kzuiderveld 1 Posted January 5, 2017 Hello, First post - I'm a CA DIY user currently climbing the learning curve. I'm using CA do get our house design in CAD (so we can iterate over it ourselves), but we'll leave the engineering to professionals... Because positioning of the house is so important on our property, I actually build the terrain first (i.e. imported the height contours from a survey), then designed the house (two story + walkout basement). Low and behold, I now realize that the terrain features are only visible on floor 1, not floor 0 (the garage + road + landscaping will all be at this level). Is there an easy way to tell CA to "move terrain definition from floor 1 to floor 0"? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Joe_Carrick 2183 Posted January 5, 2017 Just create a Layer Set that doesn't display the Building but displays the Terrain. Then use that as a "Reference Layer Set" for Floor 0. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kzuiderveld 1 Posted January 5, 2017 Thanks Joe - but that doesn't work (or I don't understand your suggestion). While displaying floor 0, I can't define terrain features - that only works on floor 1. I want to "move" the terrain definition. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Joe_Carrick 2183 Posted January 5, 2017 I don't know of any way to do that other than deleting the existing Terrain on Level 1 and then creating it on Level 0. I believe that might cause some other problems. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kzuiderveld 1 Posted January 5, 2017 ... and that was I feared would be the answer - recreating the terrain will take me a while because I have to re-enter the iso-contour lines. Oh well. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dshall 1396 Posted January 5, 2017 1 hour ago, kzuiderveld said: Hello, First post - I'm a CA DIY user currently climbing the learning curve. I'm using CA do get our house design in CAD (so we can iterate over it ourselves), but we'll leave the engineering to professionals... Because positioning of the house is so important on our property, I actually build the terrain first (i.e. imported the height contours from a survey), then designed the house (two story + walkout basement). Low and behold, I now realize that the terrain features are only visible on floor 1, not floor 0 (the garage + road + landscaping will all be at this level). Is there an easy way to tell CA to "move terrain definition from floor 1 to floor 0"? Holy Kamoly, by accident, you put the terrain on the correct level. Leave the terrain on level 1....... if you want to show anything that is on level 1 on level zero of your plans, use ref sets. DO NOT PUT TERRAIN ON LEVEL ZERO. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kzuiderveld 1 Posted January 5, 2017 Hmmm. From my simple user's perspective, it really should not matter on which level the terrain is defined - but I'll heed your advice and keep things unchanged. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dshall 1396 Posted January 5, 2017 7 minutes ago, kzuiderveld said: Hmmm. From my simple user's perspective, it really should not matter on which level the terrain is defined - but I'll heed your advice and keep things unchanged. Perfect, you are correct, you know nothing.... yet....... there are many reasons to keep the terrain on level 1...... but if I were to guess why you cannot see the roads and landscaping, I would guess you are using a floor camera and not a full camera..... and, you do not have SHOW LOWER FLOOR IN FLOOR OVERVIEWS checked........ bottom line, use the FULL CAMERA and not the FLOOR CAMERA.... I hope that helps.... you have a long way to go, but stick with it.... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kzuiderveld 1 Posted January 5, 2017 While I still have lots to learn, that is not the issue I'm struggling with - has absolutely nothing to do with cameras. I simply wanted to add terrain features by *editing* the plan of level 0 - and that's not working as terrain is associated with level 1. You got to admit, it's a little counterintuitive to have to draw the driveway to the garage on level 1, while the actual garage (and 80% of the landscaping) is on level 0... Thanks for your help! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DRAWZILLA 755 Posted January 5, 2017 4 minutes ago, kzuiderveld said: You got to admit, it's a little counterintuitive to have to draw the driveway to the garage on level 1, while the actual garage (and 80% of the landscaping) is on level 0... That is what reference sets are used for. