Lighthouse

Is there a way to get Chief to cheat siding courses?  Good carpenters create a story pole to get siding courses to align with window heads and sills, which often means cheating the interval spacing.  For example, 4" clapboards might be cheated to 4 1/2" in a particular area to make them align.  I know that I could create a material region and assign a different siding with a wider interval.  It would be ideal if I could actually just grab individual pieces of siding and move them.  Any workarounds besides material regions or polyline solids?

Similarly, I would like to be able to control the amount the siding overlaps the floor platform.  In some designs, I like to change siding materials at the subfloor level, rather than at the bottom of the floor platform as is Chief's default.  I can adjust the wall manually, but then I'm moving the whole wall, not just the siding.  Ideally I would like a setting the controls the top and bottom of the siding relative to the wall plates.  Does that exist?

thanks

is there any way to figure out which objects or cad blocks might be large without individually hunting them down?  And how do you determine the size of an object, once it's in the plan?

yes, I meant to write 300,000 kb which is the same.  When you purge cad blocks and materials (don't know how to do that), I assume it retains and ones that are present in the plan?

I have a plan that is over 300KB.  That seems to be about three times larger than my typical plan.  It takes a long time to open and close.  Is there a way to analyze the plan to figure out what is making it so large?  It's possible that I have imported some third party sketchup models of furniture, etc.  I can't remember.  Is there a way to find these models in a plan, and delete them, without searching for each one individually?  Are there other factors that could make a plan large?  Is that a lot larger than other peoples' plans?

thx

I can add this to my long list of workarounds :-)   Hopefully this feature could be added at some point, seems useful and easy to implement.

14 minutes ago, GeneDavis said:

The 3D Framing View is the key.

Hmm, didn't work for me.  I did 3d framing view and unchecked all framing, but the walls are still there.  I also tried to delete the surfaces and save the camera view, but when I reopen the camera the walls are back

I'm doing a foundation with pony walls that step down.  I would like to show the step down foundation walls in a foundation camera view, without showing the upper half of the wall.  I know there is a control for what part of the wall displays in plan view, but I don't see how to control what part of the wall shows in a perspective view.  I know I could make the upper part of the wall out of something like glass, but I want to keep the real wall definition so it displays correctly in overviews, etc.  Any clever ideas on how to show just the lower (concrete) portion of the wall and not the upper (framed) part?   Thanks

Now I see the points (lots of them!).  Did you use some fancy math to calculate them?  I assume you didn't measure each one.  Wait, I didn't see the new video, let me study that to see if it answers my question

Thanks for posting the plan.  Would you mind reposting where the roof is not a symbol (just the actual terrain model)?  I'm trying to study the exact elevation points that you created, but that info seems to be embedded in the symbol and not available.  Thanks.   Looks like a good charity!

No way!  you win the prize!  But you have to post the plan.  What's the secret?  Where should I send the donation?

For years I've been obsessed with trying to model a parabolic roof.  I once got it to sort of work by using the terrain and changing the material, but it wasn't exact. Now that we are up to x12 (or 13?) I wonder if there is some new function that would make this possible, if someone is clever enough, which I am not.  I have built the frame and rafters in the attached model (a tedious task in itself), I just want to skin it with the roof surface (and ideally a ceiling below that follows the parabolic shape).  I know I could make a hole bunch of PS and arrange them, but I'm looking for a more elegant solution.  I'm offering a $50 donation to your favorite charity to the winner.  Anyone interested?  btw, it doesn't have to actually function like a roof in terms of cutting off the walls, I could do that manually.

parabola roof.plan

well, I have to take back my snide comments.  I spoke to them today and they said they have to do it manually, but it turns out that I had a free upgrade to X11 so the cost to go to X12 was much lower.  So worth the wait.  I must learn patience.

it must be more complicated than one would think.  Maybe someday you will be able to order things from an online store after hours.  Hey Amazon, there's an idea for you!

yeah, I was hoping in this digital era that a human being didn't have to be involved in something like this.  of course, I could have decided to upgrade during the workweek, but that would have been easy...

Hi Eric,

Thanks for the reply.  Please see attached

I finally bit the bullet and upgraded from x10 to x12.  I got an email receipt with a link to my digital locker.  However, the option to download x12 does not appear in the locker.  Does it take a while?  Am I missing something?  I hit upgrade, but it upgraded free x11 ,not x12.

thanks

19 hours ago, ericepv said:

I've changed my colors to the 'Stone' theme which gives me a medium grey background for the toolbars and I also use a light grey background for drawing background. It is easier on the eye's.

Hmmm, I changed it in "edit preferences, appearance" which worked for plan view, but not camera views.  I tried 3d preferences but don't see an option there.  Is there a way to change screen color for all types of views?  Also, you mentioned a stone "theme".  I don't see themes, just colors.  I'm in x10, maybe themes are a later version?

thanks very much!  I changed my background to gray and already feel better (placebo effect :-)   But I think it will make a difference

I'm suffering from eye strain and wonder if there is a way to change CA so the screen is black and the lines are white.  A friend does this with Datacad, not sure if possible in CA?

Here's the design so far without a railing.  Thanks everyone for your help!

12 hours ago, glennw said:

Make the wall a No Room Definition wall - works in X12.

Post back if it doesn't work in X10.

 

Glenn, that worked!  How did you think of that?  It just didn't occur to me that it was screwing up the winder by making a room.  Why is everyone smarter than me :-)

Eric, thanks so much for creating that video!  btw, what software do you use to do that screen recording?  Super helpful, although it turns out that those options are not avail in X10.  Seems like there are lots of improvements in 12.  I have resisted upgrading b/c I own 2  X10 licenses, so it's a big investment.  

got it.  But I'm curious how you connect the upper stair section to the upper landing.  Do you just pull a straight stair section off the landing, or is there some other step that I should be doing (because that doesn't work, puts the stair on the floor, even though the landing is at the correct height and I have "figure stair from landing" checked

thanks.  So is it a bug that you can't do it with a stair?  I tried the winder method, but couldn't get the upper stair to recognize the winder and start at that height . How did you create the winders?  As PS?  And could you attach the plan so I can see the settings?   thanks again!

51 minutes ago, solver said:

 

????

I deleted all all the CAD details and was able to upload the plan