tommy1

There are several approaches you could use. If you used a slab for the floor and you want a ceiling, then go ahead and place invisible walls (after the roof is on) and adjust the ceiling height. Now lower the floor so that you see your slab. Turn off invisible walls or put those invisible walls on a new layer to turn them off. For no room definition, either use a ceiling plane or slab for the ceiling.

No, didn't see everything but my comments were based on what I know about Annette. Reproducing plans from AutoCAD is sometimes not as easy as it looks. We get plans all the time from Architects by either PDFs or DWGs and I have to tell you that 40% of the time, elevations don't match the plan views or doors or windows don't match. We find sometimes that roofs don't work as shown too. I have attached a plan that we're currently modeling from an AutoCAD file (now a PDF) and have found problems. Look at the difference in the dimensions. It can't work, so now we have to find out what to do because there is cabinets going in that area. We have other areas where we have found that dimensions have been rounded off to the nearest 1/4" when others are right on. I've never heard of a problem with Annette not getting paid before and I've known her for a long time. If she's warning me about something, then generally there is a reason.

Actually, I haven't played with this since like Version 10. It's better now with most fonts and found that it's basically the same with most except for standard Arial which is what I use. If I want it to look bold, I make it bold.

Alan, you'll find that it differs depending on the text style you use. It's rather annoying. Use different text styles and see what I mean. Some are horrible.

Jim is right about the solid. I was wrong. When I looked back into a plan I did years ago, I used a roof to get the look. I was wrong and forgot. Sorry.

I have mine set to undo 10 times. Generally that's good enough for me.

You could use a terrain tool as Jim suggests. Same idea, different approach.

Sure it is. I've done it before when I absolutely had to show a slope.

If the area is "L" shaped, I would definitely use a solid from an elevation. Slope it in the elevation, shape it in plan view.

The exterior molding polyline was actually broken, or had a bug when X6 first came out. There is a thread by me about this earlier. It has now been fixed and was is posted on one of the update notes. The problem was that when you placed an exterior molding polyline, it was placing way too many breaks everywhere. Yes it was workable but a hassle. Glad they fixed it.

I was responding to your comment "If CA was a $200 software I might understand". That is a ridiculous statement. Look at consumer products and see what you get for $200.00.

I would think you're wasting your time here. It sounds like you're better off spending your money on the other programs. I personally don't have any problems with CA and its layouts, file management or updating BUT, I know what I'm doing with the program.

Keep in mind that if you sent a plan view or an elevation to a cad detail first (to clean up or whatever), then sent it to the layout that if you change the live elevation or plan view, it does not update the cad detail with that plan view or elevation.

I did say that but in other words at the end of my post. It will be found on the edit toolbar at the bottom of the screen.

When you do this, Chief will put it all in a folder. Zip the entire folder and email it. Be sure they unzip it before opening the plan from with in that folder.

Maybe something was running in the background that was using memory?

Try importing it to a cad detail first. Then send it to plan view.

Place a polyline around the house in plan view and convert it to molding (not 3D molding). Assign the molding profile and set the height. You can also (or) click real close to the exterior of the house to get an exterior molding polyline that you will see in the edit toolbar.

I got your email Keith. I see when you requested to join was when I had a sister and mother pass away with-in 3 months from each other and one of the times I had to cancel the meeting. My mind was not quite right and I was P.O.A. for my mother and had a lot to do. I apologize for not sending you a link. Hopefully I will remember this time. I placed a star next to your email to help me remember.

Keith, you have to send me an email to my email address below if you want to join a meeting. I have a "reminder" email that I send to people a few days prior to the meeting. If I send reminders to a person and they don't reply 3 to 4 times, then I remove them from the list which means you won't be sent a link to join the meeting unless you're interested again and email me. If I don't receive an email in at least 1 hr. prior to the meeting, then you probably won't be sent a link. If you are still interested, then please email me.

Right click on one of your libraries and you'll see the option to export your library. Export it as a .calibz file so that textures go with it. Watch where you're exporting it to.

It also looks like you're storing your plan in Chief's Directory. In general, that's a bad idea (IMO).

I agree on every word you say and would do it this way myself.

Place your plan files in a single job folder for that job and you wouldn't have this problem.

We do remodels and we have 2 to 3 people working on the same plan. We play different roles in the plan. I do the as-built, as in I field measure the job and produce an existing plan. Katy or her sister do the remodel plan. It comes back to me for a layout to the builder for bidding. It comes back to me again for construction drawings. Depending on the Engineer, sometimes I make dwgs of the plans, elevations, sections, etc., and will send them to the Engineer if the Engineer is supplying their own plans and details. We can not be working in the same plan at the same time so we have to communicate with each other when we are working in a plan. It's not a problem because we are used to it. Katy likes to use drop box.