X12 - Is There a 'Clip To Sides' Setting For 'Wall' Elevation Cameras?

[HumbleChief]

..or a way to get the same effect if it's not there?

[DzinEye]

It should be automatically clipping to your room size, but if you want it clipped even more than that, for 'the same effect' you could simply crop the elevation in your layout.

[HumbleChief]

2 minutes ago, DzinEye said:

It should be automatically clipping to your room size, but if you want it clipped even more than that, for 'the same effect' you could simply crop the elevation in your layout.

Thanks Mark, I am exporting the elevations and not sending to Layout. I need to 'clip' them to include only specific sections of a 'wall' instead of entire walls as Chief defines them. I've been able to 'back clip' to get close and am assuming this same feature as in back clipped cross sections does not exist in wall elevations? Or am I missing it?

 

Thanks again.

[HumbleChief]

6 minutes ago, solver said:

Show us the problem.

I think I figured it out using the 'back clip' setting that limits the wall elevations in a way that works OK. I was previously getting all the walls beyond that back clip and was looking for the 'clip to sides' feature that was not there. Very seldom use wall elevations hence my confusion.

 

THANKS

[DzinEye]

3 minutes ago, HumbleChief said:

Thanks Mark, I am exporting the elevations and not sending to Layout. I need to 'clip' them to include only specific sections of a 'wall' instead of entire walls as Chief defines them. I've been able to 'back clip' to get close and am assuming this same feature as in back clipped cross sections does not exist in wall elevations?

I'm not using X12 yet, but the clip feature did not exist in wall elevations in X11 so I don't expect it would be in X12 either, and if it was you'd probably see it like it exists for normal sections.  
Another way to do what you want if you're exporting would be to create a CAD detail from your room elevation, then clip that as needed.

[HumbleChief]

Just now, DzinEye said:

I'm not using X12 yet, but the clip feature did not exist in wall elevations in X11 so I don't expect it would be in X12 either, and if it was you'd probably see it like it exists for normal sections.  
Another way to do what you want if you're exporting would be to create a CAD detail from your room elevation, then clip that as needed.

Thanks again but I think the back clip setting solves it.

[Alaskan_Son]

CAD masks.  Could have been done 100 times in the time it’s collectively taken us to create and respond to this thread.  

[HumbleChief]

6 minutes ago, Alaskan_Son said:

CAD masks.  Could have been done 100 times in the time it’s collectively taken us to create and respond to this thread.  

Thanks Michael but not really the best option in this case or at least in this case with my expertise. I'm exporting in DWG not sending to Layout but will remember CAD masks if needed in the future and hopefully I don't waste others' time in creating threads in the future. Apologies to those who took their time to respond but appreciate the help.

[wjmdes]

24 minutes ago, HumbleChief said:

if needed in the future and hopefully I don't waste others' time in creating threads in the future

Please do NOT apologize and please do not stop asking questions.  I think long-time users forget that this is an extremely complicated and in-depth piece of software.   I get frustrated with the answers I sometimes get on a question I ask because some people like to insinuate I am stupid because I was not aware of a toggle buried 3 layers deep in dialog boxes.

 

I also think people forget that when something goes wrong with Chief that it usually occurs at a bad time. I know most of the issues I have cause me a great deal of stress when I am on a deadline.  9 times out of 10, it is a very simple fix that I just was not aware of.  

 

 

[Alaskan_Son]

21 minutes ago, HumbleChief said:

hopefully I don't waste others' time in creating threads in the future. Apologies to those who took their time to respond but appreciate the help.

I wasn’t suggesting anything of the sort.  Just pointing out how easy and versatile CAD masks are.  I see people fighting those wall elevation cameras all the time to get them to either show or hide something...for no really great reason.  CAD masks are just far more flexible and advantageous.  
 

But ya, knowing you needed to export to DWG would have been a good piece of information to include as the CAD masks could potentially cause issues there depending on what the end goal was.  Then again, they’re just filled polyline masks over there too.  

[Alaskan_Son]

26 minutes ago, wjmdes said:

I think long-time users forget that this is an extremely complicated and in-depth piece of software.

To be fair, Larry IS a long-time user.  With as long as he’s been in the industry and as much time as he’s spent on the forum, I guess I assumed he knows what a CAD mask is.  If not, sorry Larry...

 

The idea of using a CAD mask is this: You can use any elevation camera and just draw a polyline to cover an area you don’t want to see.  You can reshape as necessary and even put holes in it.  Give the polyline a solid fill (set to the background color) and it will cover anything you don’t want to see.  Think of it as a completely customizable clipping setting.  You can even set the line style to the invisible line style so that it doesn’t draw any lines.  Besides the ability to custom “clip” your view, it also has the benefit of allowing you to place notations outside the view which cropping a layout box will negate.  Hope that helps. 

[DzinEye]

3 hours ago, Alaskan_Son said:

4 hours ago, HumbleChief said:

hopefully I don't waste others' time in creating threads in the future. Apologies to those who took their time to respond but appreciate the help.

I wasn’t suggesting anything of the sort.  Just pointing out how easy and versatile CAD masks are.  I see people fighting those wall elevation cameras all the time to get them to either show or hide something...for no really great reason.  CAD masks are just far more flexible and advantageous.  
 

