Larry_Sweeney

Make it using a rectangular polyline in plan view and then convert it to a sidewalk. This way you can give it the exact shape you want.

My first thought is to close CA and then reopen it. Sometimes that's all it takes when CA is doing something really weird. If that doesn't work and you don't get a better response from someone else contact tech support.

Found it! Have a great day.

Is there a quick way to find a center of of an arc. I know I can find the radius of the arc by highlighting it, then make a circle of that radius at each end of the arc line and at the intersection of the two circles is the center of the arc. but isn't there and easier way? I was thinking there was a dbx. somewhere that you could check that would show the centers of an arc when highlighted.

By "3D polyline" are you referring to a 3D molding polyline? If you are, I don't quite understand the problem. You should have no problem by using a 3D molding polyline of your profile, making the molding material the exterior siding surface and following around the outside of the house wall. By doing this your inside/outside corners and ends should look correct. If your molding profile extends up into your windows you might need to us a "shorten" variation of your molding profile under your windows. Possibility posting the plan will help clarify what you want.

Lew.........I did the "F12 thing" many times while I was trying to figure out what the heck was going on. I also did the slap upside the head (mine) along with a couple long walks around the property with a beer. It was actually the second time I closed CA and reopened it that I got the correct results. I think the guys at support have my computer somehow wired into their system and were playing with me.

Glenn & Gerry............Thanks so much for your expert knowledge in using CA. Much appreciated. I hope this detail/information may be of some use to others "down the road". Have a great day.

Glenn.....Does your version look like a wall in plan view? That would be more important to me than the framing. I can deal with the framing in other ways. If your "wall" looks correct in plan view, I'm really interested in the procedure.

Joe......That's basically what I came up with. I haven't figured out how to get rid of the small sliver on the one side. There must be a "magic work around"

Mick, Jim, Robert and others.....Just to let you know. "Use Soffit surface for ceiling" was not checked. It is a Deck and that should not effect it. As a matter of fact everything is checked as it should be to give me the correct results. Out of frustration deleted the roof planes in question and rebuilt them using all the exact same settings and now the rafters are acting correctly.  I don't know rather to be glad or p***ed off. As far as I can figure there is nothing different between the old roof planes and the new ones.  One other thing I did come to think of was close CA down and reopen it. I know that can be the "majic touch" sometimes. CA can be soooo frustrating at times. Thanks to all for your advice on this matter. Have a great day.

I'm just curious. Shown in the attachment is a arched wing wall on a Victorian porch I'm designing. In the model I made this out of a series of p-solids. Does anyone know how or if this could be made from a regular CA wall? I've played around with the idea, but I'm not getting anywhere. It would be nice to have the framing. I need to show framing details, because of all the things that is going on in the way this porch is constructed. I'm sending the file encase anyone wants to tackle the idea.

Berlin 07252014.zip

This home owner has some "pull". Because the house has so much "historical significance" to the area he is allowed to use the same heights as the railing is on the original porches around other areas of the house, This holds true as long as everything (architectural details) on the "new porch" matches the detailing of the original house and period it was originally built.

Jim..........Yes, that will cut the rafter tail, but it also makes all the rafters in the roof plane the same size as the gable sub fascia instead of what I have it set to as 7 1/4". I think this should be or is a bug. I think the gable sub fascia should only affect the soffit area framing, not the entire roof plane. That is unless I'm missing something. I have the gable sub fascia set at 4 13/16" to allow me to make the gable trim detail I show.

Robert....I thought it should, but it isn't as I have shown. This is also why I show all the settings that I think pertain to "cutting" the rafter. I've played around with all sorts of combinations of settings, but so far I haven't found the right combination. Every time I make a change in the settings I rebuild the roof plane to see what that change does. I was hoping that possibly someone would pick up on the dbx that I might have set incorrectly.

Is there a setting to cut this tail level to the soffit so it shows correctly in a detail? I'm showing what I consider all the settings that deal with changing the rafter and what my setting are set too. I know I can do a cad detail and change everything manually, but I'm trying to avoid it if at all possible. CA keeps telling us that their goal is to make the model as accurate as possible to avoid needing better cad tools or using cad details at all. There "should" be a way to show this rafter tail correctly. Thanks to all in advance for your time and advice.

Larry,

Simple solution would be to match Bills "corner turn" to a tread width and then start stairs from there. Does that make sense?

