Dermot

We have had some mixed results with this new driver. Scott obviously had better results which is why he posted. Our testing team found that on one of their machines they had worse results (as in more frequent errors). If you download the latest driver and see worse problems, you might need to roll back to an older one. We are still working with Nvidia to get a better solution.

You might want to try deleting the layout box and resending the view. This is kind of a sledgehammer solution but it can often fix a wide variety of layout problems. It's hard to tell by just looking at the small picture but it looks like the color fill is somehow offset from the plot lines. This can sometimes mean that the data saved with the layout box was corrupted in some way. The simplest and fastest way to correct this is just delete the box and resend the view. If the problem happens with a new view sent to the layout box, I would recommend that you report this problem to tech support so that someone can look into this plan more.

Did you change either your Auto Story Pole Dimension defaults or Maker defaults?

The mobile viewer is fairly limited based on what size models it can handle. We also have a desktop viewer that can handle any size model but it requires that your client has a desktop computer that can run X13 (and you have to send them your plan files). Another option is just sending them high quality pictures that you can create and export. You could even play around with the 360 panorama image exports. You could also create walkthrough videos to send them. Lot's of options but I don't know what will work best in your situation.

You might want to check out this tech article: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-03044/optimizing-a-chief-architect-plan-for-export-to-the-3d-viewer.html

I believe everything I have posted is 100% true. Regardless, I tweaked the wording slightly to try and make it more clear but maybe you missed this prior post? If any of my posts are not clear, then please try to ask clarifying questions before you question their validity.

I don't think this would be easy to do with the cabinet tools because of the taper. If you can find a symbol online, you could import it. Otherwise, building each piece using polyline solids.

My comments here are only about using an Nvidia 3000 series video card on a Windows 11 machine. If you experiencing any problems using a different OS or a different video card, then please contact our technical support team to report your problems. There are no updates since my post on Monday. We are still waiting on Nvidia to either release a new driver or tell us what we can do to avoid these problems. There is not much else we can do other than keep bugging them. The only other thing I can suggest is downgrading to Windows 10 until then.

Hitting tab and specifying a length less than 1" works for me. Turning off the grid snaps also works. So does specifying a smaller snap grid size. So does using the Input Line tool. And so does specifying the actual start point, end point, or line length in the specification dialog. Should be able to use whatever method you like the best.

Just to be clear, you don't actually delete rooms. They are formed by the program automatically when you enclose a space with walls (as long as they are not marked as "no room def"). When you delete walls, the rooms are temporarily kept in memory so that you can reconnect walls and keep your room settings. Closing and reopening a plan will always clear out any temporary rooms. Deleting walls, which can remove rooms, does not necessarily remove the things that were automatically created by the walls. Things like foundation walls/slabs, attic walls, roofs, and framing might not be removed unless you have "auto rebuild" turned on for these things. In these cases, you would have to manually remove them or manually rebuild them. Also, it's important to keep your walls properly aligned between floors otherwise you can get strange attic walls or roofs generated. Turning on your reference display (F9) is usually helpful for this. If a wall is close to a wall above or below it but not actually aligned with it, you should see a new tool show up in your edit toolbar (or context menu) called "Align with Wall Above/Below". Also, if you are in a camera view and you are trying to modify a room, you can usually click on a wall first and then use the tab key (or "next" tool) to select the room. Alternatively, you can usually click on a floor or ceiling to select a room. I am guessing that you are a relatively new user. Regardless, we have lots of training videos that can help with most of this stuff. I recommend starting with the quick start series: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/playlists/138/quick-start-video-series.html

This would probably shed water better. Done with auto roofs.

In X13, you can just select the object and then use the "Convert to Symbol" tool that appears on the edit toolbar. In X10 (as your signature indicates you are still using), you would first create a camera view with only the surfaces that you want to turn into a symbol. Then you could use the "Convert to Symbol" tool that is in the Tools menu. And, as Eric is suggesting, more info can be found in your reference manual.

Or make your own in Chief. I created a very basic one just using a railing that was then converted into a symbol so I could orient it how I wanted.

