WDBofVA

I have a house plan with about 20 layout sheets. ONE of them can't seem to remember which layers were displayed when the plan was sent to this layout file. Every time I reload that layout, it displays all layers. I have to delete the layout box for the plan, reconfigure the layers in Display Options and sent it to the layout again. I then need to realign it with other details I have added to that layout.

Thank You Eric! That did the trick. Now my perspectives and elevations look like they should.

I need to learn how to assign roof characteristics to different roofs in the same plan. The attached view is of a house plan that I want to build soon. As you can see there are two roofs. The second floor has a normal, full 8:12 pitch hip roof but the first floor is larger than the second floor and those extended areas (garage, porches and bedroom wing) have a 3:12 pitch hip roof. I set the "Lift Off Plate" roof option in the roof default to 8" while the displaying second floor. It had the desired effect of raising the roof so that the bottom cord of roof trusses would extend flat to the fascia board by the 18" overhang setting. I wanted this to have better height in the attic for a storage area (using storage trusses) and to prevent the 8:12 pitch from lowering the box eaves by 12", almost touching the window moldings. The problem is that it also affected the roof on the first floor. Here I wanted no "Lift Off Plate", so that the first floor roof peak would be as low as possible so as to not encroch into some second floor windows. If I change the that option in either place is affects both roofs. I tried assigning a different "Roof Group" to each, but that roof default appears to be a global setting. Am I missing something or is their a better way to achieve what I want? Thanks!

David, Thank you for your suggestion. It works well!. I have a layout template for each page of my plan. I used you idea, but found a easier way to mark each template. I selected a common point for all sheets and recorded its X,Y coordinate on the first layout sheet. Then, as I updated the other sheets, I would "Input" a CAD point using the X,Y coordinate that I had recorded. Then move selected common point to that CAD point and "Delete all temporary points" so I could get a clean printout. Nice! Many Thanks!

I am creating layout pages in individual layout files and printing them to pdf files. I then add each into a set of layouts in a single pdf file, That all appears to work well - but! Can anyone tell me a way to align the different different floor plans (basement, floor 1, floor 2...etc) between the layout files? Each floor has different extents and therefore position themselves differently when sent to its layout file. This is not too obvious until you print then out and stack then up or merge them into a single pdf file where you can flip through page quickly. I have an elevator hoistway that goes through 3 floors but it moves all around the layout files because of automatic walls and external dimensions, active cameras...etc. You can really see this if you send all the floors to a single layout file - nothing lines up. Any workarounds would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you folks. Who would have thought that turning on display of any layer would cause details to be hidden. Lesson learned - problem solved.

As I worked on my house plan, I realized that the details of the wall structure that I have been seeing for over a year was no longer there in the plan views. The drywall line was invisible and also the exterior bricks. They display just fine on all 3D views but in none of the plan views for ever floor. I tried turning on display of ever layer and they still are not visible. There gone in all layouts and plan printouts. If I select a room, you can see the gap where they should be and windows and doors show the proper depth to account for them and casing allow for then too. Here is a sample of the latest plan missing the details and an older copy where the details show. Anyone know I got here or how to fix this? Please!

Thank You katalyst777. By following your lead, I did get the result I wanted. I traced over the contour lines generated by the imported elevation data around the area of interest with temporary CAD lines. Then deleted all elevation points within the area and traced over the CAD lines with my own contour lines. That restored most of the elevation outside where I wanted to make modifications. I then defined contour lines the way I wanted them to be within the protected area to create the lower area for the walkout basement. Using many contours lines (for ever foot change) prevented the terrain generator going nuts propagating overshoots and undershoots. Note: I also discovered that if you have turned on the 'flatten pad' option it will modify anything you try to do near the building. Thanks again.

