Lighthouse

How do I control the size of temporary dimensions? I know I can toggle them on and off, but I don't see where I can control the size. When I'm working on a CAD detail, the temporary dimension appear very large (particularly the hash marks) and obscure what I'm working on. I would think they would match the size of the dimension default, but they don't. See the 7/16" temp dimension in the attached pdf. The hash marks are larger than on the 5" dimension. thanks! temp dimension.pdf

Michael, thanks much for looking into that, I'm actually on Windows 10 so I will check it out.

yes, but I need to jump all around the project, so it would be lots of screenshots. Also, sometimes I want to zoom in, and without the context of where I started to zoom, the screenshot would be hard to understand. I'm kind of surprised there isn't something that just lets you draw on the "screen", regardless of what program you are in.

I've run a design/build business and then design only business for the last 40 years in MA. I do all the design and have a structural engineer stamp the structural plans. For a simple addition it costs about $500, for a complicated house it could run a couple thousand. Very few architects I know stamp their own plans around here, they all hire engineers. In some cases, the building inspector will require an engineer even if the Architect stamps the drawings. It's good to understand loads, so you can design stuff that is easily engineered. For example, it's good to be able to read span tables to figure out how deep your joists should be, so you can set your floor levels correctly and not have to go back and change stuff if the engineer says you need deeper joists, etc. CA is just a tool, so knowing the program doesn't mean that you will be able to design houses that work on a functional and aesthetic level. For example, knowing how to use a table saw does not make you a cabinetmaker. So while it's good to think about what tools you want to use, I would really focus on how you are going to learn how to design.

I use Skype etc. for screen-sharing collaboration with remote partners. I need to be able to freehand draw on the screen, add notes, circle things, etc very quickly. I don't think the text and drawing tools in CA are quick enough for this kind of thing. I bought a Wacom tablet thinking I could just draw over CA, but just realized it doesn't work that way, it has to draw in a program that supports it. (I could use it in CA, but CA doesn't have a freehand drawing mode that I'm aware of). Does anyone know how to do this kind of marking up a screen share, where you have pretty accurate control with the drawing? (sometimes I need to make small, careful corrections for the other person to see). Actually I may have just found the answer here: http://www.goldgingko.com/screen-marker/

Thanks for the replies. Alaskan Son gave me great pointers and it came out pretty good. A couple points for anyone interested: 1- despite the naysayers, the direct mitering of gutters into rakes was standard practice on many homes before 1950 or so. Special rake profiles were developed to match standared wood gutter profiles. However, these are not to be confused with the flat bottom wood gutters that exist today. The old gutters had much more ogee on them. see woodgutters.net. So to be clear, you do not have to put a little flat return before going up the rake if you use the proper profiles and know the miter angles (sort of a lost art, but it's a beautiful detail) 2) I created the gutter and rake profiles in cad on an elevation view. I made them into polyline solids, gave them some length, then converted to solids. I rotated them in elevation views and used my xyz coordinates to move them into place. Now, the tricky part. I wanted them to miter at the corner, but because they are different profiles (and hollow) the solid subtraction tool would not work. I made another solid which was a 45 degree slicing blade that I used solid subtraction on to cut each of the moldings individually, then I moved them until the aligned. Obviously and absurd amount of work, but kind of satisfying

hmmm, nice pic. John Moriarty is actually my partner on this, that's his wood mock up in the photo. I've created a new product called Duragutter that is a heavy duty aluminum version of a traditional wood gutter, which is designed to miter into John's wood rakes. Shoot, the plan is in X11 and I've got X10. How did you make the gutter? I do need to be able to show at different pitches

This is an invitation to CA power users to see my posting under services needed. I have a tricky question and I don't feel right asking someone to answer for free, so I posted it there (but I don't know if anyone really checks that, so I posted here also :-))

I'm creating some technical literature and need to model some molding intersections. It may be possible in CA, but I don't think so (unless maybe with symbol overlap subtraction). A friend tried it for me in sketchup but also couldn't quite get it to work. I need a perfect model, with no faking, that I can get photorealistic renders from. The job is to model a variety of molding intersections. The first one I need is kind of a lost traditional detail- it's the intersection of a wood gutter to a wood rake molding. Many Victorian houses had this detail, but as the rake rotted away, or the gutter was replaced with aluminum, the detail was lost. (btw, I know there are other ways to detail this intersection, but I'm not interested in them in this case). Please see the attached photos- one shows a real world condition, and the other shows a shop mock-up. I will provide the exact profile for the gutter and the rake, I just need help in accurately creating the intersection. Note I have tried shadow board, molding polylines, etc but none make a perfect mitre. If you think you can do this, let's discuss compensation.

ahhh, finally got it!! thanks!! I didn't realize that baseline angle is in the "z" direction, I thought it was "x" or "y".

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.