Dermot

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.

When you select "Boxed Eave" in the Build Roof dialog, you should see some other options. One of these options is "Flush Eave". The built in help system actually does a fairly good job explaining how these options work. I think this is what Eric was getting at.

I think the problem is that your card does not support the "Extended formats TypedUAVLoad". This is from the tech article about finding your shader model: Note: Some older graphics cards, such as the NVIDIA 700 series, may support shader model 6, but may be lacking a critical feature called "Extended formats TypedUAVLoad". If a graphics card does not support this feature, the word "No" will be mentioned beside this feature in the image above, and the card will not function with newer versions of Chief Architect software. I believe the quadro card you are using is similar to the 700 series cards and was first released in 2012. You could try seeing if you can install newer drivers but I think based on the age of your card that it is unlikely that you will be able to use X13 with this card.

When you open the Roof Plane Specification dialog, what does it say on the structure panel? The reason this is important is that each roof plane can have separate framing settings. When ever you build a new roof plane, it will use defaults. If you modify your defaults later, existing roof planes will not change dynamically like some other objects (like cabinets, doors, or windows can). If this spacing is correct in the Roof Plane Specification dialog, then the problem may be that you have not actually rebuilt the framing. Try rebuilding the framing manually for one of your roof planes to see if it is then correct.

As far as I know, the main cause of toolbar corruption has been fixed in X13 and we have had no new reports of this problem. The problem we fixed had to do with all of the toolbar buttons being right on top of each other in the upper left corner. We were never able to reproduce this problem reliably, but because no one has reported it to us in X13, we are somewhat confident that it has been fixed. Based on the picture you posted above, it does not look like you are experiencing the same problem. Since you did not post a "before" picture, it's pretty hard to know what changed for you. My best guess is that this is a different bug that we are not aware of. First, make sure you are using the latest update (23.2.1.3). Then, assuming that you can still reproduce this problem, please work with our technical support to try and resolve this issue. If you are able to show them how you can reproduce this problem, this could go a long way towards helping us fix it. We will probably also need your toolbar files and some more details about your system. If we can reproduce this problem, then it is very possible that we can fix it in another update.