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Hi Lisa, If you don't mind me asking? Not sure what you are trying to do. I spend way too much time on YouTube's blackhole, so what or how are you doing to speed this up? And how do arrow keys make things easier?

Not thousands. But, on custom homes I may have up to 100 hyperlinks.

I've enjoyed these improvements since PDF's are such a standard. I wanted to ask you Ben, do you think that providing hyperlinks in my .plan files will slow things down? I really like the embedded links that are part of exported PDF's that contractors, plan reviewers, clients and others, can access for say full specifications on various items.

Lots of Photoshop work. A really good image is critical, then it means playing around with it to get it to line up on all 4 sides without any shade or shadow variations.

This pattern breakup has been happening on and off in CA for quite some time. It appears to be back again in X16. I called SAS support and they see and noted it also... Since CA has worked hard on giving us a better pattern creation tool, I cannot imagine it is too difficult to create our own?

I agree with Joe. Coming from an Architectural firm that was a big 'no-no'. As a small business man with my own design firm, I did this twice when I was young and it came back to bite me. I did have one contractor just take it and run. Building the plan several times until I threaten to sue him, along with an invoice for "re-use" fee.

This inability for CA to consistently "manage archive folder" when the number of plan or layout files exceeds the variable number we set, is frustrating at best. Since it is not consistent for everyone and each OS, I suspect it is a subtle setting in Windows or Chief that brings this up time and time again. As a Beta tester I get used to these quirks, but this one is never fun. Like most people I just ignore the issue and move on until something tells me I need to delete a few hundred giga-bytes of archived files. The last X16b version was working well and did call up the windows folder dialog box, allowing me to then "manage" those archives. Now the most recent update did something to cause this error to pop back up again. So I called into the SAS support and was surprised that the helpful Expert was able to recreate this problem. I'm just surprised nobody else brought this up? Or did I miss that post?

I've got two questions that have vexed me for years. 1.)Is there a way to get wall trim similar to the stairs to display automatically? 2.) Is there a way to nip off the exposed wall trim at it hits a landing like this?

My client has these beautiful mahogany louvered sidelights from someplace tropical, and he wants them to be mounted horizontally inside a wide doorway opening. But I'm tired and stump on how best to do this. I can make a narrow (18") fixed louvered door, but can it be turned into a symbol and then rotated 90 degrees?

I like this bracket idea. You might elaborate on why these are becoming more necessary today. I've struggling with a newel post edge detail, where I've got an AWS concrete deck pavers system which I'd like to drain over the edge, while creating a nice looking trim detail. I spend way too much time trying to figure out how it would be done. The original designer drew up a nice clean system, but how the F**K you'd build it was not considered.

After some thought, and reflection... WWRD I landed on changing the gutter to get the look I wanted. Worked perfectly.

Thanks Rene. I was wondering what it was doing. Only issue is making a trim band that follows the slope of the roof... Can I do that with a cabinet? LOL.

Anybody have an idea of how I can best get a custom shadowboard parapet trim that does not have the top roof surface showing through? No matter how much I try to widen the trim or offset it horizontally, the grass top surface comes with it but pokes through. I did and exploded view to better show my issue. The other layers in the roof surfaces (not structure) are offset like what I expected, but not the final surface. What mistake did I make with this living roof layering or shadow board trim?

Damn. Thanks guys. I was hoping I was just missing something. What about getting another kind of exported format from the out of country Architect? I did get the Autocad plans in a weird metric scale that came in 3,000% to large on the first try. So I can at least draft over it. It would be sooo nice if AutoCad had an export to *.plan file in their quiver.

I'm wondering if there is a way to save some time and open or import a complete 3d model made in sketchup into CA that is NOT a symbol? I've imported both a 3ds file and .skp file, but there is not much I can do with them. I want to create a typical CA plan file and CA 3d model.

Looks great Lisa, It is one of the fun things about using a great 3d modeling program like Chief, but I honestly spend way too much time getting it to look so pretty like yours. I hear a voice in my head constantly saying; " stop, stop, move on, don't waste anymore time!" which I generally ignore and get lost in the details...

Thanks Michael, You missed the subtle image difference. The X-Bracing is good in terms of putting something between the floor trusses, but take a good look at it in 3d, you'll see that there is NO thickness to the actual X members.

Here is a quicky. I've got a client that wants a green roof, and I can have a 'grass' material as the final texture, but it looks like there is not a way to get that new, nicer, grass region up onto a low sloping roof? SSA support said it could not be done, but I'm wondering if one of you Chief Experts can help me make the roof look more grass like, or even distribute a grass like feature up there?

I found a bug in the floor truss system. Try putting in "blocking" and take a look in 3d. I'm trying to use floor trusses more and more, but I still don't have a good understanding of the limitations. For example cantilevering, or cantilevering for a deck. BTW, I did report this bug to Nigel at CA.

I like your out of box thinking Rene. Using the cushion as a sink was a great idea. I've done this so many ways, but yours is by far superior. Thanks!

Hmmm. I've wondered about this too, so it is nice to know. Solid Rock? Is this on Lake Coeur d'Alene? Looks like a great view home.

Great ideas. This worked great when I took the time to clean up my template file and all the various layer sets. Bad habits can worm their way pretty deep into the templates as we bring them forward with each new version of CA. Thanks for that simple tip. Works great now.

Thanks Jim, I'll play around with that and see if that was the check box I was missing all this time. It is frustrating to get into a bad habit for so long, that I don't even think about it.