SHCanada2

1 hour ago, builtright3 said:

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could download Chief to IPad

I think the bigger needed functionality is for walls to retain an "as measured" value, but it would also need to know what side of the wall was measured. The measure on app is quite smart. for instance, when you measure a window to a wall you tell it which side you are measuring from. For CA to do the same thing, it would need some sort of special temp dimensions. Or when editing the temp dimension, you have to key in a special character so it would know it was an actual measured dimension

and the dimension question:

Are you saying the dimension number itself is in the PDF, but not the dimension line?

Why not just put the PDF on its own layer and turn off the layer, or are you looking to show both, but dont like that the B&W layout shows through?

If so, why not sent to layout in colour?

If you are trying to mask some things in the PDF but not others, the other way to do it would be to put white boxes in your elevation to mask out what you do not want.

What I do in cases where I want to use the PDF as an elevation plus some parts of an elevation I have built in CA, I will use the masking boxes plus I will convert the elevation to CAD detail, and then remove anything I do not want from the CAD detail and then copy it back onto the a CAD detail where I have the PDF sitting.  And then I align it.

But before deleting lines from the CAD detail, I typically double check the scale matches the house on the PDF.

For instance I do this when I just want to add a window or Door to a house and I have the existing plans, if the existing plans(rooflines, details) are complex. I did it also once to convert a balcony to a closed in balcony with windows. I find it is a tradeoff in hoping it is less time than redrawing the house.

For instance to add a new door, I will draw a house in CA with the correct outside dimensions and add the door. I will import the PDF into a CAD detail. Size the PDF to scale. I will then create a white box where the door will go and put on the PDF in my CAD detail. This will blank out any siding lines. I then Create a CAD detail from view of the elevation. And then copy it over including the exterior line that is the width of the house (usually one below the door). I will then align to that line. Then delete that line, leaving only the door and its trim.

In your case, you may be able to just add the white boxes with the correct drawing group to mask what you do not want to see. The advantage of doing a CAD detail from view, is all the lines will be on one layer

I'm not sure I understand. Are you saying the dimension number itself is in the PDF, but not the dimension line?

It looks to me that perhaps a possibility is the color elevation is masking the two elements (roof, dimension), rather than the PDF only showing on the layout..

You could check by going to the elevation view in plan and trying to print, with the "Print in color" unchecked

maybe I'm not good at the spot the difference game, but the only difference I see is colour vs black and white

I put some general notes on layout, but not unlinked callouts. With one exception for unlinked callouts, I have one type of plan that has only one callout, and that sits in layout.

For instance I have a layout page with Building Code advisories. It rarely changes so it just sits there on a layout page

7 hours ago, GeneDavis said:

Might as well just take Chief on a laptop and go around with a laser tape

I've moved to doing this, where I used to use the Bosch measureon app. The only downside is you have to be there longer with CA. The upside to the measureon app is no typos as it takes the reading via bluetooth from the laser measurer.

The upside to CA is you see any issues with the measurements. Downside is you have to either type in measurements in a text box, or a piece of paper. Unless you are confident enough that you will not change a wall dimension when you draw the walls. I certainly am not

On 9/28/2023 at 7:28 PM, KristjanM said:

The actual energy model is done in Hot2000

@robdyck @KristjanM

So I had an energy evaluation done on my home. And it claims some interesting things:

1. Nominal R of walls is R18.9(I assume this was inputted by the selection of the wall assembly), which is fine, but it claims effective R of the "walls" are 18.7. This is of course not possible for a no wrapped 2x6 wall using the defined values in the NBC. I even tried using 11% framing (no windows in the wall) and could not achieve this.

2. The effective R value of a floor over a garage is greater than the nominal. Not sure how that can be

so I downloaded hot2000 myself and tried it for a box house. I noticed that the wall assembly effective R is different than the actual walls it models. This shows 2.73

but the summary shows 2.95

so once again the effective R of the walls is higher than the assembly

Any idea what it is doing? Adjusting Rvalue for temperature or something?

Because if one can get these kind of numbers using the "model", they blow the prescriptive method out of the water

Thanks

it is the same here, architects are required over xx amount of square feet, and depends on type of building. 95% of residential house design does not require an architect here. Engineer on the other hand...that is a different storey (sic)

2 hours ago, tundra_dweller said:

Basically I use a callout and out\-of-the-box macros to label my layout boxes in the layout so that they automatically update with any changes to the name of the saved plan view and the scale of the linked view..

if I am reading this correctly, the text you have above the line is "Floor Plan - Main Level", and this a unique SPV?

If so, the only downside with this is you need different SPVs for each level (basement, main, second, third) and type (electrical for instance).  so you would potentially need 8 SPVs, where, you likely only need 2 unique ones (other than the floor differences). 

