Dermot

I think Mark's suggestion of using cabinets is a very good solution to this problem, but I also think he made it a little bit harder than is really needed. In the attached plan, I used a wall cabinet so that I did not have to worry about any toe kicks and counter tops. Instead of using a custom door symbol, I just used the built in inset flat panel set to be thinner than the face frame. In the plan, I have two of them where I set the left separation to 0 on right one so they would stack together more seamlessly. These cabinets are fully customizable and are not using any symbols or any type of fancy work-arounds. Have a look at this plan and ask more questions if you get stuck. cabinet wainscot.plan

Just to be clear, mentioning something you would like in a random chieftalk post is not the same as making a suggestion. If you would like to make a suggestion, I recommend using the suggestions forum or contacting our tech support department directly: https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/forum/8-suggestions/ https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/#contact

The information below applies to all or our products but the links are specific for Home Designer. All elevation and cross section views are actually 3D views. If your computer is not capable of creating 3D views, you will not be able to create them. You will likely have problems even just using basic plan views because we use 3D views all over the program including in most dialogs and in the library browser. I recommend reviewing the system requirements here: https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/products/system-requirements.html If your computer does not meet the minimum system requirements, then you might want to either upgrade your system or talk to customer service about what your other options are. If your computer does meet the system requirements but you are still having problems creating 3D views, you may want to review this tech article: https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/support/article/KB-00897/troubleshooting-3d-camera-view-display-problems-in-home-designer.html If all else fails, you may want to contact our technical support team for additional help: https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/support/#contact

Stairs can be set to follow curved walls (including invisible ones) by using the "winders" option. See picture below. You cannot draw a true elliptical wall though so you will have to approximate the shape using multiple arcs (or lots of short segments). I suspect that the combination of the starter tread and the winders at the top will also be tricky to model. I think for these I would use individual landings since they can pretty much be made any shape you want.

The short answer is that real-time (GPU) ray tracing is not supported on the mac but CPU based ray tracing is. For some more info, see my post in this recent thread:

Chief's calculations are 100% accurate. It's just that it may not be calculating things the way you want it to or expect it to. In the case of a single default siding wall that is 10' long by 10' high, you may note that the house wrap is 100 sqft and the siding is 111 sqft. This is because the program is wrapping the siding around the ends but it does not do that with the house wrap. The ends take about 11 sqft more siding.

There is also a tech article about how to solve problems like this: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00654/restoring-the-size-position-of-the-side-windows.html

Just to be clear, the new in X13 real-time ray tracing that will run on your GPU (video card) is not supported on the Mac. The normal ray trace engine that uses your CPU is still fully supported on the Mac. 1. I don't think so. At least I have not heard of anyone who has done this successfully. 2. Yes, you can take plan files from your Mac machine and open them on a Windows machine (and vice versa). Assuming the Windows machine has a video card that supports real-time raytracing, you should be able to use this machine for your views. Some more information about the real-time raytracing can be found in this video: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/10251/real-time-ray-tracing-setup-optimization.html If you have additional questions, please feel free to contact our technical support team during normal business hours.

This looks like a problem with your video card or it's drivers. Please see if this tech article helps: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00106/troubleshooting-3d-camera-view-display-problems-in-chief-architect.html If not, then I recommend that you contact our tech support team during normal business hours.

Schedules will group objects based only on the information that is displayed in the schedule. The one caveat is that we don't base the grouping on what the preview image looks like. So just because one casement window is a right and the other is a left, if there is nothing in the schedule that says this, then they will be grouped together. In Eric's picture above, the windows are not grouped because the automatic description includes HL and HR to differentiate them. If you remove this column then they would probably be grouped together. To get them to display separately, you just need to add some more information to the schedule that is different between them. I don't think there are any built in schedule columns that display the hinging for casement windows (although this seems like the kind of thing that someone would want). Adding your own comment or creating your own custom column for hinge side would work.

If your stair is set to use the walk line, then the tread depth is already calculated along the walk line. Otherwise, it is along the center line of the stair. I don't believe the program has any built in ability to limit the inside length of the tread or allow you to specify the exact radius of the curve. You should make one or more feature requests for what you would like the program to do differently.

See if this tech article helps: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00805/editing-2d-cad-blocks-assigned-to-3d-symbols.html

These tech articles and video might have some more helpful suggestions as well: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00058/creating-a-custom-chimney-and-fireplace.html https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00503/creating-a-fireplace-mantel.html https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/249/editing-a-solid-to-create-a-fireplace-and-chimney.html

If you use the "Edit Active View" tool and go to the "Selected Defaults" panel, you can change the "Current CAD Layer" for the current view. Most general purpose cad objects will use the current cad layer by default when they are drawn. If you want to control what layer other objects are placed on, you should review the list of defaults that are available in this same panel. Much more detailed information about controlling layers can be found in the training videos.