You can load Chief Architect on as many different computers as you like. You can only use one version at a time. More information can be found here: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00937/license-security.html

Please call our tech support department and speak with someone about the specific problems you are having. They should be able to help you either solve the issues you are having in X13 or get you a version of X12 to use.

If something is not being displayed correctly or it has the wrong display attributes (line style, line color, line weight, or wrong text style), then it is most often a layer problem. Let's just go ahead and blame your coworker for now. I have no idea if they put the room labels on a different layer on purpose or by accident, but it seems more like an accident. Maybe they were using the layer painter and accidently clicked on a room label? You should always pay attention to the information in the status bar when using one of the painter tools since this will help you to determine that you are really painting the correct layer onto the correct object. You might want to have them watch some of the layer related training videos starting here: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/4/understanding-layers.html

There are also some stock gate symbols in the library. These can just be placed directly onto a railing.

Regarding the random but frequent "device removed" error messages using Nvidia 3000 series cards on Windows 11, we have been working with Nvidia on this and they have confirmed that they have been able to duplicate the problems. They told us they would be looking into it more "after the holidays" so hopefully they will let us know soon.

There is a desktop viewer and a mobile viewer and they work very differently. Neither of them support raytracing though. If you want to show your client a very high-quality raytraced image, you should probably create that image on your machine and then export it to send it to them. The desktop viewer will be able to open X13 (or older) files and allow your client to view the Chief models. It does not support real-time raytracing so the client does not need a video card that supports real-time raytracing. It does require a video card that supports X13 though, but *most* modern video cards should. You can compare the client's video card specs to our minimum system requirements to see if it will be supported. The mobile viewer is fairly limited as far as how big of a model it can view but this is not a new issue and I don't believe it is any worse in X13 than it was in previous versions. Here is a tech article about optimizing your Chief model for the mobile viewer that might be helpful: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-03044/optimizing-a-chief-architect-plan-for-export-to-the-3d-viewer.html As far as I know, we have no reports of problems with either the desktop or mobile viewer specifically regarding X13. If anyone finds any problems trying to use either the desktop of mobile viewer, I would encourage you to report these problems to our tech support team.

I would encourage you to speak with the Chief Architect sales team as well. They won't be back in the office until Monday though.

Real-time raytracing and CPU raytracing are not going to get the same results because they are using different engines. It's not just going to be a speed difference.

You might want to review this tech article: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00938/how-the-height-of-floors-relate-to-the-height-of-the-terrain.html

First, try a reboot. Did you mess with any of your system settings for your mouse? You can actually program your mouse to do things like swap the left and right buttons. Is your mouse battery running low? Sometimes mice misbehave when battery power is low. Did you change any of your edit behaviors? Some tools don't work the same if you are in "alt" mode. If these don't solve your problem, then you might want to contact tech support.

You might want to read this tech article first: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-01191/troubleshooting-registration-issues.html

Normally, you should not need to upgrade to new hardware every time you upgrade to a new version of Chief. X13 is pretty unique because it has a brand new rendering engine that is taking advantage of the latest video card technology and is much more demanding on your hardware. Most of the time it is more a question of how much money are you willing to spend to save some time doing your job. There is a big difference in price between a new system that will run X13 well and a new system with a video card capable of using the new real-time raytracing. I priced out a new off-the-shelf home computer a couple of months ago and found about a 2X price difference. If you want to continue using the CPU based ray tracing engine and don't really need the real-time raytracing, then you might be able to purchase the upgrade and a decent system that will run X13 for something that is still within your budget. You should also consider all of the new features in X12 and X13 that you might find helpful: https://cloud.chiefarchitect.com/1/pdf/marketing/x13-new-features.pdf https://cloud.chiefarchitect.com/1/pdf/marketing/x12-new-features.pdf Along with these there might be some newer library content that is available that you might not be able to take advantage of with X11. I highly recommend calling our sales team and speaking with someone who can walk you through some of your options and what we might recommend for you specifically.