Joe_Carrick Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 Attached is a Library CAD Block that can be placed in a Framing Plan, Exploded and have the Arrows connected to Framing Members. It is smarter than a normal Joist Direction Line in that it will recognize the type of Framing (I-Joist, C-Channel, Lumber, etc) and the Member Type (Joist, Rafter, Fascia, etc). It uses a macro to do this which is a part of the Library Object so the macro is automatically added to the Plan. I've set the spacing to 16" o.c. because the attribute for spacing is not available. You can edit that text as needed. Framing Member(s).calibz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeneDavis Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 Thanks, Joe. Impressive work. A very useful piece of annotation, and it's smart. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dshall Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 Joe, I got the ceiling joist label to work (spacing was not auto), but the floor call out did not work for me. I have spent more time than I should trying to work this nonsense out. I ain't doing it no more. This is something that CA must fix soon. This is some great stuff when CA pulls it off. A huge time saver. Auto, Auto, Auto, I think that is what we are working towards and I believe CA is working towards this too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe_Carrick Posted April 20, 2015 Author Share Posted April 20, 2015 Scott, If you got the Ceiling Joist Label to work then you should be able to get any Framing Member to work. Post the Plan I know spacing is not auto - said that in post #1. IAE, I'm using this for annotation of virtually all framing. It really does pick up all the variations but you have to make sure that at least one of the arrows is connected to the correct framing member. BTW, I agree that CA should make it work, but since there's a problem with their current functionality this is a real time saver for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe_Carrick Posted April 20, 2015 Author Share Posted April 20, 2015 BTW, the "Framing Line Label" macro can also be assigned as the Label for any framing member. That's guaranteed to work. It's great for Beams, Fascias, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dshall Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 Joe, it seems to work for lumber, but if I use TJI at floor framing over first floor it does not work. JOE FRAMING LABEL 1.plan.zip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe_Carrick Posted April 20, 2015 Author Share Posted April 20, 2015 Scott, You need to change the framing members to "I-Joist". They are all "Lumber" in your Plan. Here's the result when I changed them. BTW, I could edit the Macro to substitute "TJI" for "I-Joist" if needed but I think "I-Joist" is more generic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dshall Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 Scott, You need to change the framing members to "I-Joist". They are all "Lumber" in your Plan. Here's the result when I changed them. BTW, I could edit the Macro to substitute "TJI" for "I-Joist" if needed but I think "I-Joist" is more generic. They are not all lumber in my plan. If you go up to second floor and check out structure, they are I-joists. I have I-joists at second floor and lumber at first floor. Here is a pic of what I get. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dshall Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 BTW Joe, this is a pretty darn good solution to calling out RR, cj and FJ, it just needs to be better. Spacing should be auto and somehow, these arrows need to stick in case I edit the size of the roof plane.... you get it, auto baby.... it's a nice start to the ultimate solution. Since you are one of the muckity mucks on the user panel, you can bring this up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe_Carrick Posted April 20, 2015 Author Share Posted April 20, 2015 OK, here's the results I get: 1. No arrows connected 2. One Arrow Connected 3. Two Arrows Connected Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DRAWZILLA Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 Thanks Joe, but I think the arrows really should go in the direction of those jousts and not perp. to them. I'll try to see of I can figure a way to do it. I really don't like to show the joists on the plan even if they are grayscale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe_Carrick Posted April 20, 2015 Author Share Posted April 20, 2015 Spacing I can't do - because CA didn't include an Ruby attribute for spacing of the framing member(s). If they did and the arrowheads would stay locked (but of course Auto Framing kills that because it first deletes the framing members that the arrowheads are attached to). IAE, it just needs a little more by CA for this to be a perfect solution. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe_Carrick Posted April 20, 2015 Author Share Posted April 20, 2015 Thanks Joe, but I think the arrows really should go in the direction of those jousts and not perp. to them. I'll try to see of I can figure a way to do it. That's not the way I've always done the framing annotation. Basically this kind of annotation indicates the extent of framing. If you want it to be parallel you can do one of 2 things: 1. Rotate the Text Box and make an arrow "invisible" by whatever means you like. It just has to connect to one framing member and you can have other arrows pointing in the direction of the joists. 