Category: AEC

Thursday, 10 July 2014 13:15

Category: AEC

Monday, 26 October 2015 13:15

Category: AEC

Thursday, 10 July 2014 13:15

Category: AEC

Thursday, 10 July 2014 13:15

Category: AEC

Thursday, 10 July 2014 13:15

Category: AEC

Wednesday, 02 January 2013 14:20

Question:

When a drawing created in Caddie is worked on in some other DWG based systems the linestyle scales of the vector lines sometimes changes with the annotation scale in the modelspace. Can we stop this happening?

Applies To:

Caddie 17 onwards

Answer:

Yes you can. The newer versions of DWG support a system variable called MSLTSCALE. If this is set to False then the linestyles do not scale in the modelspace whereas if you set it to True then they will scale in some software. You can change it in Caddie by going to Utilities -> System -> Set System Variable then following the prompts on the command line, or it can be changed in other fully DWG compatible software by their equivalent tools.

Category: AEC

Tuesday, 14 February 2012 10:31

Applies to:

Caddie 17 and later

Question:

I have already drawn a Window using the parameters that I want. Do I have to type in the same parameters again or is there some way of 'getting' those parameters and using them for new windows?

Answer:

In Caddie 17 and beyond, on the bottom right of the Window / Door / DWA dialogues there is a button labelled 'Get Parameters' If you click this button, you can then click on any Window / Door / DWA and Caddie will extract the parameters and populate the dialogue for you, saving you having to type them in.

Alternatively you can select the existing Window / Door / DWA, right click and from the CSM select 'Copy'. Caddie will create an exact copy in the location that you choose.

Category: AEC

Monday, 26 September 2011 12:37

I have used the AEC tools to create a helical staircase but I can't see how to create a railing that follows the profile of the stairs.

If you select the stair, then right click, and from the context sensitive menu choose AEC -> Railing. To determine different parameters for the railing you can use AEC style manager to edit an existing railing style or create a new one.

Applies to:

Caddie 16 onwards

Category: AEC

Monday, 26 September 2011 12:32

How can I create a hole in a roof slab?

In the AEC -> F/S/R menu there is a command called 'Hole'. This can be used to add holes to either floor or roof slabs.

See this video which includes how to do this

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Category: AEC

Tuesday, 26 April 2011 16:20

Applies to:

Caddie 16 and later

Question:

I am drawing a building that requires different walls for each floor. How can I change heights and what are the consequences for other objects such as doors and windows?

Answer:

AEC walls in Caddie are drawn on the current UCS. To draw a wall at a different baseline height, first change the height of the UCS.

To change the height of the UCS go to the 3D tools and select UCS.

At the top of the list there is an OFFSET tool. If you don't know where the current UCS positions is first select the WORLD command. This will put the UCS back to the WCS position. 

For the Offset command dialogue change the height to the required value or you could use PICK to select the top of an existing wall.

If you intend to reuse these settings, use the SAVE and RECALL UCS  commands at the bottom of the same toolbar.

With the UCS in the new position you can draw walls which will have their base height on the new UCS position.

How does this affect windows and doors etc.

Windows and doors are drawn with the head height referencing the baseline of the wall in which they are to be placed.

So if a window, door or opening is to be inserted in the newly positioned first floor wall, the head height will be, say, 2100mm. If the same window was to be placed in a two floor height wall the head height may be 4500mm. 

You can control which part of the wall the door / window etc. is anchored to by selecting it then choosing 'Anchor' from object properties.

Category: AEC

Wednesday, 15 December 2010 12:47

APPLIES TO

• Caddie 15 onwards

QUESTION

How can I control whether hatch is shown in different wall components in plan?

ANSWER

The hatch will normally be controlled by the material assigned to the component.

Go to AEC -> AEC Style Manager. Select Multi-purpose Objects -> Material Definitions -> Material (where Material is the material definition to change)

Click General then Properties and choose the ‘Layer/Color/Linetype’ tab. Click the ‘Yes (or No) to the right of ‘Plan Hatch’ and at the top of the column choose change the yes to no (or no to yes to switch it on). Click Apply then Close. Finally click Close again to return to the drawing.

Regen the modelspace and the hatch should now be switched off (or on) in that component.

OTHER FAQ's

Category: AEC

Thursday, 07 April 2011 16:58

Applies To:

Caddie 16 and above

Question:

I am adding an extension to an existing building, but the walls cleanup (merge) with those of the existing building. How can I stop this happening?

Answer:

Walls only clean-up witt other walls in the same Cleanup group. So all that needs to be done is to create a new Cleanup group and assign the NEW walls to that group.

Using AEC Style Manager from the AEC menu go to the section as shown below:

Select the wall Cleanup Group Definitions text and create a New group with whatever name you want.

Once done just reassign the new walls to this group in object properties and the walls will no longer merge.

Category: AEC

Thursday, 24 February 2011 15:49

Applies To:

Caddie 16 with Vio

Question

How do I create and change AEC materials used with Vio rendering?

Answer

The best way to render in caddie is to use the, add-on, Vio rendering commands.The description below requires the Vio rendering commands. Assigning renders to standard 3D objects can be done by using the materials tools in the Vio commands. Normally a material would be created and then the material attached to a 3D object by selection, layer, etc. When it comes to AEC objects a different approach has to be taken..

