mydog8it

I've had good luck importing X Y Z terrain data. I'm assuming you can export in that format from sketchup? I don't use it much... I've had the best results importing terrain into a new file, then making all of the new terrain lines a CAD block and pasting that into the plan file with the home. I've found it's easier to re-position the terrain than the building. Once you have the terrain in the correct position, you can unblock it to edit as needed. You can add your own terrain lines to override CA's auto re-grading.

You can also try making the wall a railing. Check "stop at ceiling above" in the structure tab, set the railing and post heights to the highest point of the wall, and use panel rail style with no raised bottom panel. Use glass for the panel material, and use post size/spacing/material as your window frames. I've done this for a screened patio with a shed roof (single pitch) and it worked well for renderings. My screen and frames followed the pitch of the roof. I haven't tried it with a curved roof or glass instead of screen, but it should work.

I had it working on vista, so I'm assuming I did, but it was years ago so I'm not sure. (I don't have a need for 10 now since I've already updated/redrawn all of my old plans. Just trying to help others troubleshoot...)

My windows 7 is 64 bit and version 10 wouldn't work. Maybe that's the problem.

Thanks - did that, too. I imported all layer sets, and those imported fine (line styles, on/off, locked, etc) but none of the text settings came along.

It's strange that importing annotation sets doesn't import all of the text settings for each. It makes sense that it should. I don't recommend using a plan template from an older version, Wendy. I've experienced some glitches doing that in the past.

I've finally gotten around to installing X7. I'm working on importing all of my settings, and I can't seem to figure out how to import my text styles. I've imported "default settings", "layer sets", "wall definitions" and "annotation sets," but the text defaults aren't updating. Am I missing something, or do I need to set these up manually?

I couldn't get version 10 to run on Windows 7. It was years ago, so I can't remember why - just that it wouldn't work.

I'm guessing support is getting the data they need from clicking on the "report" button after a crash? I've worked a bit with the beta trial version on a Mac and had a random crash or two when clicking the perspective overview button, but since it was the trial version, I couldn't save the plan to send it in.

Look under tile > patterned > random in the core library materials. If you adjust the scale and 'blend with color' on some of these, they look like a random paver pattern on the top. I hide the sides with plants. I've also used the Dal Tile > Natural Stone > Champaign Gold, 1x1 with scale adjusted to 48" and "blend with color" and those turned out great as square pavers.

I'm always deleting extra lines from layouts. I don't usually have the reverse problem.

Perry, I put my cross section lines on the "cross section lines" layer in X6 and they display fine. I have not downloaded X7 yet.

I send CAD files to engineers on all of my local projects. Trying to export layouts to CAD is a bit of a nightmare. Lew is right, if you can export your dwg from the plan, you'll get the best result. If you have to export the layout to CAD, the best results I've gotten have been from doing the following: In the plan view, create a 'CAD detail from view' of everything before sending to layout. Then send that CAD detail to the layout. In the layout, make sure all white text on black background is on its own layer with default color set to white for the text (otherwise it will export your white text as black on black background, making it invisible). Create a 'CAD detail from view' of each layout page. Then export that CAD detail for each layout sheet to dwg/dxf separately. It's still not perfect, but way better than anything else I've tried. And of course, if you make any changes to the plan, you have to go back and create new CAD details, resend them to the layout, etc. If you don't create the 'CAD details from view' in both the plan and the layout, text ends up rotating and moving all around, and strange objects tend to appear - for me, anyways. I really wish some improvements would be made in this area in future versions.

I've done this using a room molding polyline. Drag it to line it up with the exterior of your wall instead of the interior. Use the rounded handrail molding, set the width to be the same as your wall and increase the height to three or four inches. It not perfect at the corners, but gives you a rounded parapet top. I'm sure you could do the same thing with an angled molding profile.

