[Troy DeGroot]

Thanks for your feedback on my course @jwafflecanyoncontracting-net and welcome to the community. I’m just spitballing here to get the group brainstorming together.

I would build a custom column called Percent Complete, it would be a Number Type, change the format to Percentage with 0 decimal places. Make sure to Include Totals

Its a little weird because if you enter 10 as the number it will equal 1,000.00% so you have to enter .01 for 10% and 1 for 100%. You’d have to get used to that.

Be sure to sort the markups by Subject (maybe) so you get a total percent complete is displayed at the top of the Percent complete column.

Now the part that doesn’t work with this method. You have to remember if you have 6 walls, the total completion needs to reach 600% because of the way they add up. 👎

In the image I have one wall 100% complete and the other 1% complete so the total shows 101%. those walls are not complete until it hits 200%. Not idea, but I always try to find a way to say it works rather than saying no. In other words, it sort of works but not really. 🤣

[Troy DeGroot]

You could also create custom Statuses

For example:

Not Started

In Progress

Complete

You could assign colors to see the progress visually

[Troy DeGroot]

Great post @DavidCutler

Each line or measurement tool has its purpose.

• Lines and Polylines are just that, no data like you said
• Perimeter measurement tool I use specifically for Wall Area, you can give the line a depth.
• PolyLength measurement is used for flat linear measurement, bonus if you add a rise/drop
• Polyline Sketch to Scale is great for drawing linear lines accurately, but it should actually be called a Perimeter Sketch to Scale because you can add a depth, but not a rise/drop. I also have a really hard time getting the Sketch to Scale PolyLength tool to stop when I’m done. You have to remain perfectly still when you double-click otherwise you get another short line segment. I don’t use these often.

As for line weight, it depends on what I’m doing. In general, I don’t use thicker than 2. But in some cases like storefront mullions and jambs, I might make them as thick as the mullion so it colors them in like a thick highlighter used in paper workflows. It all depends on the existing workflows of the customer, I try to mimic existing workflows as much as possible.

On a side note: I pretty much have my lineweights diabled 100% of the time. I find when I use Dynamic Fill, it stops at the edge of the line thickness rather than the actual line center like it should.

[Troy DeGroot]

Custom columns are always a challenge when you first start using them because the columns that live in the PDF override the Profile custom columns. It’s interesting that your tools perform differently, I haven’t see that one. Typically the information is either there or not depending on if the column is there or not. @Vince has a great test idea. I hope the issue just goes away as you use your standard tools and now standard custom columns going forward.

[Troy DeGroot]

Hey @Bailey any chance you have the “Dim Page Content” setting turned on?

[Troy DeGroot]

Now here’s a guy who’s worked with an IT or Support team before! 🤣

[Troy DeGroot]

you certainly could do it that way, I do that a lot. I did the same thing in this case with a custom column for block size so it fits into the formula we created to tell us the total number of blocks.

[Troy DeGroot]

A mix of experinced and new users in my classes. Today I had a student who didn’t have the option to “create count” from the toolchest. The option just wasn’t on the menu. Also, today my search panel looks normal. I look forward to the new tools, but the old ones have to work when training. 😆

[Troy DeGroot]

I figured.

[Troy DeGroot]

I assume Places would be just as tricky?

[Troy DeGroot]

Great use case @DavidCutler bringing the contours to a different sheet. Creating linestyles is a little clunky as you said, it takes some practice, and it helps if you do it more than once every 6 years (in my case).

[Troy DeGroot]

@Doug McLean do you ever Edit Action on the symbol and create a hyperlink to the space on the other sheet? You could do one in each view to reference back & forth making navigation quicker….. Maybe, just a thought. 🤣

[Troy DeGroot]

Once you get all the vertical lines drawn, copy the group and rotate to quickly build the horizontal lines and complete your grid. Then yes, you would have to trim them all. You could group the entire grid and save it to your toolchest for next time.

[Troy DeGroot]

Yes, you would need to import the new custom column file into the template. Or create a script to import the layers and custom column file.

[Troy DeGroot]

I agree 100% @Vince

It’s also think the existing lines on the drawing should update when you make an update to the line style. It’s weird you have to go to the properties and reselect the same line style for it to update. Just a programing obsticle I’m sure.