Lighthouse

thanks, sorry I'm so dense, but I still don't get it. Please see attached marked-up copy of your drawing with questions soffit test question.pdf

I get the idea, but don't know what direction to draw the roof. Can you do it on the attached plan and send it? I'm happy to pay for your time. I just want it to look like the picture. Once I see it on the plan I will understand what you did. Actually, unless you have X10 I won't be able to view it. Just to make sure we're on the same page, you are talking about Soffit B, right? Do I draw that roof parallel to the existing roof or perpendicular?

Wait, now I see what the problem is. On soffit B, I want the slope to be perpendicular to the wall plan (starts low on the wall, ends high at the fascia (easier to see in the pdf). How do I make a roof plane that slopes in two directions- it has to slope to follow the roof, but also slope up towards the soffit

shoot, I thought of that but rejected the idea for some reason. I'll give it a try, thanks

I asked this years ago, but maybe there is now a way to do it. I've designed a roof with overhangs at the gable and rake. I want to create a tapered roof edge (angled soffit) so the roof gets thinner towards the outer edge of the overhang. I can create this tapered edge with a PS, or rafter tails, or a molding polyline, or a shadowboard on the gable end (soffit A in the attached drawing). But nothing seems to work on the rake edge (soffit B in the attached drawing). I would greatly appreciate any brilliant ideas. I have attached a simple test plan as well. Thanks!! soffit test.pdf soffit test.plan

I once needed a parabolic roof which I made out of terrain, and reassigned the materials as you describe. Of course it didn't act like a roof so I had to manually edit the walls to meet the "roof". I used terrain holes and made PS skylights. PITA, but it was kind of cool

on the layout you can click on the box and uncheck "labels" in the dbx

cool, but can you put a window in a roof? Would I modify a skylight to look like a window?

hmmm, I haven't used "convert selection to symbol" but I will research that, thanks very much!

Just to be trendy, I want to create a wall this is off-plumb by 20 degrees or so. In other words, it is angled in section, not in plan. I know I can do this with polyline solids, but I want a real wall that I can put windows in, etc. I don't see any obvious way to do it. Any ideas? Thanks!

I'm trying to make two custom moldings miter at the corner. The molding in blue is a polyline solid. The white molding is a molding polyline (I couldn't figure out how to get that molding to be a polyline solid, on an angle). How can I get them to miter at the corner? I tried turning them into primitives and using the subtraction tool, but it didn't work. I've posted the plan in case anyone wants to take a crack at it. Thanks gutter rake house2.plan

I want to create annotation sets, or at least layer sets, that will be scale appropriate. For example, I want to create a 3" scale detail set, a 1 1/2" scale detail set, etc. The goal is that on a given layout page I could have drawings with different scales that all have the same text and dimension size. For example, a layout page may contain a 1/4" scale plan and a 3" scale detail. I would like the font to be the same size on both. I can create text styles that have the font sizes I want, but I can't figure out how to associate these text styles with a new annotation set. I have tried: edit/defaults/annotation sets/copy a set and rename/use the green + button to create new text sizes, etc. Is that the proper method? I have also created text styles in layer sets, but they do not show up as options in the edit annotation set dbx. I feel like I'm missing something very obvious. Can anyone lay out the correct sequence to create different scale annotation sets? Or should I just be doing it as layer sets? This is really just for CAD details. Or, if anyone has annotation sets that they could share, that are specific to different scales, I would greatly appreciate it. I have tried and failed (watched many videos) to do this numerous time. thanks!

yes, I periodically have to "end task". Can you think of any reason that changing those settings would actually make the program run slower? I noticed that it seemed to take longer for the plan to load, and longer for it to create a view. I can always tell when the plan is slow as there is a very slight lag from when I move the mouse to when the cursor moves, which makes it very hard to do careful work in any view.

so Chief was not actually crashed- I notice Task Manager that when CA is " thinking" (generating a view,etc), it shows it as "not responding" but when the view is generated, that "not responding" goes away. I had CA closed when I made the changes, and restarted the PC after making the changes and verified that the settings had held, and did not revert to the previous settings. The driver date is 6-1-18. the version is 24.21.13.9811

Mick, thanks very much for the specific setting info- very helpful! However, when I made the changes it runs much slower!!! Actually, can barely even create a view. Also, strangely, it takes a really long time to close a view window, which used to be instantaneous. It almost feels like it's trying to save the view before closing it. Attached is a pic of task manager- it doesn't appear to be using much memory or cpu, but program is barely functioning.

