Hi Dave R, I have seen some of Nick Sonder's drawings but don't know how he does it or what the tricks are... I also haven't bought his book. But, It seems to me that something as fundamental as precision aligning layers, dimensioning and even fine line work in wall types (face of stud vs. finish face- which is simply not possible in raster mode and barely possible in vector mode) should not be a secret. IF you can recommend a way to do this please share. the SU file is a small house but with many layers of framing and details. I'm using the latest iMac, lots of memory, latest versions of SU and LO. I've tried reducing file size, breaking the LO into multiple files according to Plan, Section, Elevations....each with it's own reduced SU base file to reference and making sure that the files are purged and links are good. I've structured the SU scenes as the Views used by LO so that I limit the amount of modification to the SU file when setting up viewports in LO. this took way longer to accomplish because of lag-time, freezes and crashes forcing me to rework and resave..... and after all that now when I try and align a group of dimensions on one layer in LO to the SU viewport layer the dimension layer actually moves smoothly to the desired intersect then jumps past it. UGH. If my experience is unique then someone tell me.

HELP. I've been using SU for a few years, love it as a design tool and still consider myself as a novice. I have struggled with LO. In my opinion it is a terrible 2D construction document application. Aside from freezing, crashing and long delays importing vector viewports from SU, LO's lack of precision in aligning layers or even a simple task of dimensioning makes it practically useless. I hate to say this because I was really hoping for a good transition from fluid modeling to construction documents. I've read a number of blogs and comments on this issue and the tedious, work arounds suggested by some simply are no excuse for the poor response of the application. I am an architect, I can't waste that much time on it. I've decided to try and port SU views into a true CAD program (I use VectorWorks) to produce const. docs..... If someone can convince me that my experience is unique and that properly applied LO does work I'll gladly reconsider.....