SHCanada2

i dont have to go into my locker to use X17. I'm also not crashing

I agree, the one guy states it well, no one puts all of the details in the actual model, so you are left with work to do, its just a matter of where to do that work. The make a rectangle around the section you are interested in detailing, and it auto creates a callout, is nice...if you make details using the model

great video, especially with the as built tidbit. For the question of "should I rename" the .plan file when copying a project. If you dont and have the same plan name open for multiple project, and multiple views open, the names on the tabs become smaller and more difficult to differentiate. As such, one might want to rename I did put in a request to have the option when copying a project, to specify a name and then that cascades to the plans and layouts in the project. Easier said then done though as CA would need to know whether to prepend or replace

yes, but if you want to place a new object from a catalogue not yet available in X17 you cannot...or at least that is my experience. I search for something in the library, it comes pack with something, then I go to download the catalogue...and it says the catalog is unavailable

Not all catalogues are available on x17

you could post your project to freelancer.com. You need to tell them what the CA backup looks like, how often it creates one, that there are multiples, and that you want a service that extracts them from the zip file and then, I assume, you want them placed into a directory structure based on the name of the CA project. or if just one big directory, then tell them that. But that will be the key piece of the puzzle. And then tell them if you want it triggered by a newly created CA backup within x minutes of it being created And then you will need to tell them what to do if the plan file is already there, do you want it overwritten or a new one generated. Do you want them to compare the two first to see if they are different before making that decision

You(or someone) could probably write a script or windows service that makes just the plan and/or layout backup to a directory. The simplest way would be to extract from the CA backup automatically

I can see why if you do this seperate folders between plan and layout, the new PM is not making it any easier. I always had mine in the same folder, so I see no real difference in the PM project view today. A PM project is just what I used to have for a folder. But it would be easier to navigate if there were folders within the project that I could move off copies of the plan that I use as a versioned plan, to I sent in some improvements on the naming. I find the options on the right click confusing as to what they will do.

good point, yes even I will likely clean house every once in awhile, and may do it by project export, but in pondering it now, I will more likely I will just take a copy of the CA backup and store if off on disk, and then delete them out of PM. If I ever need a plan from 5 years ago, I will probably then go in and unzip it. For me when I am "looking" for a plan I did, I typically look at the PDFs because it is faster, and those are already in a directory. so in the future I will find the PDF, see the timestamp and then find the CA backup that I copied off, which is newer than that timestamp. I do about 40 plans per year, so maybe every December copy off a backup and delete files out of PM that are older than 4 or 5 years Currently I am not bringing X16 files into X17. If I need to make changes I am doing in X16. So for me, this copy off and delete process will not happen until probably 4 or 5 years from now. but never know maybe next year at this time there will be too much clutter Currently I have 8 projects, so it is not cluttered enough to have filed them via the folder tags. So it will be interesting to see how I am doing next year, but half my work is doing variations of existing, so that will all be in X16

I'm not sure I am understanding, why are you exporting a project if you want to work on it? why not just make a backup copy of the plan file in the project? For me I think my workflow will be: 1.keep all projects in PM. Let CA backup in the format CA chooses (zip file of everything). This backup is for the sole purposes of disaster recover, i.e. disk failure 2. if I need to checkpoint, I will do what I did before, which is make a copy. And I will let it stay in the project as copy(x). CA now lets you make a copy while the file is open, so that is a nice improvement. I do not anticipate ever needing to look at a CA backup file, except in a disaster. And I do not anticipate to ever need to export. For those with multi computer environments, then an export would be required

not a CA problem then? maybe it is looking for a network printer that does not exist

right click rename?

in the grand scheme of things, of how many R/W are done constantly by windows and others, I would think doing an export is of negligible impact to the lifespan

this is how it always worked. if you want a permanent backup everytime you save, you have to make a copy. the good news is the new PM allows you to make a copy even though the file is open I think you are looking for more of a checkpoint functionality where you state that you want a copy at a specific moment that you have done a bunch of work, where backups have tradionally run at certain times of the day

cheaper than the $20k leica. I will look into that, thanks. sometimes I spend an entire day trying to get the elevations correct, so that actually might be worth it for me for the complicated ones, although complicated ones are probably only 15% of the houses I do. I'm curious as to how these exterior ones deal with bushes where half the window or something else might be behind. Here the side property lines are typically only 2-4ft from the house. Ideally if matterport used the interior data like window locations in order to create the proper exterior elevation...well then there would not be much work for me to do