But ya, knowing you needed to export to DWG would have been a good piece of information to include as the CAD masks could potentially cause issues there depending on what the end goal was.  Then again, they’re just filled polyline masks over there too.  

I was pretty sure that was Michaels point, but it did come off a little harsh sounding...I figured he'd chime in to rectify.   In any regards... I don't think the cad mask would work in this case since you're exporting.  At least in my experience you get the lines of the mask AND everything you masked in an export.

[HumbleChief]

Hey, thanks for the help and comments. I hardly ever use wall elevations, and have never exported them, and was simply curious if there was a setting in the dbx I might be missing. Familiar with CAD masks but again was curious about a setting I might be missing to make the process a bit easier. Again, thanks for all the help.

[Joe_Carrick]

If I understand what Larry wants, here's how I would do it.

• Create a Section looking at the wall
• Set it to double callouts
• Clip to sides
• Mask the top and bottom so that you only see the wall.

 

[rgardner]

5 hours ago, Alaskan_Son said:

The idea of using a CAD mask is this: You can use any elevation camera and just draw a polyline to cover an area you don’t want to see.  You can reshape as necessary and even put holes in it.  Give the polyline a solid fill (set to the background color) and it will cover anything you don’t want to see.  Think of it as a completely customizable clipping setting.  You can even set the line style to the invisible line style so that it doesn’t draw any lines.  Besides the ability to custom “clip” your view, it also has the benefit of allowing you to place notations outside the view which cropping a layout box will negate.  Hope that helps. 

This is the way I do my regular elevations below grade.  I draw a box over the grade area then trace the foundation lines on a elevations hidden lines layer I created with a dark gray dashed line,  then fill the poly line with background solid fill.  Send it to layout and crop to size and leaves a nice line for the grade and everything below grade is a nice dashed outline.  Works great but as already mentioned it would depend upon what you wanted to do with the dwg file.

[MarkMc]

7 hours ago, HumbleChief said:

I am exporting the elevations and not sending to Layout.

What about a CAD detail from view, then draw a line and trim using it for a fence, marquee select leftovers and delete.?

[Ridge_Runner]

15 hours ago, rgardner said:

I draw a box over the grade area then trace the foundation lines on a elevations hidden lines layer I created with a dark gray dashed line,

Ryan, I use a little different technique that usually doesn't require drawing the CAD lines. Use the mask with a 45° hatch pattern set to a 75 line weight and a white color - transparent background. Make the border of the mask polyline the same and adjust the top side to just below your CAD grade line. The foundation will show, the hatch will mask the existing lines making them look "dashed." This works if you print a black and white layout and not color.

[DzinEye]

23 hours ago, HumbleChief said:

I need to 'clip' them to include only specific sections of a 'wall' instead of entire walls as Chief defines them. I've been able to 'back clip' to get close and am assuming this same feature as in back clipped cross sections does not exist in wall elevations? Or am I missing it?

Hey Larry, although it sounds like back-clip somehow resolved your problem... I just had a thought for another easy way to do a side-clipped a room view that could be exported without the clipped information.  Just put in some temporary 'room divider' walls where you want your room view clipped.

[rgardner]

47 minutes ago, Ridge_Runner said:

Ryan, I use a little different technique that usually doesn't require drawing the CAD lines. Use the mask with a 45° hatch pattern set to a 75 line weight and a white color - transparent background. Make the border of the mask polyline the same and adjust the top side to just below your CAD grade line. The foundation will show, the hatch will mask the existing lines making them look "dashed." This works if you print a black and white layout and not color.

Thanks for the tip.  I have used that method before as I know that is what Dan baumann recommends as well.  I have alot of clients who want color on their elevations so I generaly do the other method.  But great info for ones who don't know how to use the masks!

 

[HumbleChief]

19 minutes ago, DzinEye said:

Hey Larry, although it sounds like back-clip somehow resolved your problem... I just had a thought for another easy way to do a side-clipped a room view that could be exported without the clipped information.  Just put in some temporary 'room divider' walls where you want your room view clipped.

Great idea Mark but it only works if you create a 'room' with those temp walls. Not a huge burden but wonder why the settings in the 'wall elevation' dbx do not behave the same as the back clipped cross section dbx?

[HumbleChief]

Did a little more exploration and I think there's an inconsistency that should be resolved. As shown in the vid the back clipped cross section view has the same setting as the wall elevation tool but they do not do the same thing. Of course we can create CAD masks and other methods but why do the 2 tools behave differently? Why doesn't the Clip Plane Indicator Length setting in the wall elevation tool create a clip plane length like it does in the back clipped cross section? Seems inconsistent to me or just plain non-functional. 

 

 

[HumbleChief]

Here's a much shorter vid illustrating the inconsistency. I sent it to tech support as I do not think they intended the Clip Plane Indicator Length setting to have no effect when using 'both sides' for the wall elevation view.

 

 

[HumbleChief]

Tech support says that the "Clip Plane Indicator Length" in wall elevations is only intended to show that data on the plan and not be reflected in the 2D elevation camera's output. Any wall elevation is intended to take a snap shot of that 'room' and that room alone. I guess one could create a quick room if it seemed faster. Consistency is an important part of any software program in my mind and in this case the 2 modes don't behave consistently but I, as are most readers of this thread, am over it...