CarrieS

Here are a couple resources that might help: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00106/troubleshooting-3d-camera-view-display-problems-in-chief-architect.html https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00021/troubleshooting-small-or-blank-camera-overviews.html You could post the plan or send it in to Technical Support for additional help. Otherwise we're just guessing

If you go t 3D> Materials> Plan Materials you can see the materials that are linked to your plan. The ones with the "In Use" column checked are ones actively in your plan or plan defaults. If you see any missing that check mark then it used to be in your plan but removed. We still keep them in your plan in case you wanted them again but if you don't want them anymore you can click the Purge button to clear out the unused materials. Next you can go through the list to see if any are missing their texture and then use the "Replace" button to swap it out with a new one. Alternatively, when you get the Missing file message you can point the material to something new in your library. Carrie

Our Academic page has a series of videos specifically for taking students through a basic project: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/academic/ And our Tutorial Guide is specifically set up to be a Text book with review questions: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/documentation.html

The latest update from AMD for these cards (Adrenalin 26.9.1 - Release Date 2026-09-03) appear to fix the crash.

We have seen an issue affecting Project Management and Preferences, specifically with the toolbar button images. This occurs when Chief Architect’s Dark/Light mode doesn’t match the system’s Dark/Light mode (for example, Chief is set to Light mode while the system is set to Dark mode). When the two don’t align, the wrong icon set may load. We're working on resolving the problem but until then, the following workaround should correct the toolbar icons: Disable Project Management mode. More information: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-03210/enabling-or-disabling-project-management.html Open Preferences, go to the Colors panel, select Force Light, then click OK. Restart Chief Architect. Return to Preferences and re‑enable Project Management mode. Restart the program again and open a plan. The toolbar icons should now display correctly. If you continue to have trouble please reach out to our Technical Support Team so we can investigate further.

Did you verify if the layer was turned on in the camera view layer yet?

@BenPalmerOur Technical Support Team has not encountered any problem with the new driver yet. If you have a plan that might interact with it please send it in to our Technical Support team. We would then be able to diagnose the problem and it will have a much higher chance of getting fixed.

This might help: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00941/changing-what-dimensions-locate.html

The type of note that populates when you place a new note is governed by the Note Default in effect for the view. For example when I place a note while I'm in the Electrical Plan View, That note will have the "Electrical Notes" type. because the Electrical Saved Plan View has the "Electrical Notes Defaults" specified and the Electrical Notes Defaults is set to use the "Electrical Notes" Note type. Hope that helps!

Here are my suggestions. 1. The planking will work better if we mark the landing as Framing Group 2 (Room Specification> Structure Panel) 2. You don't really need the wall going past the stairs on the outside. Things will work better without it. 3. Double up the invisible railings on the diagonal and make sure the two rooms don't connect at the corner. (it seems like we're detecting a collision of the planking and therefore cancelling out one side). Once you have the planking where you want it you can probably turn off the auto regenerate deck framing and connect the railings back together.

We are currently seeing reports that recent AMD drivers are causing crashes on RX 9000 series GPUs. If you are using one of these cards, we recommend using the July driver or earlier for now. https://www.amd.com/en/support/downloads/previous-drivers.html/graphics/radeon-rx/radeon-rx-9000-series/amd-radeon-rx-9070-xt.html Adrenalin 26.7.1 (WHQL Recommended) - Release Date of 2026-07-28 We are in contact with AMD as it seems the problem is within the driver and not Chief Architect. We'll update this post as soon as we have more information or a confirmed fix.

We don't have Wall Cap Offsets for full height walls (Walls that are not ponywalls/railings) in X17, but we do in X18. I'm not sure why the wall cap is sitting so high though... I wouldn't expect it there. Maybe post the plan so we could poke at it? Carrie

In the camera specification, have you tried reducing down Ambient Occlusion? Some users find that helps a lot with sharpening edges.

I've not watched that tutorial from Rabbit Design so can't speak to that. Perhaps @Renerabbitt could help. Out side of that you might have luck creating a custom symbol out of your pieces assemble the pieces and assemble into the finished shape, then convert the finished product into a symbol. https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00809/converting-an-object-into-a-symbol.html https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-03120/creating-custom-schedules.html

It is not possible to have Chief build studs bigger than, or outside of, the wall layer that generates them. You'll need to manually adjust.

You could draw the roof planes manually or if you wanted to use Auto Rebuild Roofs then you could create small "open below" rooms so you could get the roof controls.

Hi @BBilling, We've seen similar scenarios in the past, where wall edge lines disappear, but it would be good to have your example sent into to Technical Support so we can have a developer look at it. Examples are a must because these type of scenarios are often very hard to reproduce. https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/

@joselyn_renWhen you install the the driver I recommend using the "Custom (Advanced)" option and choose the option for Clean Install. Sometimes remnants from previous drivers can interact and still cause crashing. Technical Support has had consistent success with this approach. Feel free to contact Support if you'd like help with the process.

We are currently seeing reports that recent NVIDIA drivers are causing crashes on RTX 40-series GPUs (4060, 4070, etc). If you are using one of these cards, we recommend using the April Studio driver or earlier for now. https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/drivers/details/267262/ We are in contact with NVIDIA as it seems the problem is within the driver and not Chief Architect. We'll update this post as soon as we have more information or a confirmed fix.

That doesn't look like something that Chief is doing automatically. Perhaps you have a text box with a macro there?

@SH_CanadaThe VR feature is part of the Chief Architect program and is not available as a separate product. @fcwilt You are correct, we require headsets that connect to the computer because we were not happy with the performance we were seeing with wireless/Bluetooth.

I wouldn't expect to see a problem opening the files as long as they were intact and available. If you have them stored on Dropbox, OneDrive, or iCloud you might make sure you're logged in to that service and that you can access other files there. Or move the files to a local hard drive and try from there.

Something like this? https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/11079/post-frame-design.html

Probably best to post the plan so we can take a look. Hard to say without more context.

The 999 error is a generic "something weird happened" type of error that doesn't have a specific cause. It could be related to an object in the plan, geometry on how something is coming together wrong, When it happens on launch it is more likely caused by system requirements like graphics or available space. I recommend starting with updating your graphics driver (use a "clean install" or "factory reset" option which is frequently listed under a custom install setting in the driver install wizard). Chief is so dependent on the GPU that updating the graphics driver fixes a ton of stuff. Be sure to reboot after updating. Windows updates and GPU updates can work in tandem so be sure to verify Windows updates are installed as well.