JLDrafting

From the first article: Already a success in commercial construction, BIM has not been widely adopted to date by home builders. Many feel that the technology hasn’t been tailored for the challenges of home-building’s rapid scheduling. But that sentiment is beginning to change.

 There have been some local "big builders" in Florida, back when the economy flourished a few years ago. They were building 150-250 homes per year. BIM was just becoming a buzz word in the early 2000's to the best of my knowledge. Some form of BIM would have been beneficial even at that level. There are national builders that  build in the thousands per year. I suggest that most of that is spec housing, however, the ability to monitor variations and change orders would be huge. I'm just not that big.  Developers would benefit the most from BIM I would think. 

http://www.autodesk.com/solutions/building-information-modeling/overview

Had to go back and take a look at this subject since there is so much activity here on the subject. I'm not sure how much interaction and coordination takes place with primarily residential plans. 

3-D people have been posted on the symbols and content  forum the 29th of August by Joe Carrick.

By definition an Isometric view is at 45 deg. You can save out various camera views with altered values but since there are not locks on cameras it is going to be very easy to move it out of those values.

Actually, an isometric view is always 30 deg. A cabinet view can be 45 deg. most of the time in drafting. Check Oblique projections. If my memory serves, the Cavalier view is foreshortened in depth.

The (3) measurements from the house corners are perpendicular to the boundaries. Offset ( copy parallel) the boundaries as noted. Move footprint to close approximation (snap nearest) and rotate from that point in adequate increments, checking (trial and error) until satisfied. 

Approximate is actually a double tilde. I can't type it, but I know what it is.

Try printing in grayscale. 

Edit: I get pre-engineered drawings in PDF format frequently from structural fabricators. If I print in "black only" setting, any shading or hatches print as solid black. I just use "grayscale" setting and all is well. The PDF looks fine on my monitor regardless. 

God I miss Autocad. 

To me this is a clumsy environment to draw in.

I use CA primarily for concept and floor plans for presentation to customers. All of my construction documents are done in Acad. I export to .dwg and have minimal adjustments (line color, weight, etc.). I used to maintain an Acad full license, but only need Acad LT which is not very expensive. As a contractor, I had more than one saw, hammer and ladders as well. Acad is difficult to learn and be productive and doesn't suit some people. Having the background in Acad should be to your advantage. I don't generally post much regarding the Cad functions here because most prefer completing plan sets in CA. It does work for most on the forum. 

I do not know why my plant chooser has this.

I did this awhile back for a commercial project.

I bought Chief Architect version 4.1 in the early '90's for $800 I think. I had taken AutoCad courses at a University at night. As a contractor, I attended the K&B shows in New Orleans and Atlanta for a few years. I was impressed with the demonstrations and finally made the investment. It was an ART product, but I don't recall whether I bought it from them directly or through Broderbund. Support was from ART in Idaho. I did attend a workshop in New Orleans shortly thereafter. They also had training videos on VHS later that I bought as well. Broderbund sold 3-D Home Architect for about $36 in places like Staples for homeowners. ART became CA somewhere around version 9.5 or 10. I had the Drafting and Design A.S. Degree Program at a local Community College here and had it installed for the Architectural Drafting Course (Version 9) in 2003. I used both Acad & CA in that course. Not sure of the date. Version 9.5 was a free upgrade soon after. There are people still involved with CA from the start that I can't remember right now.

I have looked at all the libraries I have and do not find it. Is it a bonus Lib?

Architectural>Millwork> Mantels, lintels

There is already a crosshead in the lib.

Yes there is.

With the type of work you do, thinking about it as if it was my situation, I would probably just resign myself to having to become very proficient in 2 totally different types of drawing programs.

Chief is such a valuable tool. I had seen it demonstrated at K & B shows for a year or two in the early '90's. I purchased V. 4.7 and haven't looked back. I realized that its CAD functions were lacking, but being comfortable with ACAD, I did con docs that were in two parts. I used the same border and title block for both portions. I think it was version 8 that converting to .dwg came out. The speed for design and presentation remains CA's forte. I began using ACAD for con docs after that. You have an advantage with ACAD knowledge in that CAD detailing is so efficient. 

Set printer to "grayscale"?

I have the HP T120 and like it a lot. I don't have a high demand,so it works well for me. If you have the demand, the HP T520 is faster. I don't know if the 520 is wi-fi, but The T120 is and I  love not being tethered to my plotter. I then got the 11 x 17 all-in one wi-fi and the officejet wi-fi.

Another option is to install Valley Trusses and use the Simpson Tie. 

The rule of thumb I was given is 1/2 of the top chord. Of course the truss manufacturer can engineer other options possibly.

Jim, you may have to remove it from the registry and the services area's to get rid of it totally.

Thanks, but I don't know how to do anything with the registry. That's a place I don't go. The Trovi search engine is just a nuisance for the most part. I don't do much with the residential stuff, but Brinkbart has posted some good stuff and I tend to download some of the offerings whether I'll use them or not. I should take this opportunity to thank him for his contributions. Along with you and many others that share knowledge on the forums.

Brinkbart - I am reluctant to download from that site as I get prompted to click on things that look suspicious to me. I am tired of SPAM. IS there another way to get these?

I did use that site and now I have a "Trovi" search engine that I cannot get rid of. Several other programs also were added to my machine, but I was able to remove all but the Trovi. My free version of Malwarebytes picks it up as malware and I can delete and it still comes back.

CA core catalog> Architecture> Lighting> Recessed.

people and animals.zipMichael,

Try this.

people and animals.zip

Michael, 

I just made a terrain and stuck all of the library items on it. I did open it to see if the add to library would come up in the task bar and it did. These items never had texture that I recall. They are what I think of as billboards that look the same from any camera view. I did back up the entire plan and could not select the folder, so I just sent the plan. I'll look again.

I have never tried to send a file like this. I placed all of the people and animals that I have in my library in the plan. Not sure if you can open and add to your library. These were provided in earlier versions and are not 3-D solids. 

PEOPLE AND ANIMALS.plan