Hi Folks! I need some advice. I have a house plan and a 5.3 acre lot that I am trying to combine. I had a digital survey done of the lot and created a plan of the lot using the survey pin location for the perimeter and imported the remaining elevation data which is in the form of a set of X,Y,Z coordinates on a grid about ever 50 feet. I added features to the lot plan like the approved drain field, water well locations and a partially completed driveway already on the lot. That looks great. I then selected everything on that plan and copied it and pasted into a copy of the house plan, getting the position as I wanted it before deselecting the pasted lot plan. That all worked well and looked good. Now I want to create a 'lowered region' to allow the access to a walkout basement. That did not look so good. I added a 'flat region' inside the lowered region. That looked better but the court outside the basement was under the dirt. So I added a terrain hole under the court. That seemed to get most of the result I was looking for but it was painful. That is because you can specify the height of the 'lowered region' but that is relative to the elevation of the geometric center of the region which changes every time you adjust its perimeter. That make it fun to fine a shape that emerged level with an existing contour line at the depth of the basement court. That was a pain but not the real issue. I have attached an image of a portion of the empty lot plan and that same portion of the plan that includes the house. Also a perspective view of the mess that resulted to help with the description below. The contour lines generated by and between the two regions is ill-behaved. There are twists and turns, davits and bulges that look horrible. I think the problem relates to elevation data points within the regions confusing the math. What I have now is the best I could get with much experimenting. Is there a better way to get a smooth result? I don't think I want to deleted the elevation points within these regions as I believe it would affect the lot's correct contour lines. Is there a way to have these regions ignore the elevation point within them? Also the contour lines bend at the intersection with the house even though the regions extend under the house. I just have no idea why... Is there a better way to accomplish this? Can the elevation points that created the lot be converted to actual contour lines that can be edited or at least cooperate with the lowered/flat region tools? Any help I can get would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you both for your suggestions. I'm a retired electrical engineer working on plans for a new home to solve the 'Peter Pan Dilemma' for us. No worry about clients. After 4 years, we finally have a plan we like (21st version). I am getting files and prints ready to turn over to Pros to make construction drawings. Hope to find a builder team with architect, engineer and construction crew that can start from my plans.

Thanks for the comments. With the realization that the layer information is displayed at the bottom, when an object is selected, has helped explain some odd behaviors. For example, I like to place furniture in a house plan to get a feel for space usage but turn them off when printing the plan but I can see now that lamps are not furniture but on the same layer as electrical outlets, switches, ceiling fan (things that a part on the plan design rather than furnishings). I also noticed that soffits appear to be on the 'soffit' layer but there is no such layer. I will not be paying another $2K for CA Premier to get layer management. So I will have to live within the limitations of HDP. It would be nice if they at least put imported symbols on a layer not tied to anything already in the library. And maybe separate things related to the plan from things related to furnishings in the HD libraries.

The layers in HDP are a mystery to me. I found a statement in some post that explained that imported symbols are all put on the 'Fixtures, Interior' layer. That explained why the desk that I imported from the 3D warehouse remained visible after I turned off the 'Furniture, Interior' layer. But when I turned off the 'Fixtures, Interior' layer, the toilets, sinks and showers also vanished! How handy is that? I also observed that lamps remain visible. What the heck layer that those on? Apparently HDP users cannot do anything about which of the default layers imported symbols land on. So why not, at least, isolate them to a user layer (maybe 2 or 3) so that the layers can be useful. Is there even a way to see which layer a symbol is on? If not, they could at least document which layers library symbol are suppose to be on. Maybe something better could be added to for HDP 2018.

Thank You Joe! This explanation fits perfectly with my experience with this issue. That is why the imports that I did in a new empty project and added to my library worked correctly even when I added them from the my library to the rotated plan, I love it when a solution make perfect sense.

Prologue... I have now discovered that the culprit is not HDP or Sketch Up or Windows 10. It's the plan I was working with. I have a complex house plan that I was using when I tried to import symbols into when I started having trouble with even the simplest symbols. I found that if I created new plan and imported the symbols into that one, there was no problem. I also found that if I added those symbols to the user library and returned to my complex house plan - I could use them flawlessly from that library. This is not a solution but a work-a-round. The root cause is still a mystery. Apparently my house plan is corrupt in some way. Is there a tool or procedure that can repair a plan file? I will mark this topic as solved only because I have side stepped my problem. I hope that it helps someone that encounters this problem. I will start looking for topics involving a corrupt plan file. Thank You!

I fear that i may be talking to myself, but... I may be blaming the wrong program. This morning I tried importing a previously used skp file and now it arrives with the 90 degree error and with the color all wrong. I am using HDP 2015 and have Windows 10. I then used an existing plan, that I have not loaded since changing to Windows 10, and imported a skp file that was already in the plan. This time it was wrong. Clicking on the existing copy in plan gave proper handles. I had previously added that symbol to the user library so I added another instance from the library and it was proper. It appears that there is a compatibility issue between HDP 2015 and Windows 10. Comments?