Anyone got a trick for displaying the layout box in plan view?

[mkennedy]

I struggle with slabs in garages - I rarely can get a mono slab garage floor\raised floor house to model correctly. Likewise the new mon slab abuting the existing. I'll look up Scotts vids, but I think I have fundamental misunderstanding of how CA models the garage floor in a raised floor house. I should probably teach myself how to control that parametrically.
As for bubbling details, that's the antithesis of what we're trying to achieve, no? Live sections and details? I love it when I can cut a section, zoom in, annotate it and send to layout at 1-1/2" scale, call it a detail.

[perryh]

The simplest thing with the combo mono/ raised condition is not to make a mono slab in the garage. Leave them all stem walls and adjust the height of the slab floor.

It would be nice if everything worked as advertised

[mkennedy]

Yeah, pretty far removed from what I want to build.
It's always a balancing act for an OtherCAD user - If can't detail a number of things live, I have to start detailing in CA 2d CAD. If I'm detailing in CAD why not detail everything in CAD - which can actually be quicker that doing a super accurate model. If I'm detailing in 2D CAD, why not use another faster 2D program...Which makes available a huge labor pool of trained drafters and eliminates many of the personal quirks every CA user develops in the way they draw plans, making office standards\standards based drafting much more attainable.
I've finally weaned myself off OtherCAD and develop all my CDs in CA now. For that to make sense I have to really cut down on the amount of time I spend in 2D. I don't want to repoen the 2D CAD tools debate, 'cause I think CA are right in pursuing the model. I just live with the few conditions I can't master and do my best with the rest.
Did I hear someone say multiple monitors? That'd be HUGE. I can't wait - I'd almost upgrade just for that function alone.

[perryh]

Luckily all my details are already drawn from 40 years of drawing so I only just modify ones already in my lib.

[mkennedy]

P, I also have hundreds and hundreds of details. Sadly, CA does not handle CAD blocks the way many of mine were developed, prompting for annotation upon insertion, so it's a painful process moving them to CA. Likewise, I'm used to color driven line weights (which I still consider superior to what we have in CA) so I have all sorts of layer\color\lineweight conversion to do and CA doesn't process my leaders\arrows correctly, so I have even more processing to do, and I think there may be some issues with certain hatches, so much so that it's often quicker to draw a new detail in CA than to import and process an existing one. Which makes me appreciate an accurate model and live sections\details\elevations all the more.

[dshall]

A mono slab vid especially for you Matt.

http://youtu.be/nJRj2uu_VoM

It seems to me that mono slabs have been behaving better.

[mkennedy]

Scott, thanks
I don't have to much trouble with mono slab against mono slab with different floor heights. I do struggle with mono slab again mono slab at the same floor height and with mono slab against raised floor\Tee footing.
I will run thru the vid a few times to see if your whiteout lines add something to my process, I often use a whiteout in elevation to create a grade line and conceal stuff below grade.
I think I need to spend some time learning the garage room type, floor under this room, floor by room below, mono slab settings.

[perryh]

I sent that bug in many moon ago.

[dshall]

....... I often use a whiteout in elevation to create a grade line and conceal stuff below grade.
..................

Do the same thing but instead of a white fill I use the GRADE FILL, essentially the same approach.

[mkennedy]

Nice. I experimented in the past with a fill of dots to create a screened effect for the subgrade structure. Very pretty when it worked, but a little finicky. My models\the software have probably advanced enough that I might give that another shot.

[perryh]

I set my terrain to lineweight to 200 and use an earth fill. Your cameras have to be set outside the terrain, and the earth fill or whatever fill you choose will show up automatically. Sometimes the camera could be way off in the distance but I find it quicker than putting a fill pattern on each elevation.

[mkennedy]

Nice. If the terrain has an upslope that interfers with the elevation you can always move the camera, but many times the lot will be flat enough to elevate nicely.
Do you have your cameras already placed in your template? How do you Name them? I just use left, right' front and back.

[perryh]

Yes, camera's are in my plan template . Names are front, left, right rear. I also save section camera's in my template plans because you cant copy them and they take some time to set each one up separately. I have 10 of them, very convenient, I just delete what I don't use or move them to the side.

[dshall]

...............I just delete what I don't use or move them to the side.

I don't delete or move them, I have a layer called CAMERAS,SECTIONS,NOT IN PLAN, I just move them to that layer so they don't show. BTW, love your terrain fill idea, works great as long as the terrain isn't higher for a particular view, i.e., sloped lot........... another reason for having a separate anno/layer set for each exterior camera view, just turn the terrain off for that particular view if needed. Thanks for the idea P. Gonna use it on the project I am working on now.

[mkennedy]

Nice refinement Scott - I'm gonna try ahybrid, yours and Perrys - thanks