glennw

That's also why I told you how to do it with an alternate wall definition using invisible wall layers. Really easy and flexible that way - just change the wall definitions as needed - takes 2 seconds.

Larry, The extra posts are being generated by the wall at the top of the stairs. You have a wall there with a full width door opening. The post closest to the door is being generated by the wall at the top of the stairs and I think this is also forcing the extra post in the corner. Try deleting the door opening in the wall at the top of the stairs and make it an invisible wall instead - that should work.

Don't Select Next Tab and Select Previous Tab work exactly the same as the window commands - they even have the same shortcuts. They are just called tabs instead of windows.

Steve, I think that you have made the wrong assumption. I have older hardware and I don't experience what you do and I believe that most users don't experience your slowness. If everything was gummy, the UI hung all the time and the mouse disappears, I think that most users would be howling to get things fixed. The only slowness I see is when editing a roof in 3D and I believe that this is being fixed. There are reasons why you are experiencing the slowness - I don't know what they are. It will probably take a bit of farting around to find out what the problem is. It could be something as simple as a corrupt or complicated symbol. It could be your hardware..... Post the plan or send it to me and I will have a play. Or, send the plan to support and see if they can find anything.

Vinnie, You will have difficulty following the instructions in the document that George posted. There have been changes to the program since than, especially in regard to the Layer Display Options dbx. There are no longer separate columns for display of 2D and 3D.

Alan, Is this what you are after? I was able to achieve this by manipulating the join between the pony walls. In a 3D view, select the lower foundation wall. Place break points at the top of the wall at either side of the bay. Pull that section of wall down to the bottom of the bay. The bay walls fix themselves.

Mark, That doesn't help when you want to show a 3D view with some walls displaying the framing layer only and some walls displaying all their wall layers, including the linings. A further refinement on the method I outlined is to create 2 wall types for the garage. One type using the Insulation Air Gap material for the linings and one normal wall type. You can then just swap the wall types around as needed for the different views.

Create 2 wall types - one for the garage and one for the house - no need for a framing layer in the house walls. Change the wall layers (all layers except the framing layer) of the garage wall type to the material Insulation Air Gap. It will look normal in plan view. In a 3D view you will only see the framing layer for the garage walls. It is then easy to restore the garage wall layers back to normal when you want a complete view.

For a ray trace: Firstly make sure your Sun is pointing in the correct direction and at the correct altitude. For your Sunlight, make sure it is On and Casts Shadows. Post a plan.

I just had to enter my new product key - no downloading. The old product key was for the beta 3 version.

Early versions of Chief had different file extensions for each floor. ie, each floor had it's own plan file (eg, planname.pl1, Planname.pl2, etc). Layout files had a .la_ extension. My memory is being stretched, but I think that the .pb_ extension was a plan backup file. I am pretty sure you can still open the .pl1 files in X6 - but not the other .pl_ plans. I know for sure that Chief 10 can open .pl1 files as I still have that version loaded and working. If you can't open the files in X6, you can send them to me and I will open them in V10 and migrate them to X6.

Do you really mean "renders" or do you mean "ray trace"? To make things easier, make sure you have a Sun Angle in your plan that has all the correct settings and that it casts a shadow on the terrain. To get the sun to shine through the windows, you need to do a couple of things that relate to the glass material: The first thing is 3D...3D View Defaults...Options...Auto Adjust Default Glass Properties - check this and you should always get the sun through the windows no matter what material or material setting. With this setting unchecked: 1. Use a Transparent material. 2. Use a General of Reflective material, BUT you need to set the Transparency value to at least 51%. If none of that works, post a plan that you are having trouble with.

Thanks Len - got it. Although it would be nice to be able to tell without doing anything like the old board.

I have always found the icons to be a pain, so I just turn on the display of file extensions and then don't have a problem.

d dot, The techniques I use have been passed down to me by powers beyond my understanding and are a mystery to myself........blah, blah... In this case I checked the walls on the ground floor and determined that they weren't causing the problem. I then copied and pasted walls between floors and checked the wall hatching and determined that it wasn't the walls or the hatching causing the problem. I checked through the floor settings and couldn't see a problem there. I had an inkling that it was probably a corrupt symbol so it didn't take long to find the culprit. As I deleted each instance of the basin, the wall selection sped up incrementally. When all 4 basins were deleted, things were back to normal. The whole process took about 5+ mins. I wonder if Chief is looking for any support staff? Ah, I just noticed that this forum is autosaving as we type a post. There is another feature missing from this board that I can't find or isn't obvious. With the old board, you could tell who was on line by a colored dot next to their name. I can't find the same thing here.

It's not the wall hatching. It's the 4 basins you have inserted into the base cabinets. I think it is the face count contained in the symbol - over 6000 faces. Use a different basin.

I see that my post #10 was using a small font. I think it was because I accidently clicked on the size button. All other posts should look OK.

Sheeeees, I have already reached my quota for negative votes. I will save it up for tomorrow for d dot.

Joe, If you mean Cut Finish Layers....yes that was checked - no problems.

Lew, I agree with you - again! This feature should be removed - it really has no value. Now...rate this one.

Joe, All working here OK. I can't duplicate your problem.

My cursor arrow IS a solid black filled arrow. Whilst on the subject. One thing that has always bugged me. Why are the Cross Hair preferences on the Edit panel in the Preferences dbx. Surely they belong on the Appearance panel.

Larry, This may help explain how psolids behave: "A vertical polyline solid can be created in a cross section/elevation view in the same manner as in floor plan view. The polyline solid is placed in front of any objects visible in the view. If no objects are behind, the polyline solid is placed one foot in front of the camera." Ah, one other thought. Do you have "Clip to Sides" checked for the camera?

Aren't they wine racks?

You first need to open the correct dbx. Select the symbol. Don't use the Open Object tool on the Edit Toolbar (the open door). Use the Open Symbol tool, which is the one with a pencil and chair on the button - the one to the right of the Open Object button.