As I mentioned in the previous thread, the point where the sloped wall started was determined by the height I wanted the top of the wall above the treads. There are other areas on this old Victorian where there are similar details and I'm trying to keep those common heights/details on this new porch addition.

One thing I really like about 3D modeling is that you can "build" the product/model and see that your ideas really work. I've been building and designing since 1972 and in that time I've had a "few" projects to build (especially from the "hand drawn days") that looked interesting on paper, but in practically there was no way it could be done. With CA and doing the "unusual" at times I'm not sure if CA is "telling" me it can't be done or that it can be accomplished, but CA can't do it. That's what is great about this forum. There is usually someone here that can "fill" me in on the "can and cannot" of CA.

Mick.......That was my first thought, but CA would not let me make correctly. When you angle the wall coming right off the end of another wall CA makes the connection pointed instead of a square cutoff end. (attachment) I then realized I needed to have the level flat area a short distance so when I changed the wall's slope to follow the stairs the wall would be at the correct height above the treads. Some time ago I think there was a discussion on how to not have a angled wall do this at the connected spot, but I haven't looked for it get.

Bill......I'm finally understanding what you are saying. Whether in CA or "real life", the way I have this flared railing shown will be a real PITA to deal with. Would you (or anyone) have a better suggestion on how these flared steps could/should be done? I appreciate your and others help and advice on this problem. Thank you to all.

Perry......I guess you didn't see my edit. I meant "gable sub fascia". I have a freize  board detail in the gable. When I turn off soffits my rafters are once again 7 1/4", but I loose my frieze detail. (attachment)

I specify 7 1/4" rafters for my roof, but if I make my gable sub fascia 5 1/2" all my rafters on that roof plan go to 5 1/2". What am I doing wrong?

Edit.........I should have written "Gable Sub Fascia Question" as the topic

Bill.......If I'm understanding what you are showing me, CA will cap the "rail" wall I have in my model if it is just a rectangular board with square edges for the cap. As soon as there is a "molding profile" ( even just rounded over edges?) on the sides CA will have "problems". Is this correct? I'll have to play around with this sometime today. Appreciate the time you've taken to work on my problem. Do you work with SU much? If so, do you think SU can accomplish making the railing cap?

Bill.......All this is ia a compound miter. It's all in finding the correct angles.

Bryce.......I've scratched my head on this type of compound angle before. I "think" I found a work around. It's a real PITA, but it doesn't look to bad. I took the original 3D molding line I used in my first thread and made a copy of it. Then I turned off the molding on all the lines except the top one. I then took the copied 3D molding and turned of the top section. After that I sat the original 3D molding and the copied 3D molding on top of each other. By moving the molding lines around a little I was able to get a satisfactory look. It's not perfect but it'll work. I think with a little more playing around a person could learn to do this "fairly" quickly. The left side went much faster that the right side and looks a little better also. It's still a PITA, but it can be done. The actual molding profile probably makes a difference also. I'll have to play around with it some more.-------ANOTHER DAY!

BERLIN FLARED RAILING 2.zip

Am I trying the impossible with a 3D molding? For the "railing wall" I used a regular exterior wall and then resized it to suit my needs. I then tried using  a 3D molding of the entire rail cap but I get the odd results shown in the attachments. I also tried using p-solids, for the areas of the railing cap directly on top of the wall with a combination of 3D moldings on the sides of the rail cap, but I couldn't find the right combination for the compound angles I'm trying to achieve with the angled railing wall for the steps. (This style was used on "level" railing around the porch) The client keeps making what he thinks are minor changes, but for me (and CA) they seem to me major hurtles. I hope I'm making sense of what I'm trying to accomplish. It seems I'm always taxing my abilities and CA's to the limits. My rail cap could quite possibly be accomplished in SU, but I have only work in SU a couple of times and it has been almost two years ago. I hate to have to go through the "learning curve again". Any and all advice will be greatly appreciated. (I'm coffeed out!)

BERLIN FLARED RAILING.zip

Support more or less told me some time ago "The squeakiest wheel gets greased first!". Soooo.....start squeaking. 

After doing some more searching I found the answer.

This is the correct answer to the problem. It's from Kenoeightspot (Bill Page)............Click on the "Spray can Icon" then check the "Use default" box, then click on the top and bottom walls and see if this changes your walls back to the default wall types. Thank you Bill.