small TI job. I sent the floor plan and 2 perspective views to my layout page. I sent the perspective views as a technical illustration. In the layout page the line look nice a dark. When I made a PDF out of the page and printed the sheet the perspective views printed much lighter. The floor plans printed fine. Does anyone know why perspective views are printing much lighter than the floor plan ? Is there a setting that will make the lines print darker ? Thanks, Mike

Thanks Glenn. I will try that in the morning. It's 10:30 p.m. California time and its time to hit the hay. Thanks, Mike

That did it. I had the wrong one checked off. Thanks Chopsaw

Here it is. Thanks for your help. T-Bar Ceiling.plan

I tried both full and floor cameras and both do not show a floor, just grass.

All three were on.

I made a pony wall using polyline solids. This wall has 3 free formed glass panels on top. I wanted to rotate the unit but was unable since the rotate handle would not appear. I also tried to block them together. Again I was unable because the tool would not appear for me to do so. When I moved the wall the parts of the wall would get misaligned. Does anyone know why this might be happening ? I have attached the plan. If someone could look at my plan and let me know what I am doing wrong I would greatly appreciated any help. Thanks, Mike Arched Entry Porch.plan