Sending details and notes to a layout page


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21 minutes ago, rgardner said:

is there a reason why to keep it in a separate layout instead of your standard layout template?

 

-File Size

-Layout speed

-Sortability

 

21 minutes ago, rgardner said:

Or vs your plan template?

 

-File Size

-Sortability

-Inability to preset the layout box cropping, scaling, positioning, etc.

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3 hours ago, Alaskan_Son said:

 

-File Size

-Layout speed

-Sortability

 

 

-File Size

-Sortability

-Inability to preset the layout box cropping, scaling, positioning, etc.

Thanks.  I was thinking there must be a reason no one was mentioning it for the layout.  I had the suspicions that the .plan file would get too big and slow down if I added say 60 Cad detail sheets to it.  Wasn't thinking regarding the scaling issues with the layout version.

 

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I have a series of Detail Plans:

  • Foundation
  • Doors
  • Windows
  • Railings
  • Floor Framing
  • Roof Framing
  • etc.

Within each of those I have from 5-20 details stored in CAD Detail Windows which are named and show up in the Project Browser.  I simply select the ones I need from those plans and send them to my Layout.  This scheme provides a pretty simple "Look-Up" and keeps my project plan and layout pretty clean.

 

In some cases the Details are imported Images (pdf, jpg, bitmap, png, etc) but mostly they are details I've created in Chief.

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10 minutes ago, rgardner said:

Wasn't thinking regarding the scaling issues with the layout version.

1.  What are you guys scaling?  A 3/4" detail, is a 3/4" detail.  Maybe I am just to old school to remember when we drew a detail on a sheet of paper that was that.  And our hand-drawn sheets looked just as organized then and we did not have the ability to move stuff around.

 

2.  In X12, it sounds like we can have a .layout file with all the details sent to the detail.layout and you could just copy the layout box with all the info to your working layout?  Maybe I should hold off on my detail warehouse...

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I have each detail in its own plan file suitably named and then located in a separate directory  with i.e. foundations, soffits etc sub-directories to easier locate them.

My details in my finished layout are then a series of plan and pdf's. the only downside to this is if I alter a detail without changing the name it gets changed in all other projects where that detail has been used. this has worked well for me over the last 14 versions.

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This what I have decided to do regarding detail/warehouse and curious if anyone saw any potential issues and/or problems before I go too far.

I have a folder in my project directory called Details.

 

In that folder I have 2 files:

  • 2020 Details.plan
  • 2020 Details.layout

 

In the .plan file, I have created several CadDetails under Project Browser to categorize my details, such as Roof Framing, Foundation, etc.  I have created a block where I will put/draw the details, this block is the same size as the block I use on my detail sheets in the set of plans:

220930842_detblk.thumb.JPG.51228a492d66951fbcb2f09d4f14af14.JPG

 

I am sending these to the 2020 Details.layout, which will also be organized by sheet, i.e. Eave Details, Foundation Details, etc, to the correct scale and adjust the layout box to fit my "Detail Square".  On the layout, I have added the macro to read the sheet label and the detail number, at this point, just a place holder "X":

 

sheet.thumb.JPG.ced66901504a74409fe8740cffd430dd.JPG

 

Now that I can have 2 layouts open, I can just marquee the selected detail, copy and paste.  My layout box is already the right size, so I can point top point move, edit the number and done.

 

Does anyone see any breakdowns in this process?

 

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1 hour ago, wjmdes said:

Does anyone see any breakdowns in this process?

 

Nope.  That process sounds about as valid as any.  Only note I would add is this.  If all your project specific details are linked to that same layout, just don't forget that any changes made to that detail will affect any and all plans they were sent to.  That probably goes without saying, and more often than not its a benefit.  It's not always beneficial though and its important to remember. 

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21 minutes ago, Alaskan_Son said:

Is it though? 

Yes, in my world!  I started on the board and that is just ingrained in my head.  The days when we had to think ahead,  I am sure I have erased a detail or two because the scale was not large enough.

 

I can see, and used to do this in AutoCAD, where I would draw a full wall section at maybe a 1/2" scale and then do enlarged views of say the top and bottom of the wall and use with different scales and layer controls.  I actually need to consider that for job-specific details.

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Interesting idea with the 2 Layouts. May try something similar except in my work flow I use very few details other than the details supplied by my structural engineer. Seems as though others use many many different details. I also use very few that don't need some sort of change for each specific plan.

 

Bill, will that Details.plan and Details.layout constantly change and be updated? To Michael's point above about them then changing wherever they are used, do you see that as an issue?

 

And...different strokes for different folks of course. First thing I learned in the field was to never scale a detail and have never found a need to send details at any specific scale other than to make sure they are readable.

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2 hours ago, wjmdes said:

Does anyone see any breakdowns in this process?

Yes. You can't copy and paste details. (Occasionally it works, usually it doesn't. But I have been informed by Chief that it was not designed to work that way.) You need to double-click a detail on your Details.Layout and then send to your Project.Layout. When you go to send, there is a dropdown that lets you pick which open layout you want to send to. Otherwise, that is the way I would do it. However, I would put each detail in its own CAD Detail in the Details.Layout file.

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23 minutes ago, Richard_Morrison said:

Yes. You can't copy and paste details.

 

Huh?  It works perfectly fine for me.  Sounds like you must be trying to copy and paste from the Project Browser itself because copying a layout box and pasting into another layout box seems to work just fine. 

