Importing a plan into another

[DH7777]

Hi,

Is there a way to import a completed house plan drawn in CA into a different plan drawn in CA. I have a new barn I would like to position next to a house I drew a while back. In my experience  thus far, I find myself having to copy and paste parts of the project and put it back together in the other plan.file. I don't want to do this...I just want to somehow grab the whole structure down to the paint color with no changes, and transport it in its completed form into the plan.file in which I have the other structure already drawn. This seams like a simple thing CA should have provided a solution for and I'm sure there is a way but I have not discovered it yet. Any clarification or help on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[MoeGia]

Yes, it can be done, but it needs some careful planning.

 

I would position the barn in the bar plan in the relation you want it to the house using the grid (0,0).  By locating exactly as it will appear in the house plan, you can use edit area all floors to copy, then paste hold position in the house plan. But before you do that...

 

If the floor and ceiling defaults are different in the two plans you are going to have to correct those heights to relate to one another.  You can do it before or after.  Make sure auto rebuild roofs is off otherwise you'll loose the barn roof placement when you copy/paste/hold position into the house plan.

 

You could practice on a copy of each plan so you don't wind up with a mess.  There are lots of topics about this subject, so try a search.  Many would create a symbol out of the barn to place in the house plan.  That only works if the barn won't be changing.

 

Good luck,

[DavidJPotter]

You should make sure both .plan files have the same exact Default Settings before importing. Then use the "Edit - Edit Area- All Floors" to copy-paste into the house plan away from the house. Then while still selected using "Point to Point Move" locate the barn structure. Since the Barn may have a different first floor level due to terrain, you may have to manually adjust the barn for that.

 

DJP

[robdyck]

6 hours ago, MoeGia said:

Many would create a symbol out of the barn to place in the house plan.  That only works if the barn won't be changing.

Just to add to this, you will still be able to edit / change the materials on the building symbol. I would use a symbol for a secondary building representation. It is extremely quick and simple to do.

[VHampton]

Ditto on making the completed house into a symbol.  No muss no fuss. 

 

In an effort to keep the symbol smaller, you could turn off layers of whatever objects might have many surface counts (prior to the symbol making).  

 

Either way the symbol will be large, but it's so much easier than having to deal with wayward walls and objects when the new plan file is imported. 

 

[DeLayDesign]

Yes; use 'Edit > Edit Area'
 

This will allow you to select what you'd like to 'grab'.  For your example you would probably want 'Edit Area (All Floors)

Once you've selected which 'Edit Area' you'd like to use, you'll then create a marque box around the entire home.  I typically start in the upper left corner and drawn diagonal to the lower right corner.  This will grab everything you highlight in the next steps (roof, walls, windows, etc.). It should even bring over your previously established materials.

Then in the main toolbar click "Edit> Copy"

This will copy everything you've highlighted in your marque box.

Open the plan you want to copy the file into and either 'Paste Hold position' (if your new plan is drawn in relation to your copied plans) or copy and paste the recently copied plans and paste them somewhere in the plans.

Locate where you'd like a corner of your home to sit and move the file into position.

[DeLayDesign]

10 hours ago, DavidJPotter said:

You should make sure both .plan files have the same exact Default Settings before importing. Then use the "Edit - Edit Area- All Floors" to copy-paste into the house plan away from the house. Then while still selected using "Point to Point Move" locate the barn structure. Since the Barn may have a different first floor level due to terrain, you may have to manually adjust the barn for that.

 

DJP

 

----- Sorry @DavidJPotter - I didn't see your reply before posting mine.