rlackore

It's quick and easy to create a custom door type out of polyline solid (door slab) and two molding polylines (for the base). Use global symbol mapping for the wall/door material, and things will line up properly. The trick that I haven't figured out is how to flush the door with the wall.

I just selected the upper dormer wall in ortho view and dragged the bottom down.

One of the issues I have with CA is its automatic scaling of certain objects depending on your zoom level, eg dimensions, labels, and line styles. You can "turn off" dimension and label auto-scaling in the Preferences>Appearance>Minimum Display Size - set both values to zero. Unfortunately, I haven't discovered a way to prevent the line styles from auto-scaling.

Too obvious. Thanks.

Okay, never mind. I've discovered that there is a very, very tiny "sweet spot" that will activate the autoscroll up. However, try as I might, I can't find a sweet spot for autoscrolling down.

In X5 I was able to select an item in the library browser, drag it toward the top of the library window, and the library would autoscroll. this allowed me to drop the item into a folder that wasn't visible because it was somewhere near the top. I seem to have lost this functionality in X6, so I have to copy the item, scroll, paste the item, delete the original. Is anyone else having this problem?

With "flat under eave subfascia" checked, and "automatically build roof framing" checked, I get a result just like Jim's. Larry, you're screen shots don't show the roof framing being built.

Automatically build roof framing should cut your rafter tail even with the bottom of the subfascia.

Your plan file is zero kilobytes. Have you thrown a shingle texture on the molding? Does the pattern and the texture display better than when using roofs?

This is what I mean. M. compound curved roof.plan

What you want to draw is what CA calls compound curved roofs. You need two roof planes (where you've drawn only one), and only the lower plan is defined as "curved." Check it out in the manual - it's all explained there.

Selecting Main Layer will calculate Standard Area to the exterior face of the Main Layer. Selecting Surface will calculate Standard Area to the exterior face of the exterior finish of the wall, minus bay, box, and bow windows. This is in line with the ANSI Z765 method for calculating square footage.

Yes, lots of railings in the plan. This is good info. Okay, thanks. I cleaned and purged. Noted. My boss wants interior furniture, gadgets, etc shown in plan, so they are in the plan, but I turned off the layers for exterior views. Nope. Since we recently upgraded to X6, I've been working with multiple windows open: plan, sections, details, 3D, etc. I'm starting to think this is my problem. I seems that CA is "Building 3D Model" for every 3D window I have open. I was expecting something quicker, such as 1 rebuild and then 5 screen refreshes (one refresh per open view). I'm not looking forward to having to scale back on the number of my open 3D views, but I guess I'll have to work within the system. Thanks to everyone for all the suggestions, and to Jim Lawes for offering to inspect the plan. I'm marking this as solved.

Thanks for the info. My box actually has two discreet 5150s, for a total of 4 cores - but I get what your saying.

I imagine bloat can certainly be an issue. However, why does CA Merge/Generate/Finalize every floor 10 times? All I'm changing is the display color of a material definition.

It also happens when I create a new material, even though I don't assign it to anything in the model.

I've found dragging to delete a point is sometimes problematic. Usually it works fine, but sometimes you have to zoom in really close to make sure you're snapping to the correct point on the polyline. I would love a command to select a point and delete it instantly.

When I change a plan material definition, CA goes through an agonizingly slow process of "Building 3D Model." For instance, I just changed the fill color on a material. After clicking "OK" in the Define Material dbx CA pops up the "Building 3D Model" notification box a total of 10 times. Each time it tells me it is Merging, Generating Surfaces, and Finalizing for all the floor levels. I didn't change the model or any 3D data - just a color, not even a texture map, bump map, etc. And this is in vector view, no fancy settings. I had to wait 1 minute and 10 seconds until I regained control of the program. My computer isn't blazing fast, but it has 24gig of RAM and a 2gig of VRAM onboard the GPU. 3D operations in CA are dog slow.

I've had lots of problems with fascias and frieze boards not building properly, even with roof planes that have been "joined" by CA. Sometimes the trim will show up properly during one session, then will disappear during another session. Sometimes there seems to be no rhyme or reason. Everyone in my office runs across this problem.

I use SketchUp for creating custom 3D content for use in CA. I export from SU as .obj, and import into CA. I've never tried exporting a 3D format from CA into SU, so I can't speak to how well that works.

Then all is forgiven.

Got it. I think I recall this discussion in the old forum, many moons ago. I agree we need some kind of resolution.

The stair dbx allows me to check "Include Bottom Rails on Landings", but I can't figure out how to control the height or profile of the bottom rail. I would also like to specify the newel spacing on a landing, but can't figure that out either. Any insight is appreciated.

Didn't you view it as well? Tsk, tsk.

This would be solved if we could discretely set the origin point of the symbol, both in 3D and in 2D.