You can make seamless textures using gimp. It's an open source (free) photo editing software. gimp.org. 1. Open the image file in gimp. 2. Edit > Copy, then Edit > Paste as new layer. Paste it as a new layer three times so you have a total of four copies, each on their own layer. 3. Image > Canvas Size. Exactly double the width and height of the image/canvas size. 4. Use the alignment tool to align each layer in its own corner (so they are all visible, not overlapped). 5. Use the "flip" tool to reverse/mirror three of the layers. Leave the top-left corner alone. Reverse the top-right corner horizontally. Reverse the lower-left corner vertically. Reverse the lower right corner horizontally and vertically. 6. Export the new image. This will now be a seamless texture when tiled. Choose it as the texture file for your material. 7. Adjust the scale of your new material since the size of the image is now larger. You can do it in photoshop, but I can't give you the step-by-step since I don't use that program.

Are you asking if there can be a step down to a patio or garage with a PT slab? Yes.

The downside I've experienced when sending details to layouts directly from their own plan file is that if you try to export a dwg of your layout, everything in the referenced plan file exports into the dwg rather than just the one CAD detail you added to the layout. It was a mess. Not sure if this is still the case in X6 as I haven't tried it... I still keep details in their own plan files so if I need to edit it's easy to find them, but I started blocking them, adding each detail block to my library, then adding the CAD detail blocks that are frequently used to my layout template. That way I don't have to add and resize them every time I start a new project. I've noticed my layout files load much faster doing it this way, too.

So this may be helpful. I did a screen grab so you could see my toolbar config (I haven't really changed anything from the default yet...) and both the cursor and the crosshairs showed up on the screen grab of a plan view. I went to grab a view of an elevation with "synchronize" off, and only the crosshairs showed up on the screen grab. The cursor was missing. Not sure if that's related, but it could be a clue. I took a couple photos for you so you can see the offset of the cursor/crosshairs/handles. The elevation view shows what I get with synchronize off, and the perspective view shows where I have to click to drag the cabinet with crosshairs off. I never open a plan by clicking on it - I always open from the file menu in chief. I typically don't have the window fully maximized, but that didn't make a difference. Also, if I turn crosshairs off in plan view, it still works fine. The problem is only with elevations & perspectives. I'm guessing you'e right and that it's an issue with the graphics card. Anyways, hope this helps.

Open your elevation view. File > Send to Layout. Choose a scale. If you want it in color, go back to your elevation view and choose File > Export > EMF. Drag to select your building. Enter the DPI you need in order to print cleanly at the scale you're using. Then import the EMF file into your layout (File > Import) and rescale it manually to match up with your scaled elevation. If you don't need it to scale, just export the EMF at the size/DPI you will be printing.

If I uncheck "Synchronize with Cursor", the crosshair shows up below the cursor. It never catches up (ie: the crosshair is never at the point of the mouse). It actually seems like the point slightly below and to the right that I can grab items from after minimizing the window (with crosshairs off) is where the crosshair shows up in relation to the cursor when I uncheck "synchronize." I don't have any available updates for the ATI drivers. I don't actually have a mouse driver installed at all, so I don't think that's the problem. No malware. No viruses. No blank space around backgrounds in 3d views. It's still working fine as long as I have the crosshairs turned on, which doesn't bother me. I'm happy to help provide info if it helps someone else or helps to fix a bug though.

Hmm. I have a logitech MX mouse, too. Off to look for a mouse driver... But I have the same problem if I use the mouse pad on my laptop. I know that's all up to date.

When I mouse over an edit handle, I still just have an arrow. After minimizing the main window, it did start letting me resize, but not from the handles. I had to hover above and slightly left of the handles, then I got the dual-sided arrows and could grab and drag from there. No issues with cross hairs on. I have the 64-bit installed. WIndows 7. Core I7 processor. ATI graphics card with its own RAM.

Found it. test.plan

That's weird, Gawdzira. I tested it out again - cross hairs off, can't move/resize. Cross hairs on, works fine. I'd like to upload a sample plan for you, but I can't find an upload/attachment button anywhere...?

Just went through all of my default settings again, and was able to fix it by checking this box: Preferences > Edit > Cross Hair > Enable in Perspective View Thank you for the help!