Dermot

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.

Most of the training videos I posted above are probably still pretty useful for X11. The webinars are more specific to X13 and might not be as helpful unless you are thinking about upgrading to X13 (should be $1,075.75 with the current sale price). X13 is much more demanding on your video card though and you won't be able to use the new real-time raytracing feature unless you have a card that supports it which adds to the cost. As for hardware recommendations, this blog article has some pretty good info (but again, some of it is more specific towards X13): https://www.chiefarchitect.com/blog/computer-for-design-and-gaming/

Just guessing here because I did not have time to look at your plan, but if the stair is actually any bit within the wall, the thin side surface will not show which means you won't see the vertical line showing where it ends. As you have shown above those surfaces you get when you uncheck "Open Underneath" don't really build a solid stair. Moving the stair a little bit can solve this problem. Specifying a small value for the Side Inset can also solve problems like this. Either way, you are also stuck with the extra line on the side that you probably don't want either. A solution that I sometimes like better is to keep "Open Underneath" checked and specify the "Height Below Tread" large enough to go all the way to the floor. This can give you a much more realistic looking solid stair.

We also have a number of training videos that you may find helpful. There is a series specifically on raytracing: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/playlists/103/ray-trace.html There are also some good ones on setting up lighting and materials: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/playlists/102/cameras-lighting.html https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/playlists/170/materials-patterns-textures.html There are also some recorded webinars that you might find helpful: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/10252/rendering-techniques-best-practices-vector-watercolor-clay-others.html?playlist=171 https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/10251/real-time-ray-tracing-setup-optimization.html?playlist=171 https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/10228/3d-rendering-what-s-coming-next.html?playlist=171 ...and more

See if this tech article helps: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-02772/troubleshooting-library-download-issues.html If all else fails, you may want to contact support: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/

Not much to go on just based on the error message. This is a very generic message that just means the program ran into something bad that probably would have caused a crash in the past. Also, you might want to call technical support since they will be closed tomorrow and through the weekend. First though, you might want to verify that your system does meet the system requirements. More info can be found here: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/products/sysreq.html If it does, and you can't get a hold of tech support, then you might want to check out these tech articles: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00365/message-a-serious-error-occurred.html https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00214/troubleshooting-installation-problems.html https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-03049/troubleshooting-chief-architect-software-closing-unexpectedly-on-windows.html

I see you are using HD Pro 2021, so this would be the correct link to contact support: https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/support/ Since you are using HD 2021, I think it would be covered. When you contact them, they should be able to better evaluate whether or not this would require an added fee.

This sounds a lot more like a system/installation problem then a program problem. You may want to contact our technical support team for more help. https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/

Cabinet module lines are always drawn using the same color and line style that we use for the cabinet itself. You might want to change your "Selection Line" color your in your Preferences though and this might make it easier to see things when you are editing them.

You might also want to review this tech article: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00007/importing-and-applying-a-custom-picture-to-a-frame-computer-or-tv-screen.html

What did you type into the Export Picture dialog? The size of an image is the number of pixels (width x height) multiplied by the number of bytes per pixel (4). I'm guessing you typed in some pretty big numbers.

Just to be clear, all "device removed" error messages are not necessarily caused by the same problems. The "device removed" error message is a very generic error message that only really means that there was some kind of low level error that occurred while we were trying to generate the view. These can be caused by a wide variety of system problems, video card driver bugs, and bugs in Chief itself. My posts above were specifically about frequent and random "device removed" error messages while using an Nvidia 3000 series card on Windows 11. Any problems using some other OS or some other video card are probably not related. Please report all repeatable "device removed" error messages directly to our tech support team regardless of what video card or OS you are using: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/

What do you mean by "fade"? Layers do not control fill styles or draw order. They do control all of the line properties such as line styles, colors, and weights. So when you change from your working layer set to your electrical layer set, the only things that are really changing are the line properties and what is currently being displayed. The main difference between X12 and X13 in the electrical layer set that ships with the default template plan is that it is using a different line color for the cabinets and the counter tops. The default fill style for your base cabinets is also a different color between X12 and X13 but this should not change when you change layer sets. Also, you might want to change your signature if you are using X13 instead of X11.

The status bar can be turned on/off in your preferences. I don't think there is a way to turn off the edit toolbar but it might not be visible on the screen. Try using the Reset Options in your preferences to see if you can bring them back. If all else fails, then you should try contacting tech support.

You might want to review the list of new features that were added to both X12 and X13. There are a lot of useful new features and most of them have very little to do with rendering/raytracing. https://cloud.chiefarchitect.com/1/pdf/marketing/x12-new-features.pdf https://cloud.chiefarchitect.com/1/pdf/marketing/x13-new-features.pdf

If you are not using Windows 11, or you are not using an Nvidia series 3000 video card, then it is not the same problem and you should follow the instructions in my first post above:

Robert, Your problem sounds like the problems mentioned here: https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/topic/32694-x13-internal-rendering-error-crash/?tab=comments#comment-256615 JPCompass has not provided enough information to know if his problem is the same.

Just wanted to give you all a quick update... Our testing team is still having problems finding a reliable way of reproducing this problem or any reliable workarounds. They have setup a special test machine with a specific test case that will randomly crash but they have found it can take anywhere from 20 to 2,500 consecutive tries to get the problem. We are trying out new fixes using new theories daily but this random behavior is making it very difficult to find a solution quickly. Our current theory is that this is a video card driver issue with the new Windows 11 OS. We are also trying to work with Nvidia to see if they can help us find a solution for this problem. When we last spoke to them, they said they could not reproduce the problem. Unfortunately, they were not actually using a 3000 series card on Windows 11 when they tried. Hopefully, we can get this problem looked at by someone else there that is a little more experienced. If you are having this problem, and you have a reliable way of reproducing it or a reliable way of avoiding it, please contact our technical support team and give them whatever information you might have. Also, if you have an Nvidia 3000 series card and you are still using Windows 10, I would highly recommend that you do not upgrade to Windows 11 just yet. Again, we apologize for any inconvenience that this is causing and please be assured that this is still our top priority.

This training video about creating a story and a half roof might be a good starting point: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/6130/story-and-a-half-roof.html?playlist=95

There are a number of training videos about wall framing that you might find helpful: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/playlists/145/wall-framing.html?playlist=93

First, you should check out this tech article: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00106/troubleshooting-3d-camera-view-display-problems-in-chief-architect.html If that does not help you to solve your problem, then you will want to contact tech support: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/

Default Settings -> General Cabinet Defaults Turn on "Show Closed Doors/Drawers in Plan Views"

Look at your locate object settings in your dimension defaults.

Chief is very good at math. It could still be a programming bug, but I don't think its a math bug. Do your results change if you change your dimension defaults from "Grid Rounding" to "Distance Rounding"? Are you 100% sure that your dimension lines are actually locating the same thing? Are you 100% sure that the lines you are dimensioning to are actually parallel? Are you 100% sure that your dimension lines are using the same dimension defaults? Are you 100% sure that you did not already override your dimension string? There are probably lots of other things that could cause this problem but these are the most obvious things I could think of first. Assuming that it is not one of these issues, be sure to send your plan into tech support and someone will look into this further.