Understanding Wall Defaults for New Drawing

[stevenyhof]

I'm trying to understand the materials for walls.

1. I spent some time going through all my default walls in the Default Settings, making sure I set all my materials for my interior and exterior wall materials to default (checked default and see default noted in the materials tab.)
2. I also went through my library one wall at a time to make sure all settings matched and set to default - especially for my interior and exterior materials.
3. Then I created a New drawing and added some walls to see all my settings were working correctly - which they were. I had both exterior and interior walls drawn and added some walls from my library and all those walls also checked out good. Siding and wall colors/details were what I set up in my template. Nice! 
4. Ok, I thought I would go into the Defaults on the New drawing and change my interior wall color. Nothing changed. Ok, so while floor heights, joist, etc. all seem to change things in the current plan, wall material changes do nothing to existing walls. Is this correct?
5. So if I have 6 different wall types in the drawing and I want to change the color of the wall, do I need to open each one and change the color in Wall Types? I do see that I can control these walls form the Define Wall Types... dbx. I would just have to know what walls are in the drawing. And this does change the walls - so this works.
6. I know I can use the Material Eyedropper but that causes other issues when I want to change things in the Define walls area - and the reason I went back to make sure everything is set to defaults. Taking me some times to wrap my head around how these defaults work.
7. So it seems to me that if all my walls, set up in Defaults Settings (each wall type) AND in my Library, that changing the Materials in the Default Settings should change all the walls in the plan if all the walls in the plan are set up to use the default materials.
8. Maybe I am missing something, but if I have a client that want to see vertical siding vs horizontal, or one overall color for the interior walls, that I would not have to change all the different wall types added into the plan one by one. 
9. How do others address this issue?

 

Thank you,

Steve

 

[DzinEye]

11 hours ago, stevenyhof said:

wall material changes do nothing to existing walls. Is this correct?

Would Style Palettes do what you want?  I haven't used them, so I'm not sure, but you might look into it.
If not you could create copy's of your wall types which use the alternate materials and then quickly change wall types using the Select Similar tool.

[stevenyhof]

7 hours ago, DzinEye said:

Would Style Palettes do what you want?  I haven't used them, so I'm not sure, but you might look into it.

I will look into this. I also have not checked this out.

 

7 hours ago, DzinEye said:

If not you could create copy's of your wall types which use the alternate materials and then quickly change wall types using the Select Similar tool.

I have thought of this - and I may. I dislike duplicating things that may require further changes - then I would have two to mess with. But I do believe this would work well.

 

And maybe part of how I offer my services will need to fall into, let me get my design done first, and then I can use the eyedropper to paint whole floors/plans,etc.

 

As I still learn, I am finding that colors are very meaningful to clients, and can get lost in time with them, but I believe I can set a policy to take advantage of the 3D model and colors for those who are will to pay for that specific service above the normal plan documents. At the moment I am paying attention to how this is working and deciding how I would approach this. I don't want to leave money on the table - so-to-speak.

 

Thank you Mark!

Steve

[joey_martin]

19 hours ago, stevenyhof said:

I know I can use the Material Eyedropper

That tool is a no go!

[stevenyhof]

2 minutes ago, joey_martin said:

That tool is a no go!

Got it! Running away!!!

And thoughts on how you address this issue?

[joey_martin]

I will admit, I don't fully understand how the exterior material default works, for the same reasons as you have stated...I have changed it, nothing happens or even worse something happens that I wasn't expecting, so yes..if you want to safely, and without hiccups change from a lap siding to a board & batten you need to have those walls set up and saved. 

 

As for interior colors I rarely change those unless I have been asked to be a part of the interior design and rendering portion, but I would add a 1/8" color layer to the interior wall.

[stevenyhof]

2 minutes ago, joey_martin said:

but I would add a 1/8" color layer to the interior wall.

I see. That is an interesting idea.
I have set up defaults for what I think is nice common colors - more traditional and craftsman as that is more of what I do. But lately people are wanting modern and modern farmhouse which is kind of forcing me to offer colors and materials that make more sense with those designs.
Thank you Joey! 