How To Change "db" Materials

All AEC objects are created using styles. If we look at a wall for instance, the wall style may consist of a number of wall components, Brick, Cavity, Insulation, Block and Plaster etc. Each of these components will have been assigned a render when the style was created. To give the user a head start, the standard wall styles already have a render assigned. It is likely that the style will just be a flat colour as a representation, but never the less a quick render could be produced.

All of the currently assigned AEC renders will show in the Materials dialogue once they have been loaded. There are basically two ways these can be loaded.

• The first time the render command is used with AEC object present in the drawing
• Using the Convert Materials Command and selecting DBMaterials from the dropdown

As already mentioned, the normal Pick Material and Attach to Selected buttons are not used with AEC objects. It is the style of the object that assigns the material.

How do we know what materials are used for a particular AEC object.

This can be done by either using the AEC Style manager from the AEC menu or easier is to select the object and from Object Properties select the material option.

We can’t change the materials here; this dialogue is just used to identify which of the numerous materials is used for a particular component.

Once we know the material we can change it. The easiest material to apply is an image material. This will normally be an .JPG image and can be sourced either from materials supplied with Caddie, your own images or from one of the various internet sites. We will look to change to a pre-defined materials see later in this article.

To change the material for the brick component in the above example, select the db_Wall.brick material from the materials dialogue.

• Tick the Update Texture File tick box
• Browse to the image you want to use

• You will notice the Path and file details have now been entered
• Change the size. By default the size is the actual pixels of the image. However a good rule of thumb is to work out the physical size in millimetres and convert this to pixels. For instance if the image shows 4 bricks wide this would equate to 860mm so enter 860 in the x value. If the Keep Proportions tick box is set, the Y direction will be automatically calibrated
• The Transparency and Roughness can be changed if required
• Select the Update button. The base colour will change, however we are not using it, so it can be ignored
• If you need to, change any other materials by selecting the material and change as above

Now when a render is performed the final rendered image will show the brick in the chosen texture.

Note that all wall styles using this changed “db” material will also be changed. If you require a different texture for some walls, a new style will have to be created and a new material assigned to the component in the AEC Style Manager.

How do I change the material to an internal texture?

Vio has a number of pre-defined materials libraries available. These are accessed from the first tab in the materials dialogue. to modify an existing Pre-Defined material a different method has to be used.

• Select the "Add Pre-Defined Material" tab
• Choose the required material
• Tick the tick box "Change Name"
• Select the " ADD" button

• From the Material name drop down select the name of the material that you want to change

• Select "OK"

• Say "YES" to the Overwrite Material dialogue

• If you don't need to change any other materials, select "Close" from the initial dialogue.

Basically what you have done is to create a replacement material called db_Standard.Wall

Creating An AEC Material

From the Display Reprsentions tab, if there is a NO in the field double click it to change it to YES then, select the Properties button.

In the subsequent dialogue give a name to the material and select the the parameters, such as Diffuse Map (the texture image) or just select an Ambient colour and set any of the other properties. These can of course be change later as has already discussed.

Select Close, Apply in the previous dialogue and close the AEC Style Manager. To see the material in the materials dialogue refresh the list by using the C>LW command as mentioned above.

Category: AEC

Wednesday, 20 October 2010 12:06

If you create new AEC objects and want to include them in an existing section or elevation, then you select 'Regen Section'. Select the section to be regenerated and from the dialogue box click the 'Select' button:

select the additional objects with a rectangular selection box then click OK to regenerate the section.

Category: AEC

Wednesday, 20 October 2010 09:34

By default, AEC sections don't show the door swings. If you want to switch them on, do the following:

Open the drawing.

Open AEC display manager. Select Sets -> Section_Elev and set Plan to ‘Yes’, by double clicking the cell.

See figure below:

Category: AEC

Wednesday, 20 October 2010 09:24

To switch the mitre lines off:

There a two main ways of turning the mitres on or off. 

Globally this may be done using the Display Manager. Note this method may also turn other (wanted0 elements on or off.

Open the drawing.

Open the display manager. Select Representations By Object -> 2D Section/Elevation -> General, and set Defining Line to ‘No’.

Regenerate the Sections. See figure below:

The second method uses the properties of the materials to decide if to show the material junction or not.

Using this method you can get Caddie to force the removal of joins to common material. So for instance if two walls use the same material then Caddie will turn off the join.

To access this property, open the AEC Style Manage.

From Material Definitions, find the material that needs changing. Make sure the general section allows overrides by double clicking it. The select "Properties". In the Materials Properties dialogue select the "Other" tab and tick the "Merge Common Materials" tick box. and "Apply". Close the dialogue. Refresh the section and do a Regen. You will find all the materials changed and joining will now have the mitres removed.

Category: AEC

Wednesday, 20 October 2010 09:15

By default, AEC sections and Elevations will be created hatched. If you want to switch off the hatch do the following:

Open the drawing.

Open AEC display manager. Select Representations By Object -> 2D Section/Elevation -> General and set section hatch to ‘No’.

See figure below:



Category: AEC

Monday, 26 October 2015 13:15

Category: AEC

Monday, 26 October 2015 13:15

Category: AEC

Monday, 26 October 2015 13:15

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