Wish List

Hello all,

Like Jim said, the option to save and recall tennon settings.

Also in tennon settings the option of setting the depth of a drilling and the orientation of the drilling (much like you orientate the tennon when using `choice`) - most of our holes are blind, so once we get it to the K2 I have to alter the depth and very often the reference side.

Also the ability to zoom/pan during a command, on larger jobs you'll often have to zoom in fairly close to pick, say the reference point, and then find that the destination point isnt quite visible forcing you to break out of the command, zoom/pan to a better view and start the command up again - can get a bit frustrating at times :?

Thats about it for now, sure I can think of summat else if I put my mind to it

Cheers,

Lee.

Ah OK,

Thanx Joachim.

Cheers,

Lee.

Yup, that does make things easier.

Another quick one while I'm here - the ability to copy text from information boxes, such as when you use the Measure feature; it would be handy for pasting the info into other parts of the program (Move, Copy etc...).

Cheers,

Lee.

I have been using Dietrich’s for four years now and seeing a thread started about a wish list was just too big a temptation to overcome. I posted some of this list on the old forum and Markus knows about a lot of these but it would be interesting to hear what others feel about them and to hear what other people would like to see. I should qualify this list by saying that by and large Dietrich’s is a fantastic piece of software and like so often happens I have probably begun to take its capabilities for granted over the years.

Multi select in individual categories in filters – i.e. to be able to activate both lintels and sills without having to open the filters twice.

Separate cut in Wall Design and Ceiling design – this must be coming soon as the heading for the command is on the drop down menu

Return to previous isometric view in DiCAM after viewing in plan or elevation and/or remember predefined and save isometric views

More flexible and improved Timber Frame Wizard

•especially more than one type of internal and external wall definition per house type.

•be able to design T and L shaped openings in the TFW – i.e. a one or two windows tight next to a door

•be able to give accurate object information to elements created by the TFW – i.e. currently all horizontal timbers that aren’t plates are sills

Walls and roof areas listed in numerical order in the Building MOS

A stretch command in D-CAD

Object information in Wall and Ceiling Design – I believe this is coming soon!!

The ability to change from a gable wall to an eaves wall on the same building side in Roof Calculation – a very frequent occurrence in the UK and not properly addressed in Dietrich’s – you need a new outline and it has to be treated like a dormer.

Roof surface panels to be able to be cut back right to the eaves in front of dormers – again a very frequent occurrence in the UK

Be able to hide storeys, construction elements etc. when positioning dormers

List previously created machine storages when making a new one

The current MOS dropdown list in DiCAM should be more than 4 lines…….

….. or even better, after selecting an object in MOS info, there should be a check box in the dialog box to select if you want that MOS to become the current one

To be able to have OpenGL and the DiCAM model open at the same time and be able to jump from one to the other.

When saving pictures or areas in OpenGL it would be useful to have a list of previously saved images appear before assigning a name to your storage.

To be able to zoom with the wheel mouse in DiCAM.

Sort out and improve the collision test as outlined in an earlier post.

Sorry about the length of the post but I hope at the very least it starts some useful debate.

Thanks

Rob Cullen

Hello,
I work primarily with owner-builders and beginning timber framers and thus make full use of single beam shop drawings. Unfortunately, the greatest number of views generated is three (two sides views and an end view). For any but the simplest timbers, I end up bringing in the other side views individually from D-CAM.

So, my WISH LIST addition is:
Have six views of a timber generated with the Single Beam drawing function.

Wil mentioned this was being worked on last winter. Any hope of having it in the next update?

Also, the views currently generated are arranged as though the timber is "rolled" from one view to the next. This also occurs with end views where, for example, the end view of a post (shown at the top of the post) is the view from the bottom. This is the counter-intuitive to me. I am used to the right side of one view becoming the next view to the right. I would hope this could be changed, or at least have the option to choose how the views are arranged.

Hello all my name is Greg Francis and I've been using Deitrich's for about
10 month's now, so I'm still learning new thing every day. So I'd like to join in on this discussion of a wish list.

One thing that comes to mind is why can't you produce a material list on your 2D or 3D drawing. I know in the wall wizard module you can do this, but not in D-CAM or any of the other modules. When I do shop drawings I usually like to create a couple of elevations and plans views of the whole timber frame and it just makes sense to me to have a material list right on the drawing, instead of on a separate sheet of paper. I usually bring my drawings into AutoCAD to do my final shop drawings and this function would be great to have. Does anyone else agree ?

I'll have more comments later

Cheers

Greg

Hello again,

I have another problem to add to the wish list to be fixed. I noticed one thing with the DXF function. When you import a drawing from AutoCAD you are asked for a scale factor in which to bring the drawing in at. Then when you try to DXF export out to AutoCAD it does not allow you to provide any scale factor. Could you please fix this function, because if your not working in metric the drawing will not be the correct scale when exported out.

Thanks

Greg

Hi all,

I'm doing drawings for someone who wants all of their elements labeled by name on their drawings. For example "8x10 Post (2D)" or "8x10 Tie (2/C-D)". So, it would be great for me if there were a "User Label" that could be associated with an element and would be a selectable option along with Sorting Number and Timber List Number during the Save Current View and Single Beam Drawing operations.

Thanks in advance for your consideration,
Steve.

Hi Joachim

I think a timer would be a good idea. Could you not link it to the Save function, so that the timer stops every time you hit save and starts again whenever a new command is invoked. That way, even if you do go for a coffee (or tea in England!) your timer will stop as you are bound to have done a save before your break.

Cheers

Rob

PS Back on the Nescafe again - phew!!!

I use a program called "legal billing" from chaos software for tracking hours. Quickbooks also has a timer function built-in for this purpose.

FWIW,
Steve

Being able to generate a list from a section that had cross sectional information (area, moment of inertia) for a member would be great.

For heavily loaded timbers, checking the capacity of reduced cross sections is a must, and calculating this information, while quite simple numerically, is tedious. For now, I have been generating a dxf of a section, importing it into autocad, turning it into a region, and then using the "massprop" command to get the required info. Being able to cut this step out would save a lot of time.