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1 minute ago, Alaskan_Son said:

 

Huh?  It works perfectly fine for me.  Sounds like you must be trying to copy and paste from the Project Browser itself because copying a layout box and pasting into another layout box seems to work just fine. 

Well, I'm only telling you what I was told by Brian Beck. It generally was problematic for me. Maybe it's because I was trying to copy CAD Details rather than plans. Not using the Project Browser. Copy/pasting text and annotation items from layout to layout worked fine, however.

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9 minutes ago, Richard_Morrison said:

Well, I'm only telling you what I was told by Brian Beck.

 

Weird.  That's basically the same thing as saying you can't copy layout boxes.  That would really defeat most all the purpose of having 2 layouts open. Or are you talking about copying a layout box that references a layout CAD Detail?  Because what Bill (as long as I understood correctly) and I are both talking about is copying a layout box that references a plan CAD Detail. 

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17 minutes ago, Richard_Morrison said:

opening and resending isn't much more difficult than copy/pasting, so I didn't press the issue.

 

Totally disagree.  The whole point is that the view is sized, cropped, scaled, labeled, etc. exactly like we want it.  I think you might be missing out.  Anyway, it seems to work flawlessly for me...

291460340_Copypastelayoutbox.thumb.gif.6aecdd8467f29276155fcff8b26cf255.gif

 

NOTE:  The above isn't the highest quality GIF so it might look like some lines aren't displaying, but they are. 

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19 minutes ago, Richard_Morrison said:

I don't know that there is a distinction

 

There is definitely a distinction.  One requires that the layout be linked to another layout.  That simply isn't normal and is likely what Brian was telling you the program wasn't designed to do. 

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Michael,

I had problems with both. Here's the quote I received, "We do not currently support copying what we call CAD details in the program from plan to plan. My guess is you are either referring to a CAD Block containing a detail or a layout box containing a detail."

 

I'll go back and try again. Maybe I misunderstood the response when I reported it.

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1 hour ago, Alaskan_Son said:

The whole point is that the view is sized, cropped, scaled, labeled, etc. exactly like we want it. 

I have been copying layout boxes from one layout to another since X7? and NEVER recall having an issue, just that before this release, I had to open, copy, close open paste.

 

 

1 hour ago, Richard_Morrison said:

I don't know that there is a distinction, but opening and resending isn't much more difficult than copy/pasting, so I didn't press the issue.

I can fit 9 details on a page, so technically I can copy 9 details at once and paste and only have to move the layout box.

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44 minutes ago, wjmdes said:

I can fit 9 details on a page, so technically I can copy 9 details at once and paste and only have to move the layout box.

Quick question for you Bill. If you need to modify a detail from your .plan file (which I seem to need to on a fairly constant basis) do you double click that detail box and make changes? Re-save or just remember that detail was modified?

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22 minutes ago, HumbleChief said:

Quick question for you Bill. If you need to modify a detail from your .plan file (which I seem to need to on a fairly constant basis) do you double click that detail box and make changes? Re-save or just remember that detail was modified?


If you don’t save, the detail in your current layout will just revert as soon as you close the plan.  

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8 minutes ago, HumbleChief said:

Quick question for you Bill. If you need to modify a detail from your .plan file (which I seem to need to on a fairly constant basis) do you double click that detail box and make changes? Re-save or just remember that detail was modified?

Depends on the change, but if the layout box is on my screen I would double click to open that .plan file, which I can do from either project.plan or detail.plan

 

If I was making a change to a detail, like maybe the new code requires R-15 insulation versus R-13, I would change it so it had a "global" effect or I saw an error or wanted to add another note.

 

The other case would be a job-specific edit and I see 2 scenarios:

  1. I have an Eave Detail with siding but need one with brick veneer, I would copy that detail in "My Warehouse" and edit to create a new detail because that would be useful down the road.
  2. I have a crazy design on an eave that I will never do again, so I would copy the detail into my project.plan and edit it there.

I, however, find most of the details I do are useful for the future and just may put all those in a separate.plan file and send to my detail.layout

 

This detail.layout is also going to allow me to print out a detailed book (which I just thought of) so I am going to add a layer I can turn on/off and lock, so when I print each detail will have a name like D1...  so when I mark up plans for my son, I can just write the detail number on the check set and he will insert, but will not copy to project.plan

 

OK, some of this is theoretical and not put in practice....YET!

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15 minutes ago, wjmdes said:

Depends on the change, but if the layout box is on my screen I would double click to open that .plan file, which I can do from either project.plan or detail.plan

 

If I was making a change to a detail, like maybe the new code requires R-15 insulation versus R-13, I would change it so it had a "global" effect or I saw an error or wanted to add another note.

 

The other case would be a job-specific edit and I see 2 scenarios:

  1. I have an Eave Detail with siding but need one with brick veneer, I would copy that detail in "My Warehouse" and edit to create a new detail because that would be useful down the road.
  2. I have a crazy design on an eave that I will never do again, so I would copy the detail into my project.plan and edit it there.

I, however, find most of the details I do are useful for the future and just may put all those in a separate.plan file and send to my detail.layout

 

This detail.layout is also going to allow me to print out a detailed book (which I just thought of) so I am going to add a layer I can turn on/off and lock, so when I print each detail will have a name like D1...  so when I mark up plans for my son, I can just write the detail number on the check set and he will insert, but will not copy to project.plan

 

OK, some of this is theoretical and not put in practice....YET!

Thanks Bill. I can see some possibilities, and some complexities as well. I might start small and work my way up to a system that works. Either way opening more than one Layout (even though it was possible in X11) is a great new feature.

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