Dermot

First, I don't believe anyone was being disingenuous in their replies above. Second, I don't believe missing toolbars are actually related to toolbars losing their button arrangement. The link I posted above was only to address issues with missing toolbars. Third, as far as Chief "owning up to the problem" you are referring to is concerned, I will refer you to these prior threads, where Chief employees discussed these problems and asked people for more information to help us solve them: https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/topic/29164-menu-bug/ https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/topic/26176-x12-toolbar-scrambles-itself-regularly-anyone-else-have-this-issue/?tab=comments#comment-210727 Fourth, because some people actually did help us when we asked them to, we were able to identify and correct a problem that we believe was causing this toolbar corruption. As far as we know, this problem has been fixed in X13. If you, or anyone else, can still reproduce this problem, then please contact our tech support department so that you can provide them with additional information so that we can look into this further.

If the above doesn't work, see if this tech article helps: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00467/troubleshooting-missing-toolbars.html If all else fails, then contact technical support during their normal business hours.

Is the color of your windows the same as your background color? Try changing one of them to see if they are more visible.

X1 should be able to open V9.5 plans and save them in a format that X12 can read. Not sure if this works any better or is any easier than using the X8 Desktop Viewer. Either way, you will probably have to cleanup things.

You might be able to get something that will work just using the Save As PDF tool in the Print dialog. Basically, as long as you are not including any images (which are always raster based), the pdf should (from what I have been told by our in-house pdf expert) be all vector based and on a single layer. The key will be that all of your camera/elevation views that you send to the layout will also need to be vector based so you will need to send them as plot line views with "Color Fill" turned off. You should try a very simple plan as a test case and see if this is compatible with what your building department needs.

Opps. Since HD Pro does not even have cabinet schedules, you must be right. Cabinet labels should display automatically in elevation views, assuming that you have turned on the layer, in Chief Architect Premier and Interiors (even in the X10 versions).

I don't think there ever was a Chief 95. Maybe you meant Chief 97? If these are actually files from Chief 97, then you should be able to read them in using the X8 Desktop Viewer and then save them which will allow you to open them in newer versions. You can find the link to the viewer in the tech article that Chopsaw posted above. Please be aware that plans this old are very likely to need a lot of cleanup when brought into the newer versions.

They will display in elevation views in Chief Architect Premier and Interiors. From your signature, it looks like you are using HD Pro and this feature is not included in that product. Also, there seems to be a problem with your logo in your signature.

The ability to specify a specific orientation for dimension labels is a new feature in X13. You can also manually rotate individual dimension labels. For a full list of the new features available in X13, see this document: https://cloud.chiefarchitect.com/1/pdf/marketing/x13-new-features.pdf

Or, select the schedule and then use the "Renumber Schedule" tool.

The best way to make sure that problems like this get fixed is to actually report them to us. We have had only one report of a new problem in X13 that has to do with missing labels in elevation views that were sent to layout as plot lines. This is currently on our todo list and we hope to have a fix for this in the next available update. We have no open reports of any other problems regarding missing labels. It does not sound like Mike's problems are related and there is not really enough information in the other posts to determine whether or not they are related. This means that we have no way of knowing whether or not the next update will solve any of these problems. If you are experiencing any problems with labels that are not displaying correctly in elevation views, then please report them to our technical support team. Please be sure to include the plan with a saved camera that demonstrates the problems. It would be even more helpful if you could make sure the saved camera is clearly identifiable. Please be sure to follow up with our technical support team if they ask you for additional information. If we are unable to reproduce the problem, it will be very difficult to confirm whether or not it is the same problem.