[robdyck]

5 minutes ago, stevenyhof said:

I see. That is an interesting idea.
I have set up defaults for what I think is nice common colors - more traditional and craftsman as that is more of what I do. But lately people are wanting modern and modern farmhouse which is kind of forcing me to offer colors and materials that make more sense with those designs.
Thank you Joey! 

For Interior Walls:

changing the material of a wall layer (say drywall for example) will indeed have a global effect unless the wall exterior or interior layer is not using this default.

Typically the material for an interior wall can be changed a few ways:

1. You can change the material of the walls on a room-by-room basis through the room dialog box
2. You can change the material of the walls by painting a style pallette to a room.
3. You can paint individual portions of a wall within a room by using the Material Painter.

Based on my own experience, I would not recommend adding layers simply to get color on a wall. I feel the cons outweigh the pros.

I have my drywall layer spec'd as a simple neutral color, and if I need to change the paint colors, I would do so using method #1 from above. If I needed to 'paint' 1 wall, I'd use method #3. These methods are shown in the image below. Note that a style pallete will paint more than just the walls, unless you adjust the settings accordingly, which would be needless bloat to your library.

Note that the wall with 2 blue paint colors still shows the default material in the wall dialog box after being painted.

[robdyck]

20 hours ago, stevenyhof said:

Maybe I am missing something, but if I have a client that want to see vertical siding vs horizontal

2 simple ways to handle this:

1. In the wall spec. dbx, change the material for that layer.

2. 3d, materials, plan materials, select the existing siding materials and Replace with a different material.

This is a WHOLE house approach, not portions!

[robdyck]

20 hours ago, stevenyhof said:

Maybe I am missing something, but if I have a client that want to see ___one overall color for the interior walls, that I would not have to change all the different wall types added into the plan one by one

Simply change the color of your drywall material. Example: My typical drywall color is very neutral, but my client wants the interior walls painted a different color, specifically Benjamin Moore AF-10 - Gardenia. With the Library Browser open (off to the side), search and find that color. Then using the Adjust Material Definition tool, select your drywall material, and then use the color eyedropper to grab the color from your library browser. See the video below for an example.

[ACADuser]

Robert that is a great tip.

So the "Plan Material Drywall" becomes that color and any new walls using that drywall will be that color.

 

[stevenyhof]

1 hour ago, robdyck said:

Simply change the color of your drywall material. Example: My typical drywall color is very neutral, but my client wants the interior walls painted a different color, specifically Benjamin Moore AF-10 - Gardenia. With the Library Browser open (off to the side), search and find that color. Then using the Adjust Material Definition tool, select your drywall material, and then use the color eyedropper to grab the color from your library browser. See the video below for an example.

Very nice! And I am assuming that you have more than one wall type in the plan - yes? Well, you would - there is exterior and interior walls - Thank you

[stevenyhof]

I'm now seeing that making up more names is better.

I have used Brite for my trim and on the plan I'm working on I named the wall color Brite. So now when I change the walls, it is also changing all my trim.

But I get it! And I like it

Thank you

[DzinEye]

6 hours ago, stevenyhof said:

As I still learn, I am finding that colors are very meaningful to clients, and can get lost in time with them, but I believe I can set a policy to take advantage of the 3D model and colors for those who are will to pay for that specific service above the normal plan documents. At the moment I am paying attention to how this is working and deciding how I would approach this. I don't want to leave money on the table - so-to-speak.

Definitely going from AD to Chief I was immediately confounded by the time-suck of having to select materials and colors before it would even be on my radar in AD.  I just use colors and materials as I decide along with a healthy dose of client-expectation management to get past the materials/colors divide.     

[stevenyhof]

On 10/10/2020 at 3:50 PM, DzinEye said:

Definitely going from AD to Chief I was immediately confounded by the time-suck of having to select materials and colors before it would even be on my radar in AD.  I just use colors and materials as I decide along with a healthy dose of client-expectation management to get past the materials/colors divide. 

Agree completely!