Chrisb222

Thanks Funny, I was just gonna ask yesterday for multiple saved automatic exterior dimension defaults Looking forward to this upgrade!

I would only ever sheath the heels if I had a crazy high heel like 24" that would be exposed and need to be covered with the exterior finish.... which rarely happens here. Trusses are made to the sheathing, which is the same as the foundation. And the floor framing. All the same dimension.

Not me. We always use 7/16" sheathing and plans are dimensioned as the exterior wall being 4" or 6" That 1/16th is never gonna be an issue As a builder who (used to) frames and a plan designer, I would never introduce 1/8s or heaven forbid 1/16s into a set of plans. Holy crap, what an unnecessary PIA! Whole inch on foundation plans, with 1/2" being smallest fraction on framing plans.... 1/4" ONLY when absolutely unavoidable, and avoid those whenever possible!

Walls, Hatching is a stock layer that you should be able to turn off Maybe you're trying to select the hatching. I have to tab past the wall selection to get to the hatching

I drew a Room Divider inside the porch on the left, moved it to 1" from the common wall, called the room Slab and turned off Invisible Walls layer. I left the Room Name visible so you could see where it is Quick and easy, but it does throw off the automatic porch dimensions by 1" CBporchenclosure.plan

That's what I do. But just to elaborate, position the first view how you want it on the sheet, then copy that layout view. Go to the other sheet, and use Paste/Hold Position to paste the previous view exactly where it is on the previous sheet. Then, open that view and change the floor and/or the Saved Plan View or Current Default Set.

Select foundation Room, open spec and go to Structure tab Do this for every room in the foundation You can also select the individual wall in 3D or elevation, drag down using drag-tab, enter 4" and repeat for each wall

Use alt or control key, whatever it is on PC to drag them into place in plan view. Command key on Mac Might have to make them shorter then drag out to the side walls

Okay this conversation has revealed some obscure techniques, thank you to all for sharing It just reinforces my desire, though, to have Fill settings on ALDO so we can control line and fill colors independently, on a per-layer basis Made a Suggestion about it a while back which included Arrows but Fill would be much more useful for me:

Larry, after seeing your suggestion I learned there are a lot more places to set fill defaults, my reply wasn't right, but those other settings aren't very obvious. Ah Chief, always more to learn I posted that because I never knew how to select the sill plate, and that's the only way I know to make it green in plan view Maybe there's a way to do that too, besides my method....

You can specify a default fill but it's adopted by all framing members Use green to get the sill plate then change the other members manually

Turn off whatever layers you don't want to see. Might want to create a new dedicated layer set first. Making large changes to a layer set can bite you if you need those particular settings for other views.

Played around with it more, looks like the shape of the CAD line doesn't matter as much as where it's placed. I could not make the edited member conform to a shaped CAD line unless it was laid over the other members like in my earlier pics, but any CAD line placed over the other members produces the same result. So the edited member is adopting its shape from the adjoining members not the CAD line. Oh well I'm glad for the tip from @LevisL anyway.

Nope. Just did it again. Definitely trimming and extending to any shape CAD line Even tried it with Circle and it trimmed, but did not follow the arc

Cool! Yep that works, thanks I could not find any information on how to edit truss members, except using the join and miter buttons. The help files were woefully silent on it

I found this thread looking for tips on editing truss members and thought I'd update the information here It's actually very easy to edit chords and webs using CAD lines which do not need to be 90° angles or even straight-- multi-segment lines work too See examples, I was actually surprised but very pleased this worked: Resulting trimmed web member: Just placing this here for future seekers

SSA is worth it to me simply for the ability to share 3D models, if I never got an upgrade. And really, for myself upgrades are fun but they also require work, and sometimes a change in how I do things, which diminishes the benefits slightly. Especially if the new features don't fit or improve my process. Sometimes I'd rather plug along with what I know rather than read all the update notes, migrate all my stuff, and learn the new ropes. I do, and feel it's a net gain, but it doesn't come free of cost ... in more ways than just dollars. I'm a small design/builder, and sharing 3D models really sets me apart around here.

I'm just amazed that a 12' 2x4 is allowed to support a floor and a roof under any circumstances! Kinda puts the MIN in "code minimum"

Higher DPI = smaller physical size, same data and file size 100 DPI (dots, or pixels per inch) @ 10" HIGH or 1000 DPI @ 1" HIGH Both are 1000 pixels high, same file size, same quality

When you send to layout you can select Plot Lines, and select Use Edge Line Defaults and Use Pattern Line Defaults This overrides the object's line weight settings Then within the layout you can open the layout box and change the line thickness or color That's what I do and I like having a quick simple EASY way to make sure all the edge and pattern lines are consistent I usually make the pattern lines gray once in layout, I think it's a nice look

Yep

Sure. I used to struggle with showing the top line of the stairs for that reason. Even with a thin wall if you turn off display of invisible walls it still covers the stair line. If you move the wall out a fuzz it throws the model off. I started doing this trick and it works great, and keeps the 3D intact.

Yeah you need a really thin room divider wall there. You can't make it 0" but you can make it .01" the program will show it as 0 but it will work Then line it up right over the edge of the stairs, put it on its own layer, make the line style and weight for that layer the same as your stairs, and tun off the other Invisible Walls layer

Best way was already given here: Although not real tricky if you're down with copy/paste in place

Chief can do that. Takes a little editing prior to and after layout, but not much.