Yes. If you want your line weights and styles to match what they will be on layout, then you need to setup the drawing sheet in the cad detail to match the scale you intend to send it to layout as. If you actually send it at a different scale, or change the scale in either location later, then they will not match. There is some more information in this tech article: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00923/understanding-and-adjusting-line-weight-scaling.html If all else fails, we do have additional training resources available, including one-on-one personal training: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/training/

It kind of depends on what you don't want to change. If you are planning on creating plan variations, like for a remodel, you can certainly do as David has suggested and save your versions of the plan under a different name. If you want a certain view to never change in your layout, regardless of what changes you make to the underlying model, you can convert the view into a cad detail first and then send the cad detail to the layout. If what you are really trying to do is make sure that a particular view does not change, this can be controlled through things like layer sets and saved plan views.

First a general comment, I think you might be placing too much importance on the difference between quads and triangles. Triangles are inherently simpler to deal with and historically most video cards have been optimized to deal with very large numbers of triangles. I suspect your performance problems in lumion wouldn't really change much even if we added the ability to export as quads. That said, if your main goal is to reduce surface counts, then you really need to pay attention to the surface count for your Chief model. We report the current surface count on the status bar for the current camera view. You should be able to track your changes to see what kind of affect they have on the overall surface count. In general, typical things that have a large affect on surface count are when you use lots of high surface count symbols (especially if you have imported high count symbols from other sources), highly detailed molding profiles, and pretty much anything with curves. Combining these things can very quickly increase your surface count. For example, if I take a new plan and just draw a single wall and drop a window in it, I only have about 510 surfaces. If I change the window casing to CA-10, which is pretty detailed, I get about 1,482 surfaces. If I then change the window to a round top, I get about 20,400 surfaces. If you have a lot of these windows in your plan, you can see how quickly your surface count increases. Assuming that you are OK with making a visual change to the model, one way to significantly reduce the surface count is to change the casing back to a simple rectangular one, which will bring the surface count back down to 3229. Another example of something that can have a large affect on surface count is railings. If I take a new plan and draw a simple 10' railing with square balusters and newels, I get about 344 surfaces. If I change the baluster to D-05, which is pretty detailed, I now have 18,472 surfaces. If I then change my newel post and add a molding profile for the top rail, it jumps to 21,288. The surface count in your model will pretty much go up proportional to how many lineal feet of this railing style you have. Some things probably won't have nearly as much of an affect as you might think. A standard base cabinet has about 688 surfaces. Turning off the drawer box and shelf will still have 615 surfaces. In my opinion, this is probably not worth doing. If you only need an exterior view and can't see any of the cabinets, you would be much better off just turning off their layer instead. Hope this helps.

You can also open the Drawing Sheet Setup dialog from the menus. File->Print->Drawing Sheet Setup. You will want to do this for the cad detail you are working in since you can have different drawing sheet setups for different cad details. Also, just to reinforce what others have mentioned, you should always draw your details at 1:1 and then scale them when you send to layout. You should make sure the drawing sheet is setup using the paper size and scale that you plan to use when you send it to layout. You also should use print preview (or at least show line weights) if you want to see what your line styles will actually look like when printed or sent to layout. Another thing to watch for is to make sure that your Endcap Printed Length in preferences is set to an appropriate value. If your endcap is set to 1/4" and your line is only 1/2" long when printed, it will look solid.

I think it uses whatever layer set was last active in your default template plan. So you may want to fix up all of your layers in your default template plan first. Please be aware that I think it only creates this temporary document once and then keeps it in memory. So if you were to do something to change your default template, it won't update until you restart the program. Another option, that might make it easier to control the layer settings, would be to place the cad block into a plan that you know is setup correctly, edit the cad block from there, and then save it back into the library.

Changes to the cad block should be retained. Other changes to the temporary document will not. Does it really matter how we made it? How do you want it to work differently?

"Is there some kind of service, some one I can give this file to that can make it run on x10?" Not unless you want to pay someone else to redraw the plan in X10. The bottom line is that we currently can't write plan files that are compatible with older versions of the software. The program is still evolving far too rapidly to make this feasible and the plan files would be so "lossy" that they would probably not actually be very useful. "What do you suggest?" Instead of paying some guy in the Ukraine using a hacked version to design this building, you could always buy your father an upgrade to X13 and then pay him appropriately for his time and expertise to finish it. I would guess that this is a pretty small investment relative to the construction costs for a project of this size.

