Symbol Materials

[RobUSMC]

In the whole scheme of things this is a minor thing but I was wondering if there is a way to change the what should be independent materials of a symbol? Im mainly speaking of items like Rev-A-Shelf but a few others. Ive also noticed with with some tubs and toilets from Kohler. Most of the symbols are a single material such as wood or metal.  Like a trashcan pullout that has a metal pullout frame with white plastic trashcans but the symbol is all metal or all wood.  With a lot symbols like Kohler, if the tub is white, the drain, overflow and any other trim is white. See attached.

[Kbird1]

IME these are mainly SketchUp models originally, that have be batch converted for Chief and there isn't much you can do in Chief easily, so I'd check 3Dware house for the same model and see if the Materials are independent on imported into CA , try the 2021 SU models , not sure X14 can do 2022 or not?

 

M.

[MarkMc]

3 hours ago, RobUSMC said:

wondering if there is a way to change the what should be independent materials of a symbol

You can hack it into parts then re-assemble into a new symbol. At one point @Alaskan_Son had done a video on using the delete surface tool.

Basically I set the camera to clip surfaces within 0.1 in, hide everything except the symbol then open the symbol and set the smoothing angle high (120-180) Setting the smoothing angle that way makes it so more of a part is selected at one time when you use the delete surface tool.

For instance, RAS waste basket-

using delete surface tool delete the pails, save as symbol.

Delete the frame, save as symbol.

Place both new symbols in plan, change materials as needed, center pales on frame, adjust XYZ (transform replicate) location in relation to the frame. Sample attached (though I think RAS numbers may have changed or this one is not in current CA catalog)-( one of the completed symbols is set as a left- offset to clear open door if not using as a pull out)

Note- pails with lids can be a problem. If there are more than 3 or 4 materials needed and alternative is to export the symbol and adjust materials there (Sketchup, TurboCad Deluxe, some others) working in another program is a bit trickier though.

RAS dobule.zip