2. Use the macro as the "Label" of one of the Framing Members and add your own arrows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dshall Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 OK, here's the results I get: 1. No arrows connected 2. One Arrow Connected 3. Two Arrows Connected Okay, got it, it work on your PC but it is not working on my MAC. It should not be this hard. It should not be this hard. It should not be this hard. It should not be this hard. I am going straight to the top to complain.... I wonder if Lynn has time to see me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DRAWZILLA Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 That's not the way I've always done the framing annotation. Basically this kind of annotation indicates the extent of framing. If you want it to be parallel you can do one of 2 things: 1. Rotate the Text Box and make an arrow "invisible" by whatever means you like. It just has to connect to one framing member and you can have other arrows pointing in the direction of the joists. 2. Use the macro as the "Label" of one of the Framing Members and add your own arrows. Funny thing, I've never been taught your way. maybe it comes from the day of hand drawing and we just couldn't show every joist. Now we can ,even though I think the framers won't even follow the plan exactly. Will it work if the joists are turned off? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe_Carrick Posted April 20, 2015 Author Share Posted April 20, 2015 Scott, What are your snap properties in Preferences? Maybe you just aren't connecting to the framing member. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe_Carrick Posted April 20, 2015 Author Share Posted April 20, 2015 Funny thing, I've never been taught your way. maybe it comes from the day of hand drawing and we just couldn't show every joist. Now we can ,even though I think the framers won't even follow the plan exactly. Will it work if the joists are turned off? Yes, just rotate the CAD Block before exploding. Then add a 3rd arrow and connect it to a framing member and set the Line Style to "blank" or the Line Color to white. Then turn off the Joists. The macro still works. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DRAWZILLA Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 Joe, you have done so much with macro's, its fantastic. Thank you very much. I don't really understand your conversations with Gerry about the inter-workings using macro's but I do know that it has benefited everyone here, and for the future of macro's in Chief. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe_Carrick Posted April 20, 2015 Author Share Posted April 20, 2015 Joe, you have done so much with macro's, its fantastic. Thank you very much. I don't really understand your conversations with Gerry about the inter-workings using macro's but I do know that it has benefited everyone here, and for the future of macro's in Chief. I just hope that CA is really seeing this. If they expand the data access as we've been asking we can almost totally eliminate manual annotation and it will make a lot of the competition look silly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kbird1 Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 Thanks Joe ,very nice but I must be doing something wrong though , I can assign the macro to an individual framing member no problem , but if I place the block and explode it , and do anything other than move it, it disappears from the screen , so I assume I am doing something in the wrong sequence or in the wrong view perhaps? ( it cant be resized before exploding either) Thanks M. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe_Carrick Posted April 20, 2015 Author Share Posted April 20, 2015 Mick, Check the Layer "Text, Framing" to see if it's displayed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kbird1 Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 Tada ! got it in one. checked all my other display settings but didn't think about this being a text object thanks as always..... I can't figure out why CA isn't using these capabilities somehow , seems like a no-brainer to me.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe_Carrick Posted April 20, 2015 Author Share Posted April 20, 2015 Tada ! got it in one. checked all my other display settings but didn't think about this being a text object thanks as always..... I can't figure out why CA isn't using these capabilities somehow , seems like a no-brainer to me.... I think they just have too many things to do and have not previously understood just how valuable this sort of thing can be. They have a list of what they want to do for X8 and maybe some of the macro attributes and reference (arrow) connection issues are on that list. The thing about this sort of annotation is that different users will want the output to be a little different. CA can not possibly satisfy everyone on that score. Consequently having the ability for the user to customize it using macros and RTB's actually makes a lot of sense. We just need to get them to open the door for us. Not all users are going to be comfortable writing macros - but there are many who are and then there are some who can do it for those who are willing to pay a small fee. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe_Carrick Posted April 21, 2015 Author Share Posted April 21, 2015 Just in case there was a problem with the first one - here's a new version (note that the name is different and the macro is also a slight bit different). Oops!! Try again - the first one was a bad macro. This one should work in all cases. Framing Member(s).calibz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe_Carrick Posted April 21, 2015 Author Share Posted April 21, 2015 I have replaced the Library Item. It had a problem with the macro. I was calling a Ruby function that I had in an external file. I've now added that function directly into the macro so it will now work with any Framing Member Type. The function is one that converts to Feet/Inches/Fractions. My apologies to those who couldn't get it to work with I-Joists. In reality it wouldn't have worked with anything other than Lumber. Delete the old one and download the new. Everything should work perfectly now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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