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Updating Section Drawings with Detailed Information and Framing Details

Learn how to update a section drawing, copy installations, and adjust how they are presented in Autodesk. This tutorial also provides a step-by-step guide on how to add more information into section drawings and other modifications to help create a detailed deliverable sheet file.

Key Insights

  • The tutorial explains how to copy an installation from one part of a section drawing to another, ensuring that the installation is accurately represented in the final sheet file.
  • It also highlights the importance of saving changes regularly, particularly after making significant modifications such as moving installations or altering presentation factors.
  • Lastly, the tutorial demonstrates how to clean up and populate areas of the drawing, emphasizing that the look of the section model file is less important than how it will appear in the deliverable sheet file.

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Let's switch back over to our Section drawing and update some more information. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to say copy this Insulation from the.X of the end of the image, YZ the end of here, and copy it down to there so I now have that Insulation that's going to be showing there. I will save the file, go to A303, reload the XREF, and you can see that we now have the Insulation that's showing there.

I now want to copy this Insulation over to there. Going back to the Section file, I will say copy the Insulation from the.X of the end of the Insulation, YZ the end of the wall, back off, go over to here, and copy it over to there. Escape, CTRL S to save. Again, it's the Insulation line type scale factor and how it's presented by Autodesk that can be challenging to work with, but I need to remember that how it's looking in the Section model file is not as important as how it's going to look in the deliverable sheet file.

Go over to A303, reload the XREF, and we can see the Insulation happening there. We have a good amount of information that's happening in Wall Sections B and C. We now need to add more information into Section A. Let's go back to the Section file. I'm going to pan back a little bit, and so I'm going to do some Copy with Base Point—Edit, Copy with Base Point.

My base point will end up being down here where the plate line hits the concrete. I'm going to choose here. I will choose here.

I'm going to choose my patterns that I have going on there. I'm going to do a window and get some of the brick. Can you see how I've gotten the downspout? R for remove, pick that entity.

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I'm going to go A for add. I'm going to select this information, this information. I'll go on and get the ceiling Gyp Board and the Insulation up there.

Z space bar, D space bar, Zoom Dynamic. I'm going to go over to this area over here. Because I know that these images are potentially flipped, I'm going to draw a line from here straight down, CTRL V, and bring that information in at the end of the line.

Now I have information that I can share from over here to that area there. I'm going to erase out the angled guideline we used earlier. I'm going to go into Hatch.

I'm going to choose this area right in through here. I'm going to go on and hatch in that area. ENTER to get it done.

MA for Match Properties. Here's the source. There's the destination.

ENTER, CTRL S to save. Erase out the concrete so I know what I've gotten done. I'm going to go on and hatch all of this area down here with the ground.

So I'm going to go BH for Boundary Hatch. I will then choose these areas. ENTER.

I've gotten that done. MA for Match Properties. Here's the source.

There's the destination. I will erase out that pattern. CTRL S to save.

Go back to my A303. Reload the XREF. And we're seeing more information showing up there. CTRL S to save.

Now we're going to go in and start working on some framing information up here. Go back to my Section file. I can see that here is one of the bits of information I need.

Copy Window from the end of here and bring it over to here. That looks simply fine. I'm going to put some headers up over here.

So Copy Window from up here. Go over to there. Escape.

CTRL S to save. I'm going to bring some brick information over to start populating this area. So I'm just going to say Copy Window.

I may end up having to move some things. So Copy Window from here. I'm going to go to my guideline that's over there.

Paste it in at the guideline right here. You can see I have some issues that are going on. Copy Crossing from top line to top line.

CTRL S to save. One thing I'd like to do is to show a Rowlock—essentially a cap on the bricks. So I'm going to go Modify, Break at Point, break this line at the intersection of here.

I'm going to roll it down so it has a rotation angle of minus 15 degrees because, again, positive rotation is counterclockwise. Rotate this guy. End of here, minus 15.

So I now have that happening here. I'm going to draw a line from the end of here, Perpendicular up to here. Fillet these two entities.

Trim out this. Extend up to here that. I'm going to do a Match Properties—source and destination.

Now what I remember is that my hatch pattern is going up to there, and it's not going to be including that area. So I'm going to go to Layers. I'm going to turn on my Pattern layer.

See what I have going on, and you can see that I'm actually doing fine because everything in this area is brick presentation. But, again, you can see that the brick patterning, the ANSI31 angled, is not including that appropriate area. So what I'm going to do is to fillet this area out.

CTRL S to save. Make Objects Layer Current. I will select the pattern.

LAYOFF. I'm going to layer off that right there. I'm going to back up.

Now I have my patterning here that's connected with the patterning here. I'm going to move this pattern over to the right. BHatch.

Choose the areas here and here. Make sure I include the area in there. Down here.

MA for Match Properties. Source, destination. ENTER.

Erase this. CTRL S to save. Back off a bit.

Again, save the file. I'm going to go back to my Layers. I'm going to make sure that I'm on the proper layer.

So I'm going to turn on my Section Detail layer. Make that my current layer. And I'm going to go on and turn off, LAYOFF, the pattern.