If you lock the tread depth, the program should maintain whatever tread depth you specified. If you set this in your stair defaults, any new stairs you draw should also be locked with the same tread depth. As far as riser height is concerned, you can't specify a default riser height. The program will try to figure out the best riser height to use based on the total height and the number steps you have. You can always override this for any given stair by just turning off the automatic heights and specifying the riser height you want to use. Please be aware that doing this means that you are then responsible for making sure that your stair actually reaches the next level.

Electrical objects won't automatically attach to roof soffits. If you would like them to, then you should probably submit a feature request. For now, I would just place a ceiling mounted light from the library and adjust the height so it is positioned properly. You may also need to use the Open Symbol tool to turn off the "Flush Mounted" option so that it is flat and doesn't try to follow the slope of the underside of the roof. You should not need to create an extra ceiling plane.

Just to be clear, I don't see how a new video card will have much of an affect on any toolbar issues. As a general rule, I try to avoid giving out any recommendations about specific video cards. I will say this though, if you are not interested in the new real-time raytracing features in X13, then you probably do not need to buy a video card that supports it. They are somewhat expensive and a bit hard to get at this time. You do need to make sure you buy a video card that meets the minimum system requirements for X13 though. For more information, please see this web page: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/products/sysreq.html Buying a better than minimum video card can also improve your performance for creating and working in all camera views, even cross section/elevation views and even if you never use anything other than plain old vector views. You should consider your return on your investment though because the difference between a low end card and mid range card is probably going to have much bigger impact on your performance than the difference between a mid range card and a high end card. Only you can decide if the extra cost is actually worth it.

The open below room using invisible walls should work and will also allow you to keep the model "live". You should probably not create a double wall using invisible walls. If you turn off the roof/ceiling for the open below room, it should not affect your existing roof. The invisible walls can also be put on a hidden layer if you don't want to see them in your plan. The bottom line is that there are a variety of solutions that should work, but each one may have some limitations and/or benefits compared to the others. I recommend that you choose the one that best fits your needs and skills: 1. creating an open below room using invisible walls. 2. displaying the stairs from the floor below using the reference display. 3. creating a duplicate stair (or maybe even a stair symbol) for the floor above. 4. manually drawing the stair detail using cad tools.

The best way to show the stair break line differently between the lower and upper floor is by using the display options built into the stair tools (not using reference display). This means that you will need to make sure the stair is in an open below room on the floor above. If you need this for a stair that is outside of the building, you should try Glenn's solution of creating an open below room using invisible walls.

Yes, thank you Glenn for clarifying what I was asking. If any of the cabinets that you want above the custom countertop is really a base cabinet, not a wall or full height, the program could very well use it to determine the height and thickness. In a situation like this, the best solution is to just turn off the automatic behavior and set the height and thickness to what you want. I can think of no other reason why the custom counter would not find one of the base cabinets below it and use it for the height and thickness. If you can repro a case where it doesn't, then please submit it to our tech support team.

Are any of those cabinets above the counter actually base cabinets? If so, then that behavior might make sense. If not, then I don't know why the custom countertop would not find a base cabinet below it. You should probably submit this plan to tech support so that someone can look into this further.

There is some good information in our blog article here: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/blog/computer-for-design-and-gaming/

I believe you can solve both of these issues using reference display and it will be "live" unlike using the cad detail solution posted above. You can use a separate layer set for your reference display that only displays the stairs from the other floor. You should turn off "XOR drawing" and turn on "Details" to make sure they display the way you want them too, including the railing details. If you take advantage of saved plan views, you can setup one showing the stairs as you want them for your construction documents and a separate one displaying walls from other floors that you can use for alignment and editing purposes.

The auto finished sides is probably not going to work the way you want it to in all situations. In the case of the full height cabinet, the program sees that it is next to the base cabinets and thinks the side should be unfinished because it doesn't consider that there is a portion of the side that is exposed. In the case of the wall cabinet, the program is completely ignoring the full height cabinet which is why it thinks it should be finished. In both cases, you will need to override the automatic behavior by manually changing the side from auto finished to finished (as suggested by Chopsaw). Bug or program limitation that has basically always been there? Doesn't really matter. If it doesn't work the way you think it should, then you should report it to us. The more people that ask, the more it will move up on our todo list.

Currently, Chief supports right, left, top, and bottom hinging for cabinet doors. We don't support bifold, sliding, pocket, or any other kinds of cabinet doors. If you would like us to support other types of door hinging, then you might want to submit a feature request for the type(s) you would like. You may or may not be able to get something that looks close to what you want by using multiple doors or by using a door symbol. This all depends on what you need to show on your plans and how accurate you need the model. The cabinet on the right side of the picture below is just using two doors, one top hinge and one bottom, with the knob removed from one.