I would concur, less going to windows explorer, saving a few clicks here and there

I bring my laptop and do it in CA, so I can reconcile any discrepancies on the spot. So in about 2 hours(because I use cubicasa for the not important floor levels) I am done the required portions of the floor plan in CA at the customer's location, then I go back to the office and trace the cubicasa (which is about 30 min) for the other floor level(s). And then I do the elevations, which then take additional time regardless of using a scanning tool or not. I actually find its the elevations(because of roof lines, posts, porches, cantilevers, window wells, etc) that take the most time. I've tried out a couple elevations apps, but cant find anything decent. But if I do have a discrepancy found after the fact, I have to rely on a video I take of the inside/outside. It works, but it would be nicer to have a scanned model I can point and zoom in and move around in. In general then for me to do a full house floor plans without elevations its 1 hr drive, 2 hrs at the customers, call it an hour to put it together back at the office.

yeah thats not cheap, if I do 2 as builts a month, thats $100 a month, plus the 3k amortized over 5 years is another $50 a month, or $75 per scan. I guess not too bad.a cost.

yeah, thats why I was looking at polycam, it gives you the actual model, to zoom in and move around in, at $37/month. What does matterport cost these days?

thats basically what I do (except I currently use the $10 a scan app, cubicasa), and even the rendr guy in his video says you have to take exact measurements by hand for the area you are renovating.. but I am also curious how good the render app is with split levels or two levels. His examples do not have stairs

it does a floor plan on the spot which is similar to polycam. Although I notice for the walls it has 2 lines in the dxf, so not sure how it "knows" the wall thickness (I watched another video, you specify the wall type on the CA DXF import). but it does windows and doors which is very nice. Price point is not bad at $119/mo. Although polycam is $34 per month ....but I havent been able to get polycam to work, My guess is all of these must use the same underlying stack software, or maybe companies like rendr license it from polycam or someone else as they all kind of look the same when scanning

goto the preferences settings, and goto PM, it lists the backup directory. If you then goto that directory you should see the zip files (assuming you set up backups to occur). And then if I was you, I would point your backup service to that directory. And because the backups are full backups, I think you could just have your backup service backup the latest file in that directory...if you can configure your backup service to do that. If not, use the CA number of backups to keep, also in preferences, to keep that list to something small.

well, I have not yet setup my backup for X17, but I will probably just back up the entire directory. I do not backup to cloud I just back up to another HD. My internal drives are raided so I have some protection even without the backup. So to answer your question, I am fine, cloud or no cloud. But if I was using cloud for internal file sharing today, then I would want CA's implementation of cloud to allow it to be used by one's own cloud service, and not force to use CA cloud. ...but that is easier said than done I would think. If I was speculating, CA cloud service would be at a minimum a data store, with synching locally. And if that did not work, then I think, yes, you would have a large issue as the "workaround" would be exporting files and moving them between users. I suppose what I am suggesting, is wait and see. But from a pure backup file only perspective, I personally am not concerned. CA still stores the .plan and .layout files on disk, unencrypted, but with obfuscated names. If I was very very desperate after a catastrophic event if for some reason the CA backup .zip files were not readable, I could always look at last modtimes for these obfuscated .plan files and find the one I need and rename it and use it. In other words, CA via its backup has multiple copies of .plan files...plus there is the current version of the plan file. Lots of backups on disk. One just has to choose what to sync to a backup cloud service if one wants to use that. Its the file sharing that, in my view, will need to be working very very well with the cloud, or people will not be able to use PM mode. File locking across WANs is not trivial, timezones, DST, no network connectivity, all have to be taken into consideration. Major software products today are still not smart enough to do something as simple as tell me when someone else in a different timezone changed something. And the reason is these software products must maintain a last modified time and know the timezone it was modified in. The software programmers often think they can just use a one central time, but that only work when everyone is always connected. For instance if I download a file, get disconnected from the network, modify the file, and then change the timezone on my computer and then get network connectivity back, is the mothership smart enough to know exactly when things changed?

i think because CA is going to the cloud, this is just a temporary limitation.. If you are worried about HD failure, then I would suggest backing up CA's backup, or just do the entire CA directory where it stores everything. For file sharing I would suggest keeping to non PM mode if you use a shared replicated drive.

I was wondering why he didn't chime in anymore. He decided to quit CA? I heard he is on the home designer forum