Best Practices for Light Commercial


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CA x11 and beyond (hopefully)

 

I want to commit completely to CA after working with AutoCAD Architecture over the past couple of decades. (all 2D with little to no 3D or BIM experience).  Very comprehensive, complicated and cumbersome.

 

All my work is commercial office/industrial/medical interior design and construction documentation.(new and 2nd generation remodels for 1,200 SF to 75,000 SF, multi-floor high rise prospects and tenants)

 

I want to start by presenting 3D concepts with keynotes to my Clients while developing a good construction document package that can be issued for Bid, Permit and Construction.

Can anyone recommend how I should start the process? This is a big step and commitment so I want to do this right.

 

I understand setting the proper preferences and defaults is at the top of the list.  Can I get some guidance on this?

 

Thanks - Bob 

bobf@rdfinc.com

817 307-1746

Fort Worth, Texas

www.rdfinc.com

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Bob

for a start CA is primarily aimed at stand alone timber framed residential projects.

However I have done many light commercial projects over the years, I find they tend to require work arounds to achieve what I wanted.

If you were not having to do multistory structural ( just show a 'box' )and then 3D fit-outs it would be great .

There a quite a few examples on this forum by others of shopping malls etc, mostly by experienced users.

I would start by trying to reproduce a relatively simple project you have already done. when you get stuck the F1 key will give you information on the operation in hand. or you can search by key word.

a search of the forum is the next step then a question on the forum then a call to CA helpdesk they are usually very good.

 

Best of luck with the learning curve

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It would be a bit simpler to discuss the setup in Chief by first reviewing a typical drawing set from a previous project, then thinking about the steps, tools, saved views, layer sets etc that would be needed to produce similar or improved results. As far as complexity, if your 3D views will be generating a million plus surfaces, that may reduce the operating speed of Chief when your'e producing working drawings, whether its floor plan views, or interior sections / elevations. You may need to review your hardware specs at some point to ensure your machine is capable of producing renderings without slowing down plan views and sections / elevations. 

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5 hours ago, Kiwideziner said:

Bob

for a start CA is primarily aimed at stand alone timber framed residential projects.

However I have done many light commercial projects over the years, I find they tend to require work arounds to achieve what I wanted.

If you were not having to do multistory structural ( just show a 'box' )and then 3D fit-outs it would be great .

There a quite a few examples on this forum by others of shopping malls etc, mostly by experienced users.

I would start by trying to reproduce a relatively simple project you have already done. when you get stuck the F1 key will give you information on the operation in hand. or you can search by key word.

a search of the forum is the next step then a question on the forum then a call to CA helpdesk they are usually very good.

 

Best of luck with the learning curve

Thank you .  This is very helpful.

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3 hours ago, robdyck said:

It would be a bit simpler to discuss the setup in Chief by first reviewing a typical drawing set from a previous project, then thinking about the steps, tools, saved views, layer sets etc that would be needed to produce similar or improved results. As far as complexity, if your 3D views will be generating a million plus surfaces, that may reduce the operating speed of Chief when your'e producing working drawings, whether its floor plan views, or interior sections / elevations. You may need to review your hardware specs at some point to ensure your machine is capable of producing renderings without slowing down plan views and sections / elevations. 

KRP EXPAN_PERMIT + CONSTRUCTION SET_19-1111.pdf

 

Dell Precision M6800

i7-4940MX CPU @ 3.10 GHz, 3.30 GHz, 32 GB of RAM, 64-Bit OS, Windows 10 Pro

Kimbell Royalty Partners_Rev4_19-0722.pdf

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23 hours ago, RDFnow said:

CA x11 and beyond (hopefully)

 

I want to commit completely to CA after working with AutoCAD Architecture over the past couple of decades. (all 2D with little to no 3D or BIM experience).  Very comprehensive, complicated and cumbersome.

 

All my work is commercial office/industrial/medical interior design and construction documentation.(new and 2nd generation remodels for 1,200 SF to 75,000 SF, multi-floor high rise prospects and tenants)

 

I want to start by presenting 3D concepts with keynotes to my Clients while developing a good construction document package that can be issued for Bid, Permit and Construction.

Can anyone recommend how I should start the process? This is a big step and commitment so I want to do this right.

 

I understand setting the proper preferences and defaults is at the top of the list.  Can I get some guidance on this?

 

Thanks - Bob 

bobf@rdfinc.com

817 307-1746

Fort Worth, Texas

www.rdfinc.com

 

Here are a couple of PDFs.  A typical prelim and a set of construction documents.

 

Below are my laptop specs:

Dell Precision M6800

i7-4940MX CPU @ 3.10 GHz, 3.30 GHz, 32 GB of RAM, 64-Bit OS, Windows 10 Pro

 

Thanks for looking at this.

 

Bob

 

KRP EXPAN_PERMIT + CONSTRUCTION SET_19-1111.pdf

Kimbell Royalty Partners_Rev4_19-0722.pdf

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There are many helpful folks here on the form that have helped me along the way. I'm still learning and have found that the larger jobs tens to slow the hardware down quite a bit. Notes and schedules are troublesome. But if you put then in a CAD detail that helps. Fancy tables & schedules are not possible with just a Chief schedule. You will need to build a header and even column titles as Rich Text. That said I did a 7 story condo and several small commercial buildings using Chief. The 747 used sketchup for exteriors

Good Luck with your transition.

 

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CA Section.JPG

CA 747.JPG

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  • 2 months later...

Alan,

 

These are incredible. Can you share the file for the modern multi-story condo building and the warehouse project.  I'd like to study it.

 

Currently I have studied and set up Preferences and Defaults for my commercial template including the styles for walls, doors, suspended ceiling, and cabinets.

 

Now I'm developing plans for a small Cottage with a stucco exterior and flat roof.

 

Thanks in advance for sharing.

 

Bob

Fort Worth, Texas

 

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