The other way to do it, is to have set layout boxes on layout template with named floors, and then link the layout box with the SPV and specific floor. if you do not need the floor you delete the layout page and/or layout box(which is the tradeoff)

Not to say one is "better" than the other, they both have tradeoffs

In my case, I'm lazy and normally only have one floor plan or elevation per sheet, so the top text is just the layout page title. I also do this one per page thing to try and fill the page so if they decide to print on smaller paper, they can still see everything

this yields

out of curiosity, are you actually pricing dimensional lumber by the foot.

An 8' 2x6 here is $7, and a 10'  is $11, or 88c/ft and $1.10/ft respectively

1 hour ago, DHerb2014 said:

drag them into a dialogue box, and they would populate and be numbered in order that you dropped them into the box.

I ran a little test and it appears this may work by using the user library in a specific sequence.. If you have no schedule on your plan, place a note from the user library on the plan, then place a schedule for the note on the plan. it shows up with 1, then add another library note to the plan, it shows up as 2, ....

The above doesnt work if you place the schedule after the dropping all the notes on. If you do that, the numbered order appears to be based on the original numbered order when I saved to the user library. i.e. I created 3 notes: text1,text2,text3 and added them to my library. On a new plan, If I put say text3 on the plan then text2, and then a schedule, text2 will be "1", and text3 will be "2".

But if I put text3 down, then a schedule, text3 will show as 1, and then if I put text2 down, it shows as 2, and then I put text1 down, it shows as 3

edit: also works if you put an empty schedule down first, then add the notes

18 hours ago, DHerb2014 said:

When adding notes to, say, a floor plan, all you do is individually select (e.g., "2x6 exterior walls w/R21 insulation...")

Couldnt you just add your notes to the user library, and then drag them onto your plan as needed? only ones actually on the plan would then only show in the schedule

Not that I know of. I will select the rooms in the second structure and set their heights. Roofs, if I remember correctly needed to be adjusted as well for height off plate..

I demonstrated this last year in a post. CA will, without telling you, change the material on an exterior wall under certain conditions. It occured for me when there was an exterior indent in a wall (like 2' in by 3' wide), and the if you go to changes this indent to something else, it flips the material on one of the walls

It was repeatable. And I logged it

@glennw suggested

"But if Chief is reversing your walls, you may want to look at the Auto Reverse Wall Layers setting."

From what I can tell that setting does not always work correctly. It may be worth a try to turn it off.

48 minutes ago, Renerabbitt said:

way for a myriad of reasons

yes, I've just not had the motivation yet to move to that  

I found the problem, or perhaps, weird behaviour.

If the camera is actually open when I print the layout to pdf, it prints correctly. If the camera is not open, it gets the washed out look

it does happen if I reduce the sun as well, just much less obvious, I reduced the sun from 2500 to 500, much better

5 minutes ago, Gawdzira said:

Are you sending live views?

yes

the irony is if I print the image from the plan file it prints it correctly:

9 minutes ago, DavidJPotter said:

You need to turn down the "Sunlight" using RTRT. Photo realism doesn't just happen if one is a "good buy"

I'm not sure I understand. If the camera is how I like it, then I need to reduce the sunlight so it is darker than I would like, so that when it prints to pdf, it is brighter than the camera? This would seem to be a painful process

1 minute ago, Renerabbitt said:

  use the working layer set. No issue with text since my foundation is on floor 0 and there is no other text that would make it onto floor 0 so why not have it on the default text laayer

electrical?

suite in basement? 

18 minutes ago, dougbbuilders said:

So I then can't remove cabints from my foundastion because it changes the Working layer set

not sure how everyone else does it, but I generally do not use the working layer set. I have my foundation SPV set up, so that any text created on it, is put on a layer Text, Foundation. If you are just using the working plan SPV, and want to accomplish the same thing, you have to change the annotation set (Active default). I find just using the SPVs simpler

The only reason I use the working layer set to to see what is all on the plan, because the "All on set" is too much

I dont think most people  use RTRT cameras on layouts, but if there someone that does, or if someone knows how to " fix" this it would be appreciated.

The CA save to PDF is creating a washout look compared to what I see in camera or the camera on layout, for cameras with bright sunlight. It can be seen most in the camera on the lower right:

Layout:

PDF (600DPI @24x36) to scale

camera:

thanks

12 hours ago, GlennShaw said:

No box being toggle by anyone. It is a layer I turn off or on.

I assume though that you also want to make sure the symbol for the gas is on the plan. i.e. if you turn the layer on, you do not just want (1) Fireplace to show up in the text box, but you also want to make sure the symbol is at least on the plan. Otherwise people will turn on the layer and forget to position the gas outlet.

How is that ensured in Autocadd?

Or is this only a problem on existing plans where all of the gas outlets are already on the plan and you are just toggling the layer to toggle the option for the customer?

Not sure how you setup that one wall with the two roofs. 

And the roofs and/or ceiling planes are not centered (assuming the windows are):

If you lowered the right roof that might solve one problem, but that would be a purely manual fix

you may want to post the plan