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#1 John Rhodes

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Posted 12 November 2018 - 05:32 PM

Hello,

Does anyone know if it's possible to force softplan to dimension ONLY the walls I am crossing over when I drag the cursor? It always wants to reach backward or forward and dimension walls that 20' away from the ones I want to dimension. I've been using softplan since v12 and dimensions seem to keep getting more frustrating. I also caught a drawing that had and extension off of it's location and sitting away from the wall corner. This meant the dimensions were WRONG across one end of the drawing. That's exactly why I left the last software I used before softplan. I hope I don't have to start looking again. I can't have dimensions or extensions jumping off and referencing open space which leads to errors on the drawing.

 

Sorry to rant but it's getting frustrating on more complex drawings.

 

Thanks,

John



#2 Keith Almond

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Posted 12 November 2018 - 07:40 PM

If you dimension between walls, it will dimension between the two walls. If you actually cross whole areas and include at least two wall faces, it SHOULD only dimension between the chosen wall faces. Or at least mine works that way. There may be something in the specific dimension setup, but it is certainly possible.


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#3 Yvon Gonthier

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Posted 13 November 2018 - 08:06 AM

Sometime you have to move the cursor a bit for the temporary dimension to disappear so that it will not appear when you finish your dimension.

 

My issue in the past about extensions and dimensions in open space has been related to building options. Sometimes, even if an exterior wall is standard, so on the default option as well as its extensions, and you have dimensions relating to it that are on different building options, changing the active building options will sometime cause the wrong extensions & dimensions to show. You need to have the extensions of the exterior wall on the separate building options and most often also the exterior wall.

 

On plans with walls with footings, you have to be careful in 2018 that your extension doesn't snap to the footing instead of the wall.



#4 Brent Hyndman

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Posted 13 November 2018 - 08:31 AM

Hi John.

 

As Keith said, as long as your dimension crosses two items that can be dimensioned, I would not expect any other dimension to be added to the drawing. If you have a an example of where this is happening I'd like to take a better look at it. Please create a ticket and provide an explanation as to where we can replicate the issue.

 

With regards to the extension that is off of the wall, please send us a ticket for that as well so we can take a look. 

 

Thanks,

 

Brent. 



#5 Keith Almond

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Posted 13 November 2018 - 11:07 AM

I've found that extensions OFF the wall happen quite frequently when exterior walls types are changed.


Keith

There are 10 types of people in this world ....... Those who understand binary, and those who don't.

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www.homehardwarekingston.ca

#6 John Rhodes

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Posted 13 November 2018 - 01:40 PM

OK. I think I have figured out what's going on. The newer versions are MUCH more picky about attach being selected. Here's what happens.

 

In v2018: Draw a simple box with walls; say 10' deep x 20' wide. Auto dimension and set as necessary. Now block move the left 10' wall (doesn't matter which really) over 2' so that you will have a new width of 18'. Do this with "attach" NOT selected which will leave the front and back walls still sitting at the 20' mark. Then use adjust command to shorten the 20' wall so that it will cleanup and make the new corner at 18'. Cleanup again if desired. Dimensions will jump all over the place and reference the air space, center of brick, 1.15 inches into the stud, Jupiter, etc which forces you to redo those dimensions. However it seems to behave like the old way if "attach" is selected.

 

In the older versions, v13 in my case, you can do this same thing with attach selected OR NOT and it will cleanup the adjusted walls at the new corner and the dimensions/extensions jump back to exterior stud face as they should. In the newer versions, v2018 for me, you MUST have attach selected before the block move and it seems to cleanup properly. Otherwise you get the extensions referencing whatever they choose, even open space.

 

While this may not be a big problem for some, after years of use with the older versions behaving much better in this regard, I now feel that I have to constantly watch dimensions, add them up, zoom in to see where they are referencing, etc to be sure I didn't forget to check "attach" at some point and send out faulty dimensions. This needs to be fixed. The older versions didn't care if you select "attach" or not. It would always snap back to reference where it should instead of out in the "yard" someplace. At least for me it does. I never had to worry about it before.

 

Sometimes I wish I would have stayed in the older atmosphere. 

 

Thanks for reading.

John



#7 Brent Hyndman

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Posted 13 November 2018 - 01:44 PM

What happens if it is Moved(not Block Moved), or if the dimension is edited to move the wall? If the Block move is required, what happens when the Attach option is enabled?

 

If it can be repeated please send us a ticket or an email with the drawings. Thanks.



#8 John Rhodes

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Posted 13 November 2018 - 02:19 PM

If the wall is moved using the dimension edit, it stays fine. Same if Attach is enabled it seems. Anytime the adjust command is used to shorten or lengthen a wall, the extensions/dimensions go all crazy and have to be redone. And again if you forget to be sure Attach is checked. I'm working on something now and watching it happen every couple of minutes. In my v13, they would snap back to the correct reference such as stud face, for example. This can be repeated every time and happens in all drawings. Should I just copy one of these messages into a ticket? The older versions were much, much better with dimensions. IMO

 

Thanks, 

John



#9 Henry Buckner

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Posted 13 November 2018 - 02:30 PM

This may be way out in left field, but do you by any chance have "Autodimension" checked?