CTRL S to save. I need to bring my Insulation layer information into this area. Now, again, what's happening here is that this is the Insulation that's in the ceiling.

The relationship between my ground line down here and the geometry up here is essentially irrelevant. Zoom Dynamic. Go over to here.

I'm going to grab some of this information I can more appropriately use. Edit. Copy with Base Point.

I will use the end of the wall. Grab this line. So, again, now I have the relationship between the face of a stud and the Insulation wall.

Again, Zoom Previous. CTRL V. Bring it down into here. There's the line.

Move this line from the end of here Perpendicular to this face down here. I'm going to go on and Break at Point. So, Modify.

Break at Point. This line at the end of here. So, I've broken it.

I'm now going to move this new segment from the end of here Perpendicular to the segment up there. And this appears to be fine and dandy. CTRL S to save.

I'm now going to copy this line—the Insulation line—from the end of here to the end of there. I'm now going to align the Insulation with the angled roof—ALIGN. I want to align the batt Insulation.

I'm going to say the end of here lines up with the end of here. The end of here goes to the intersection of there. ENTER, ENTER.

CTRL S to save. I know I want to move it up about three inches. I'm going to move this up arbitrarily three inches.

CTRL S to save. Go back into my 303. Reload the XREF.

See how things are looking. And I didn't do too badly at that point. CTRL S to save.

The only issue is this is an exterior envelope. This is interior, so I need to move my Insulation to the interior volume. I'm going to go to here.

I'm just going to pan back. Draw a line from here down to there. Extend out to there this line.

Erase the line. Draw a line from the end of here straight up. Now my running OSNAPs got me.

Hit Escape. Undo. Draw a line from the end of here.

Ortho on. Go up to here. Trim.

Guideline. Get rid of this. Erase that.

Save the file. Go back to A303. Reload the XREF.

And this is now looking a little bit more logical. I believe that I'd like to take the Insulation, pull it up to the underside of the blocking. We're showing the Rowlock.

I have a little bit of cleanup I'd like to do right there. But after this minor bit of cleanup and putting a couple of bricks up here, we're ready to rock and roll with our Wall Sections. So save the file.

Go to here. I'm going to extend EX up to there, that line. CTRL S to save.

I'm going to go in and copy some brick patterns. So I'm going to first erase Crossing these guys. And I'm going to copy these bricks from the end of the top of the mortar up to here.

Everything looks fine. Save the file. Back off.

I can now add a little bit more detail to the interior wall. So I'm going to say Copy Window. Grab the bottom plate.

Grab the Gyp Board. That's fine. Copy it from the end of the guideline to the inside of the wall right there.

Now, I need to move it. So Move Window. Grab the guideline from the end of here over to there.

I'm showing my blocking, my framing. My Gyp Board—it's 5 1/8 inches off. Keep panning up.

Offset by 5 1/8 of an inch. Go in. Extend to here that.

Back off. MA for Match Properties. That line's the source.

Here's the destination. Escape. Extend up to there, that line. I have some cleanup work I need to do here at the window framing.

So I'm going to draw a line from here straight over, from here straight over. I'm going to do some trimming. Trim.

Here are my cutting edges. Get rid of those bits there. And I will also want to make sure that I erase out this line segment here.

Because this line segment here is, in fact, part of the framing that goes on the section. But if I were to erase it, I would now be missing a line that's in my Building Section. So I'm going to choose the line.

This is going to be like the Insulation we had on the Building Sections. I will choose the line. Do a Right Button Properties.

I will force its color to be Color 120. And I will let its layer be a Pattern. It's going to turn off in the Wall Section.

Close it there. CTRL S to save. Go back into my 303 file.

Reload the XREF. And you can see the detailed information I was just working on is there. So, again, here we have what used to be the inside face of the wall that we were seeing in the Building Section.

But because I'm now showing the Gyp Board, I'm modifying where that line is. If I go into my A302 file and if I reload the XREF, you can see that now it's reflecting all of the updated information that I've been working on.

But this A302 file is seeing our detailed Section information for the first time. This is information that I do not want to have presented in this drawing, but rather only in the Section drawing. But while I'm here, let me just zoom in.

Because we've been talking about this area. So, again, you can see the Gyp Board on the outside. Here's the line of the extension of the inside face of the wall.

But I'm going to go to Layers. Again, it's an XREF. I'm going to go to my Section XREF layer.

And this wants to be my Section XREF Detail Section information. I'm going to turn it off and freeze it because I don't need to see it in this drawing at all. So, again, now this drawing looks totally presentable.

Zoom Extents. Save the file. Go back into my 303 file.

And now we're going to do a Zoom Extents. And now everything that we want to see is appropriately presented in our Wall Sections. So, what I'd like you to do now is get caught up to this point.

And one of the last things we need to do is to put our Keynotes in for referencing the Keynotes onto the Wall Sections.

photo of Al Whitley

Al Whitley

Al was the Founder and CEO of VDCI | cadteacher for over 20 years. Al passed away in August of 2020. Al’s vision was for the advancement and employment of aspiring young professionals in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industries.

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