Maybe my question wasn't clear enough. Take a look at the picture below for what I meant. The title of the window says "Temporary Library Browser Document". It does not say "Untitled 7" like the other window. These windows are not part of the same document. Changes in one will not result in changes in the other. The same as if you had two different plans open. When you edit a cad block from the library browser, the program will open a special cad detail window that is using a temporary document that was created just for this purpose. Making any changes to any of your settings in this temporary document will not affect any other documents that you may have open. There are a couple of caveats to this though. For example, if you create a new custom layer and assign it to one of the cad objects in your cad block, then the cad block will "own" this layer. If you then place this cad block into a new plan, then the program should also copy this new layer into the plan. This only happens when you edit a cad block in the library. If you edit a cad block from within a plan, the program does not need to do this. You might see similar issues when editing other objects from the library. If you use the "Define" button from one of the specification dialogs, you are not actually defining the properties for any plans that are currently open, only the temporary library browser document.

What does the window title say when you edit a cad block from the library?

See if this tech article helps: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00348/changing-the-installation-location.html

The latest update is 23.2.1.3. You should download and install this update because it has several important bug fixes.

No, you cannot open any X12 plan or layout files in X9. X12 can open X9 plan files but older versions of the program can't open newer plan versions. There are a number of other things you could do though: - You could have her export the plan as a DXF/DWG file using an autocad format that your X9 version can read. Should work about as well as it does in autocad. This will just be cad though and not a real Chief model. - You could have her export the 3D model of the plan using a 3D format that your X9 version can read. This will be a static 3D model that you can't really modify though. - You could open the file in the X13 desktop viewer. - You could open the file in the X13 trial version. - You could see if she still has X9 and is willing and able to work with you by using X9 for her part of the project. - You could also upgrade. Although if she is using X12 and you are using X13, you will have the reverse problem.

Welcome to Chieftalk. This forum works really well for very specific questions about almost everything Chief related. It doesn't always work that well for general, "where do I start?" kind of questions. We do have a number of other resources that may work better in these cases. If you have not already watched the quickstart video series, you may want to start there. I believe it is designed to give you an overview of most of the basics in a more logical order. You can find it here: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/#playlist-138 Another thing you might want to watch, if you have not already done so, is the pre-recorded bootcamp webinar (that is also free): https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/playlists/171/recorded-live-stream-webinars.html In addition to the regular training videos that are posted, we have a number of other training resources. The residential introductory course is also available online and free. There are other courses that are available for purchase including private training if you desire. You can find out more information about training here: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/training/ And if all else fails, please feel free to call our customer service to ask them more specific questions about our training resources.

While I agree with Mick on this part... ...I have to disagree with him on this part. X13 offers a number of benefits on the render side of things in addition to the new real time raytracing (which is currently only available on video cards that support it) including the ability to add line drawing on top of other render techniques and the new clay rendering technique (which are available on all video cards that run X13). For a more complete list of what is new in X13 and X12, you can review these documents: https://cloud.chiefarchitect.com/1/pdf/marketing/x13-new-features.pdf https://cloud.chiefarchitect.com/1/pdf/marketing/x12-new-features.pdf As for the decision whether or not to go with the latest version or an older version, I would highly recommend upgrading to the latest version which should also include your first year of SSA. SSA will allow you to stay current with the program along with the added benefits of tech support, bonus content libraries, discounted (and sometimes free) training resources, and more. I also recommend reviewing the system requirements though because X13 is more demanding than previous versions: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/products/sysreq.html If you do decide to purchase a used older version, I also recommend that you verify that the license is legally transferable. Occasionally, people will try to sell licenses that are not which has way less value because you will not be able to upgrade it. If you have questions about this, please contact our customer service team for more help. Also, if you have any more questions about X13 or the benefits of SSA, please contact our sales team for more help.