Rpadge

I have an Alienware, the battery life is not good, and the graphics fan gets pretty loud when doing 3d work. Other than that, I have no complaints.

There is a room divider wall type that you can use.

I run into this pretty often, IMHO its better to go to  30" x 42" (in my settings its called Arch E1).  

In general, laptops are inherently more difficult and expensive to upgrade. Having said that, I have a similar laptop and it performs well.

Under the options tab there is a button for Recessed.

I believe you can draw that wall on the attic level and it will fill in

By the time you vehicles in the garage, you probably wouldn't notice the pattern

I use different layers (in layout) for different title block sizes , I have one for 30 x 42, one for 24 x 36 (my default) and one for 8x11. You will have to change the paper size and scale etc. but I think this accomplished what you want.

Dermot posted on a similar topic that might help you here:

eric @Solver did a couple of videos on creating your garage door symbol, here is the first one

are you using paste in place? not sure if it makes a differenc, but it might

I had an issue similar to this once before and tracked it down to anti-virus software

Probably doesn't help you but It prints fine for me.

your pdf appears normal to me, I use Adobe.

This is straight from Chief - no cad lines. What you are wanting to do is not hard.

Thanks Eric, very useful information.

I label wall sections and details in Layout often times.

I had an anti-virus program once (Norton I believe) that cause a similar problem with a different CAD program. Some sort of update they did suddenly started messing with my computer - point is, it could be another program running in the background thats causing the issue.

You might try creating your own symbol, using chiefs tools or maybe something like sketchup.

Doesnt help you right now, but I believe X13 will have the ability to create girts.

I would do B & W typical elevations and a color rendering on the cover page (or other sheet)

https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00344/modeling-a-subdivision-or-lot-with-multiple-structures.html?fbclid=IwAR32gUILvHB1iOoZN5d36xP9Tsnq_TXXoRTiQXvxrFx8aJHVnq6_Lr70ChI

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Unfortunately, that's only for windows 10, & I'm still running 7.

I think Windows 10 is free.

Depends on the size and what going to be inside the "punch outs". I believe a window can only be so small. I have used wall material regions for small punch outs.

I am using Mophio Trace as well and have been very happy with it. I use a rough-surfaced screen protector to help with the sketching. Here is a prelim sketch I did for a project using the program.