Does anyone here use revision clouds?

[Seth]

Does anyone here use the revision cloud library objects (CAD Blocks->Designer Blocks->Revision Clouds)?
If not, do you use another method to add revision clouds to your design?

[Don Randall]

Library - CAD Blocks - Designer Blocks
CA X1.

[Seth]

What I meant to ask is whether people are finding the revision clouds in the library acceptable for their needs, or if they use other methods to make them the way they want.

[gawdzira]

I use the revision clouds from the library out of convenience (desperation). I find it unfortunate that they are not procedural and scalable in a more intelligent fashion.

When I drag them out to cover a large area they become less "cloudy" than I would like.

[sutcac]

You can explode them and add breaks, but of course this is also tedious.

It would be nice to have some kind of free-hand pencil/sketch tool that would make them more quickly.

[Seth]

I use the revision clouds from the library out of convenience (desperation). I find it unfortunate that they are not procedural and scalable in a more intelligent fashion.

When I drag them out to cover a large area they become less "cloudy" than I would like.

By intelligent scaling, do you mean adding / removing arcs to keep arcs reasonably sized?
I.e.:

I guess that would keep things cloudy unless you make it too small.
And by procedural, I am assuming you mean having some sort of custom cloud creation procedure, like the sketch tool Bryce mentioned?

[Dan Park]

FYI, Seth is doing some research on a new tool for a future versio of Chief, so any input you can provide as to how revision clouds would work in an ideal world would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

[sutcac]

I think the scaling thing could work, but you would need to be able to scale it on both X & Y directions independently, not just both at once.

But often you might also want L-shaped or T-shapes, etc. With a sketch type tool, I guess ideally you would just draw the loops the same way you would on paper, but Chief would just convert each section to an arc automatically and I wouldn't want it to work like drawing sections of a polyline (click, drag, make sure your'e snapping to the end of the last arc, click, drag, etc.). I would want it to be one click, drag all the loops around, unclick.

Just my two cents about something I don't use very much.

But I suspect more and more building departments might start requiriing them as they are often part of the paper trail.

[Pat1217]

Can you please tell me what revision clouds are used for? I couldn't find anything in the help menu..

Thanks
Pat

[MarsWyoming]

I use them as well in both plan and now layout.
They are a very necessary tool I feel to bring
items to clients attention. I believe the tool
needs to be more along the line of Autodesks.
It is a free hand drawing tool wiith a few line
styles that bring the cloud to ones attention.


George Kelley

[WHirsch]

I frequently need revision clouds.

Seth, I suggest you download a demo of Bricscad and try out its revision cloud tool. It is the best I've seen. It is essentially a free hand tool. Like Autocad, an arc length variable specified by the user is required, but the Bricscad version has minimum and maximum arc length inputs. The arc length input is what makes scaling simple and allows the user to produce decent looking clouds quickly and without subsequent editing.

[perryh]

For me , it seems that a lot of plan checkers are lazy and don't want to look for plan check corrections so they ask you to cloud them for a quicker turn around.

[Seth]

Thanks for your input, Bryce.

Like Dan says, this information is being considered for creating a new revision cloud tool - so pile on the wishes!

Pat - Revision clouds are normally used to highlight changes made to a plan after it has been released for review, so that corrections or modifications to the plan are readily apparent.

--Which brings up a more general question: for those that do use revision clouds, what do you typically need to do with them?
For example, do you need to add revision numbers and descriptions in callouts, and would this be a useful tool option?
Would it be useful to have a revision viewer, where you can step through each revision one at a time and have Chief go directly to that revision in the layout?
...Other ideas?

[Ron Ravenscroft]

Can you please tell me what revision clouds are used for? I couldn't find anything in the help menu..

Thanks
Pat

When we submit drawings to the cities in the "Valley of the Sun" they turn into a very large fire hydrant & the reviewers (dogs) can not resist goin on them with a red pencil. We then have to correct the drawings. Each correction must be "clouded" and a revision triange next to the cloud.

[Ron Ravenscroft]

I think the scaling thing could work, but you would need to be able to scale it on both X & Y directions independently, not just both at once.

But often you might also want L-shaped or T-shapes, etc. With a sketch type tool, I guess ideally you would just draw the loops the same way you would on paper, but Chief would just convert each section to an arc automatically and I wouldn't want it to work like drawing sections of a polyline (click, drag, make sure your'e snapping to the end of the last arc, click, drag, etc.). I would want it to be one click, drag all the loops around, unclick.

Just my two cents about something I don't use very much.

But I suspect more and more building departments might start requiriing them as they are often part of the paper trail.

I think a linestyle that made a "cloudline" would be nice