Beiträge von Rob Cullen

Hi Steve

A vertical beam with transparent properties will do just fine. If I were you I'd make it an Auxilary item (via Object Info). This way it won't find its way onto any lists etc.

Not sure what you mean by diagonal beam. If you want it to run parallel to the Z axis, but simply at an angle, just change the Tilt Angle setting on the dialog box in DiCAM - see picture. You can have a beam or sheet material going in any direction you want. this is a bit more tricky to describe. Callme if you need help.

Rob

Doh.... of course. I had completely forgotten about the Node Cut. This is exactly what you need Steve - sorry not to have realised it before.

Cheers

Rob

Hi Steve

Apart from just doing a couple of vertical cuts, which shouldn't take too long really, the only other way I know of is to define a Smart Tag. I don't think we went into too much detail about these when I was down with you. Give me a call if you want and I can describe this for you.

Cheers

Rob

Hi Thorvald

First of all, using the MOS and filters I isolate the parts of the building I want to send into Sketchup. I then make individual export storages of each of these parts - e.g.GF walls, GF Ceiling beams, etc etc. I put these into a newly created folder identified by the date.

In Sketchup - before I import anything, I create separate layers for each of these parts of the building (very quick and easy).

I them import each part of the building into Sketchup while the relevant layer is set as current.

The parts of the building come into Sketchup referenced to the 0,0,0 datum, so it is very easy to get all the different parts in the right place in relation to each other.

I hope this helps.

Cheers

Rob

Hi Thorvald

The 3DS export module was the best £250.00 I ever spent. I use it all the time to export to Google Sketchup (which is of course free - for you and your clients and will import 3DS files).

You can isolate any beams/walls/roof surfaces/etc in Dietrichs and send them as separate storages to Sketchup and put these elements into their own layer in Sketchup.

So your client can easily turn any items on and off as they wish. Sketchuup is so easy to use that it is very staightforward to tell your clients how to turn the layers on and off.

I would thoroughly recommend it.

Cheers

Rob

Hi Oakcraft

I have sent you a Private Message.

Cheers

Rob

Hi Thorvald

Another good AutoCAD clone is called BricsCAD. Some of the guys at Dietrichs in Munich use this. Again I think this is about 300 Euros for the basic version - which is all you need.

Cheers

Rob

Hi ArgentaHans

I always use Google Sketchup these days. You need to ask Jason to tell you how much the 3DS (3D Studio) export module is. I don't think it is very much.

You can then export your DiCAM model as a 3DS file and then import this into Sketchup and save it as a Sketchup file and send this to your client.

Sketchup is free to download for you and your client and will support all the textures etc as well as being very easy to use (much easier and more responsive than any VRML viewer I have come across). In addition, your client can take dimensions from the Sketchup model and produce hard copy drawings very easily.

Hope this helps

Cheers

Rob

Hi Vilmantas

In the UK you can phone Velux and tell them the model of Skylight you want to use, your roof pitch and the depth of your rafters and they will tell you how far apart the trimmers need to be in order to get the splayed reveals you want.

Alternatively, you can use the roof profile and insert a roof window in there and then work out the geometry yourself.

If you were a good mathemetician and had a bit of spare time, you could probably create a small spreadsheet to work it out for you. I am sure this is all the people at Velux use - but they won't send this out to the public.

Cheers

Rob

Joe

Do you know if this problem with dxf imports will be solved in 9.02. I know I have another project to start soon which will again involve importing a large dxf file.

Cheers

Rob

Yes, Windows XP Pro 64 bit SP2

Hi Joe

I have 8Gb of RAM and use only 10 undo steps.

Cheers

Rob

Good News!!

The problem was that I had imported a very large number of lines from a dxf file into ground plan and it appears to be these that were causing the crashes. I have been working for half an hour and not one crash since deleting the lines.

However, this problem needss to be resoloved as it is very important to be able to import dxf's (however large) without affecting the performance of the software.

Cheers

Rob

Joe

Just noticed that in the project I am having problems with, this file - _____001.gbd - is nearly 36mb. In other projects this file is much smaller. Is this relevant??

Rob

Hi Joe

I think it actually might be the project and not the software, although I did have a crash in another project, most of them have been in one particular project.

It is strange because it is not a very large project, but the position, when packed up, is nearly 3mb - much larger than usual. More than twice the size of another project I have which has four or five times as many beams in it. Is this a product of version 9 or is there something wrong with the position do you think. I think it is too big to attach here, but I will send it to the hotline for them to check out.

Often, what will happen is that I will put in some I beams, and maybe do some cuts, do a save and then it will crash when I try to start another command. If I do three or four commands and then save, then the the program will sometimes (but not always) crash.

Sorry I can't be more specific - I will work on the project more over the weekend and see if I can isolate when the problems occur. This project was created in 8.04.

Cheers

Rob

Hi All

Installed 9.01 yesterday and have been using it today. Not a very happy experience. I have been working in Wall Design and if I carry out three or four commands and then save my work, and then select another command the program crashes. This is happening all the time.

I have experienced crashes in different projects so I don't think it's me.

Does anyone know if 9.02 solves this problem?

Cheers

Rob

Hi Joe

I too think this would be a good addition to the software and I can't understand why it has never been done.

When I receive drawings from an architect, all the external and internal openings have been given numbers - quite often GD1 Ground floor door 1) or FW1 (First floor window 1), etc.

It woulsd be great to be able to renumber the openings so that they match those assigned by the architect as this will make checking of door and window schedules much easier.

Cheers

Rob

Hi Joe

Thanks for the information - I guess I will just have to continue doing it one by one - a bit tedious if you've got 50 drawings!!

There are PDF splitters available but splitting up one document into 50 pages seems to be more work than printing 50 separate pages.

Cheers

Rob

Hi Everyone

I wonder if anyone out there knows of a pdf creator programme (preferabley free - but not necesarily!) which will create multiple files when using the multi page print option in PlanCAD.

I have tried FreePDF and PDFCreator and both of these will create one single PDF document with several pages when using this option.

However, if I am printing say four drawings to PDF, I want to be able to use the mutil page print option, and I want to end up with four separate PDF documents.

I hope that makes sense.

Cheers

Rob

Hi Kayaker

You can't do this unfortunately. The best option is to produce an isometric view from within DiCAM. If you select the right options, the numbers will appear on the drawing.

Rotate the model to the view point that suits your needs, activate the beams you want featured and select 8-2 from the DiCAM menus. Then just save this view as a hidden line view and make sure you check the option to show sosrting numbers. You can of course also select to have a list of these beams be saved as well.

If the perspective view is not too complicated you could put the numbers in by hand, but this would be very tedious and prone to error.

Cheers

Rob