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dshall 1396 Posted January 5, 2017 23 minutes ago, kzuiderveld said: While I still have lots to learn, that is not the issue I'm struggling with - has absolutely nothing to do with cameras. I simply wanted to add terrain features by *editing* the plan of level 0 - and that's not working as terrain is associated with level 1. You got to admit, it's a little counterintuitive to have to draw the driveway to the garage on level 1, while the actual garage (and 80% of the landscaping) is on level 0... Thanks for your help! It does not matter if it is counter intuitive, it's the way the program works, listen to Perry, that is what the ref sets are for. If you post your plan, if I have time, I might do a video to explain the reasoning behind the madness...... I am on a roll today doing vids...... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kzuiderveld 1 Posted January 5, 2017 6 minutes ago, dshall said: It does not matter if it is counter intuitive, it's the way the program works, listen to Perry, that is what the ref sets are for. If you post your plan, if I have time, I might do a video to explain the reasoning behind the madness...... I am on a roll today doing vids...... Wow, that would be awesome. I attached the plan, but please keep in mind that this is a WIP and the plan has several issues that still need to be addressed that I know of (roof, inconsistent materials, non-standard wall/window sizes, yadayada) and many more I don't know of right now) - but likely good enough to show folks what kind of house we have in mind. As of now, I didn't do much work on sculpting the terrain - we might have to do that in a separate program and then import the results back into CA. There's simply no convenient way that I found to tell CA "the soil excavated from the basement needs to dumped at the north side of the house, please make transition from grade level 1 to level 0 at the west and east sides of the house and please make sure that the grade slopes away from the house at each wall." I suspect I'll have to write some software myself to do these calculations for us. I'd appreciate any feedback - please keep in mind that I'm a newbie (and not an architect either) and that this my first design... River Way House Jan 4 2017 - Sleeping Porch.plan.zip Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dshall 1396 Posted January 6, 2017 I will post the long and boring video if I have time. Bottom line is you wanted to put the terrain on level zero instead of level 1. Here are the steps. -save original plan as plan 2, that is your new final plan, delete the terrain on plan 2. -go to plan 1, copy terrain, go to plan 2 and paste in place. Convert that pline to a terrain and set the correct elevation.... I think it was 2667" or something like that -go back to plan 2, lock all layers, unlock the TERRAIN ELEVATION LAYER, copy that info, go back to plan 2 and copy that info in place.... I would bet you now have the terrain on level zero. Not the way I would of done it, but it is what you want and it should work for you. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dshall 1396 Posted January 6, 2017 Here is a link to the long and boring video when it is done cooking... https://youtu.be/8BPwjPY1DOk..... 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kzuiderveld 1 Posted January 6, 2017 2 hours ago, dshall said: I will post the long and boring video if I have time. I sent Scott a private reply, but his suggestion should indeed work. One key insight: his workflow would have used level 0 for foundation, level 1 for basement, level 2 for main floor and the terrain would be defined using level 1 (basement). In my workflow, level 0 is foundation/basement, level 1 is main floor - this is courtesy of following CA's recipe (https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00376/creating-a-walk-out-basement.html) that creates a walkout basement by increasing the stem wall size of the foundation. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dshall 1396 Posted January 6, 2017 Karel's gazebo vids PART 1 https://www.dropbox.com/s/4mh5rlayp2ztxz7/KAREL VID 1.mp4?dl=0 PART 2 https://www.dropbox.com/s/ifs64ck19f3wsh6/KAREL PART 2.mp4?dl=0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rich_Winsor 149 Posted January 7, 2017 Hey Scott, I don't know why but the quality of these 2 vids on dropbox are displaying in really crappy resolution on my screen and there doesn't seem to be any setting to improve the image quality. Your youtube vids are sharp and crisp as usual however. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kzuiderveld 1 Posted January 7, 2017 Rich, playing the video in the web browser gives you a low-res preview. Video looks fine after downloading it and playing locally. Scott, thanks so much for the effort and time you put into banging on my plan. I knew of several issues you identified, but it was great to see how you found and fixed them. I'll start drawing a new model tomorrow (Denise just gave me new drawings) and will try to avoid some mistakes you pointed out. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
