Island countertop outlets and custom texture issues

[tubbsinc]

Worked out my first full design on CA and I've got some work to do to get up to speed. I mainly do kitchens and baths. A couple issues I came across, wondering if there are simpler solutions for them.  I'm using X12.

1. I was placing outlets in the island top, in real life they are the pop up outlets with USB plugs. For this I just placed horizontal outlets at the correct height but they always seemed to be fighting something when I placed them.  Couldn't get them to line up with each other either.

Some trials:

- placed one got it to correct height, then copied/ mirrored it

- used a different style-- floor outlet with cover same collision issues

- placed the outlet close to where I need it and moved it.  It would make it disappear or place it across the room.

- make a cutout and placing it into the hole, using xyz coord. This made the hole larger than needed. 

Perhaps I'm missing something.

2. I did a custom splash with a custom texture. It shows in cam views and "sometimes" it was showing in standard or clipped elevations. I checked different tiles and materials and others from standard library and manufacturer catalogs seem to show ok in the elevations. Anyone have any issues or tips with this?

Wheat kitch.zip

[Kbird1]

There maybe other issues with the island , it looks like the cabinets are showing through the countertop or something else is up , I don't really have time to look more now though....

 

There are USB outlets in the Bonus MEP libraries No#3 and No#6 BTW

 

M.

 

[Greg_NY61]

You have to close the plan in CA before you add it to zip file

[Kbird1]

22 minutes ago, Greg_NY61 said:

You have to close the plan in CA before you add it to zip file

 

7-Zip told me it is actually a .7z file but still opened it 

 

there are a number of textures missing though , so you should use Chief built-in Zip Utility instead...

 

File>Backup Entire Plan > (check zip box) > save to Desktop and drag into forum post.

 

M.

[Greg_NY61]

20 minutes ago, Kbird1 said:

 

7-Zip told me it is actually a .7z file but still opened it 

 

there are a number of textures missing though , so you should use Chief built-in Zip Utility instead...

 

File>Backup Entire Plan > (check zip box) > save to Desktop and drag into forum post.

 

M.

I get a message that is not a valid archive I use WinZip 23 Pro

[tubbsinc]

 

2 hours ago, Kbird1 said:

There maybe other issues with the island , it looks like the cabinets are showing through the countertop or something else is up , I don't really have time to look more now though....

I 'disconnected' the top from the cabs to customize it.  I raised it 1/16 just now and it seems to have cleared the showing through.

3 hours ago, Kbird1 said:

There are USB outlets in the Bonus MEP libraries No#3 and No#6 BTW 

OK yes I had #3 but not #6.  MEP#6 does have pop up USB outlets.  Height setting is referenced from the ceiling which I thought was weird but they work great.  Thanks!

 

2 hours ago, Greg_NY61 said:

You have to close the plan in CA before you add it to zip file

This time went through the CA >backup entire plan. 

 

 

 

 

Wheat_kitchen.zip

[tubbsinc]

27 minutes ago, solver said:

Suggest you not try to "fix" things like raising the counter up 1/16". That just hides the problem.

This is just in my nature especially after working in 2020 for many years.  Workarounds were almost always necessary. 

I think the main issue was even though the top was "included' in the cabinet measurement, it was necessary to adjust them to 34.5 for everything to size correctly with the separate custom top.  Guess I need to watch for this type of stuff.

 

 

 

 

[Dermot]

Regarding the countertops, you may be doing more work than is needed and giving the program conflicting information which is causing the problems.  In most cases, you should not need to manually adjust the height of the countertop unless it is being used for a raised or lowered section.

 

There are two different strategies that generally work pretty well.

 

1. Leave the base cabinet height at 36" and the "countertop" checkbox turned on.  Assuming that your countertop is 1.5", the program will adjust the actual box size to 34.5" to account for the countertop thickness.  If you need a custom countertop, then just leave it set to use the base cabinet for it's height and thickness.  BTW, one easy way to get a custom counterop is to convert the automatic one into a custom one which works pretty well when you group select all of your island cabinets.  It will also match the properties of the default counter tops with respect to how the corners are handled.

 

2. Set the base cabinet height to 34.5 and turn off the "countertop" checkbox.  This will require you to always draw custom countertops.  Your manual countertops will not have any kind of corner treatment so you will have to add these manually.  In general, I prefer option 1 but I know some users prefer this option for other reasons.

 

If you set up the cabinet defaults appropriately for how you would like to work, then you will have less work in the future.

[Dermot]

Regarding the undermount power dock, this symbol was originally designed to mount to the underside of a wall cabinet rather than sit on top of a base cabinet.

 

You can create a copy of this in your user library so that you can then customize it to better suit your needs.  Use the Open Symbol tool and on the Options panel change it so that it is Floor Mounted and check the Can Sit on Base Cabinet option.  You may also want to adjust the Z Position on the 3D panel so that it will sit slightly above the countertop surface and appear better in camera views.  When working in the Open Symbol dialog it is usually helpful to turn on the XYZ origin and the bounding box to see how your changes affect things.  And if you ever need to mess with stretch planes, you should always turn on those as well.

 

[tubbsinc]

4 minutes ago, Dermot said:

one easy way to get a custom countertop is to convert the automatic one into a custom one which works pretty well when you group select all of your island cabinets

 

OK I don't think all the cabs were selected when I generated the custom top, so "some" of them were reacting differently and showing (almost) through the top at certain angles.