A pad is just a floor, right?

[Andre Baros]

For a slab on grade situation, do I need to draw a pad and a floor or just a pad? It seams to me like I just need to draw the pad and change it's stucture to reflect my compacted fill, drainage matt, insulation, slab, and floor just like any other floor structure and by using the pad, I have the added bonus of cutting my topography. (sorry, in Chicago we don't have a lot of projects where topography is a factor).

Thanks,

[Scott D Davis]

I would draw it like you build it. Pad is the grading and 'prep' for the slab. Then the floor/foudation components should be drawn on top of that.

[Andre Baros]

Thanks,
Draw it like you build it helps a lot though you do have to draw the pad out to the outer edges of your foundation walls (and turn it off in section) to get things to look correct graphically.

[Scott D Davis]

now that i look at it some more, i think you were correct. use a pad as a floor, but a pad will cut the topo, while a floor wont.

I would just draw the pad and adjust the properties as you need to represent the floor.

[Steve_Stafford]

OR you can treat the pad as the crushed stone base under the slab, assign the appropriate hatch...
OR make it very thin and let it sit underneath as a "fat" line in your section under slab and base.

[Wes Macaulay]

Since the pad needs to go to the outside of the foundation walls, and the footings are lower than the slab, I often have to use the Cut Profile tool to cut back the pads so they don't go through the foundation wall.

[gregcashen]

I just make the pad 1/8" thick and then turn off the visibility in the sections and elevations. I wish there were a way to turn off a category's display in all views with one command. It's a pain to have to turn off the pad category in a bunch of views and if you forget, you get that thick line in your foundation.

[adegnan]

I just make the pad 1/8" thick and then turn off the visibility in the sections and elevations. I wish there were a way to turn off a category's display in all views with one command. It's a pain to have to turn off the pad category in a bunch of views and if you forget, you get that thick line in your foundation.
Great one for the wishlist Greg! THis would be very helpful. Turn off objects in all views. Bi-directional so that you can go to an individual view and then turn on an object again!

[gregcashen]

Or rather, in the Visibility dialog, there could be a check box for "Apply to All Views?"...or even a further dialog box that allowed you to check all views on which that element/category would be visible/invisible...

[Cathy Hadley]

Or... wouldn't it be cool, if you could select an object and then right click and one of the options was to turn off its visibility ? in only current view only or in all views?

Just a thought...

CZH

[gregcashen]

Only if there was a way to see what had been turned off in a view. Otherwise I see the post count here multplying exponentially as people write in to say, my garage door is not showing up in such-and-such a view...what do I do?