#10 Dennis Hilborn

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Posted 13 November 2018 - 02:42 PM

I am unable to duplicate that behavior exactly.

What happens in my case is if I move the wall w/0 attach then fillet the corners the involved dimensions disappear.  But nothing I do makes them reference anything except where they were placed.



#11 Keith Almond

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Posted 13 November 2018 - 04:08 PM

I CAN duplicate that exactly ... without attach, and then adjusting walls adjusts a dimension off the wall it should relate too.

 

Like this:

 

Attached File  2018.11.13_15h36m01s_001.png   23.45KB   2 downloads


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#12 Brent Hyndman

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Posted 13 November 2018 - 04:37 PM

No need to send the drawing. The issue appears to be with moving items with attach turned off.

 

What I am not clear on is why Move Block is being used to move a wall. You can use Move with attach on or edit the dimension.

 

Attach is intentionally turned off by default for Move Block due to the negative consequences of having it on when moving large groups of items. If only moving a wall, the Move Block is not the correct tool in most instances.



#13 Keith Almond

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Posted 13 November 2018 - 08:07 PM

Maybe not just moving a wall, there are always instances where in the operators opinion it's easier to do something a different way than the designers intended. I regularly use block move, however, I rarely turn attach off - although there are instances where you do need too (even if I can't think of a reason why at the moment).

 

In my opinion, the negative consequences of having attach off ALWAYS outweigh the negative consequences of having it on! Things not being attached drive me insane. The only instance I want attach off, is when I deliberately turn it off. This dimension issue is one of the biggest consequences of NOT having it ON.


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Keith

There are 10 types of people in this world ....... Those who understand binary, and those who don't.

Softplan user since version 5.5.2.5

www.homehardwarekingston.ca

#14 Tom Rogers

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Posted 14 November 2018 - 09:46 AM

Happens to me also.  Did not know about the attache being on or not so that is a good tip.  I use both move and block move a lot and have found that issue on both


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#15 Dennis Hilborn

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Posted 14 November 2018 - 09:58 AM

No need to send the drawing. The issue appears to be with moving items with attach turned off.

 

What I am not clear on is why Move Block is being used to move a wall. You can use Move with attach on or edit the dimension.

 

Attach is intentionally turned off by default for Move Block due to the negative consequences of having it on when moving large groups of items. If only moving a wall, the Move Block is not the correct tool in most instances.

There are many times when Move Block should be used to move a wall.  Moving a kitchen wall where you want the cabinets to move also. 


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#16 Keith Almond

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Posted 14 November 2018 - 11:13 AM

With attach active, the cabinets should move with the wall.


Keith

There are 10 types of people in this world ....... Those who understand binary, and those who don't.

Softplan user since version 5.5.2.5

www.homehardwarekingston.ca

#17 Dennis Hilborn

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Posted 14 November 2018 - 12:55 PM

Not if they are drawn with lines.  I hardly ever use 3d cabinets.  Never on a preliminary plan.  So if I move that wall block move usually works better.



#18 Tom Rogers

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Posted 15 November 2018 - 07:31 AM

Not if they are drawn with lines.  I hardly ever use 3d cabinets.  Never on a preliminary plan.  So if I move that wall block move usually works better.

For prelims I use "auto-cabinet"  quick but you dont have to worry about individuals.  Plus it does give a start for when you need them more specific further


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#19 John Rhodes

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Posted 15 November 2018 - 01:41 PM

Auto dimension "on the fly" is unchecked. I don't particularly like it. Move block to move walls is VERY common. Say I want to widen a floor plan by increasing the width of the living room, foyer, etc that are located through the center of the design. I don't want to be forced to move each wall separately across the drawing. Just use Move block, box around half the design and drag it over the desired increase in width. Otherwise you have to move the main side wall, bedroom walls, bathroom walls, living room wall, any other exterior offset walls, etc, all separately. BS man.

 

Softplan should simply fix this issue so that it works like before instead of making excuses or offering some workaround or "new" way. The problem at hand was not present in older versions and thus should continue to work correctly. However I have learned over the years that when something is made "better", if often means cheaper and/or full of bugs or glitches that weren't there before. As I've said, back in v13 I really never worried about dimensions because they stayed glued to the original reference. However now I have to watch them closely and thats a big turnoff to the software at this point. I can go back to other software that I ditched for this exact reason if I wanted to spend half my time checking dimensions while I'm doing layouts and sending prelims with bad measurements. While they're at it, please get rid of the ghost extension lines that can appear after you click auto dimension icon. You have to click "redraw" to get rid of them. And at times, you have to manually delete extensions that were referencing something out is space as shown in someones image above. For some reason, those get seem to get deleted when the dims are redone.

 

There are certain things in these newer versions that are great for sure. But who cares about bells and whistles if the basic functionality is turning to crap. Sorry to rant. Just getting more frustrated with seeing issues that pushed me away from my old software to begin with.


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#20 Brent Hyndman

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Posted 16 November 2018 - 04:36 PM

The issue initially posted with regards to Move Block with Attach turned off has been reported.


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