Kbird1, thanks for the reply. I've attached a couple screenshots- One shows that the system is using the 970 card. The next 2 are shots of the Nvidia settings (the dbx had a scrollbar, so I couldn't show all the settings in one screenshot. I don't know what most of these options mean, are there any that you would change? Here's the other strange thing- when I went to generate the same view today, it went much faster. But when I go into taskmanager, the same background processes are running, etc. I did the speed test with all other programs except Chief turned off to control that variable. I can't figure out why performance would vary. I assume Chief caches some info so that subsequent views load faster? But in each case I started the program fresh to generate the view. But I often notice as I'm working that the programs slows down, even when I have nothing new running. I'm also careful to close tabs, etc. I wonder if there is some defect in the program or my PC (memory leak, or something), that causes it to slow down as it is used.

Hi Graham, thanks for the reply. I did a camera view from the corner of the living room in the Lake Point plan (see attached). It took 26 seconds to generate. Is this the view that you said took 6 seconds for you? If so, there must be something wrong with my computer. It says it is only using like 5% of CPU and 20% of memory. Any thoughts?

I use X10. I have a plan that runs very slow. I downloaded the LakePoint plan and it runs considerably faster. I'm wondering if my use of third party models for furniture, etc is slowing it down. The problem is I will have to find and examine each one to find the culprit. Before I do that I have a basic question- If a layer is turned off, can it still slow down the generation of camera views? For example, let's say there is a large 3rd party furniture model in the plan. If I have furniture turned off in display settings, could it still slow down the camera view? Or should it only slow it down if the layer is turned on. I ask because turning off layers does not seem to be improving performance. I also wonder whether having polyline solids affects performance. And does anyone know whether a poorly constructed model slows things down? For example, if walls are not aligned, or roofs not perfectly joined? Also, are there benchmarks of how long it takes to generate views of LakePoint? It's taking me 11 seconds for a perspective overview, 3 seconds for floor overview, 8 seconds for a section. On my slow personal plan, taking more like 30 seconds for an overview, etc.

I would like a second copy of X9, if that is what you are selling please let me know

Hi, I design high-end, modern (mostly) houses in the Metro West area of Boston. I've been doing it for 30 years, but things have gotten very busy in the last couple years, so I'm looking for part or full-time help. The catch is that while I have worked remotely with a number of CA users, I really want someone local to work in-house. Ideally this person would be meeting with clients and builders, measuring existing conditions, etc, which can't be done remotely. The range of work would be determined by your experience, but it could include all phases of home design from schematic through to large-scale details. In addition, I do a lot of lighting and furniture design, which would be part of the mix. I'm not sure there are many CA users in this area, so I won't go into a long description of the ideal candidate, etc. That said, a young(ish) person with good skills and aptitude would be nice, as I'm looking for a long-term relationship (possibly even taking over the firm in 15 years or so). Designing in the Boston area is not a bad way to make a living, so if you live in a city that is not doing as well economically, and you aren't tied down, maybe consider relocating? I know this is a long shot, but I just thought I would give it a try. My site shows some of my work. light-house-design.com thx David

got it, thanks very much

thanks for the reply- I can't find the 3d tab you mentioned- the attached screenshot shows what I get when I right click on the item in the library

Some of my plans in X9 are super slow both in 3d views and cad details. (I have a fast video card and 24gb RAM). CA suggested that my third party models may have too many surfaces, which makes sense. 2 questions: 1) once an object (e.g. a chair) is in a model, is there any way to know how many surfaces it has? In a 3d view I see a surface count at the bottom of the screen, but that seems to refer to the entire view, not the selected object. I guess I could take each object and stick it in a blank plan, but I'm wondering if there is an easier way? 2) I'm surprised that multi surface models would be slow once they are in a 2d cad detail, but they sure seem to be. Is it because CA is drawing many overlapping lines, which aren't actually visible in 2d? thx

thanks, that worked

I tried to create a new tile by: choosing an existing 10x10 tile in "plan materials" saving a copy renamed 12x24 changing the size to 12x24 (the size shows correctly in the dbx pattern window) adding to library then I open room and change floor material to 12x24 tile still shows up as 10x10 in camera views what did I miss? thanks!