Dermot

See if this information helps: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00106/troubleshooting-3d-camera-view-display-problems-in-chief-architect.html#Drivers If not, then you may want to contact tech support: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/

You may also want to make sure that you are using the most appropriate room "function" and not just changing the room name. For example, if the room is specified to be a garage, it will still behave like a garage even if you change the name to "boardroom".

X13 is using an entirely new rendering engine using DirectX instead of OpenGL. Just because something worked in X12 with your current drivers does not mean it will work the same in X13. Please try updating your drivers (as suggested by Ed). If this does not solve your issues, then you should contact our tech support team.

I don't think the Space Planning Assistant will be very helpful but you can always just place and arrange the types of rooms that you like. Unfortunately, there are not any defaults for the room types or sizes. You might have some luck with placing an office room type, adjusting the size, and then using tools like transform/replicate to come up with some initial layouts. At some point, you will have to go ahead and build the walls and continue on manually.

The reason the auto story pole dimensions are messed up has to do with the truss bases that you added. If you remove these, the story pole should correctly show the roof ridge. When you run into problems like this, please feel free to report them to our tech support team. Although the problem with the story pole dimensions is a direct result of the truss bases, it still seems like the program shouldn't do this. Eric's tips about training as well as pointing out some of the problems in your plan should be reviewed because they may be very helpful. On a side note, one of the videos above mentions how you can solve the problem with having a gap between your terrain and your house. I think he is assuming that you want to keep the cantilever with your first floor and your foundation. I was assuming that you might want to update your foundation to remove this cantilever instead. At any rate, anytime you want to modify the automatic hole in terrain to deal with any special situations, I recommend that you first select the terrain perimeter and then use the "Make Terrain Hole Around Building" tool. This will generate a hole in the terrain that will match the outline of your building and then you can make any needed adjustments. Should be a bit easier than creating a hole from scratch.

The short answer is no, you can't "explode" a symbol. You can temporarily remove surfaces using the delete surface tool and then convert what you have left into a new symbol as suggested by Chris.

Sounds like a video card problem? You might want to post a picture of the problem you are seeing. You might also want to report this to our tech support team. As far as "going back" is concerned, you should still be able to use X12 even if you have upgraded to X13. Once a plan is saved in X13 though, you will not be able to open it in X12. If you brought a plan forward from X12, the program will automatically create a copy of the original plan that you can still open up in X12. I highly recommend that you make your own backups though.

If you can reproduce any problems, then by all means, please report this to our tech support team. My best guess is this is video card related but not really enough information yet.

No. We have not reports of problems editing cad blocks in the library. It may have something to do with the specific cad block you are working with. Please report this to our tech support team along with a copy of your library and some specific steps to use to see the problem.

Are you using the same version of the program?

I am not aware of any specific feature differences between the M1 Mac and other Mac's. You may see performance differences though. One of the biggest differences between Mac's and PC's is that you will not be able to take advantage of the new Real Time Raytracing that is currently only supported on some high end video cards (GPU) that are only available for PC's. Some more information about the differences between using PC and Mac can be found in the system requirements here: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/products/sysreq.html

Some more information can be found in the X13 Migration Guide: Migration Guide - Chief Architect X13

You can't add a generic material region to a style palette but you can add a custom backsplash. The list of object types you can add does appear in the style palette specification dialog. See picture below. As you add things to the palette, they are removed from the Add Object list. As far as adding cabinet partitions to the style palette is concerned, this is currently on our todo list but is just not something we have had a chance to get to yet. Personally, I think we have far more important things on our todo list but everyone is entitled to their own opinions. If there are other things that you would like to see added to the style palette or other ways that you think these tools can be improved, then please feel free to submit a feature request: https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/forum/8-suggestions/

You might want to have a look at this video series: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/playlists/105/layout-construction-documents.html You might also want to check out the samples gallery: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/products/samples.html In particular, some of the samples have full plan sets and even some associated "how to" videos that might be worth looking at. I would maybe take a look at Breckenridge, Bachelor View, Grandview, and/or Lake Point.

Here is a tech article that may help: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00106/troubleshooting-3d-camera-view-display-problems-in-chief-architect.html If all else fails, I would contact technical support during their normal business hours.

Since toolbars are customizable, we don't remove them when you uninstall/reinstall. If you would like to have the program use the factory installed toolbar files, you might want to try renaming the "Toolbars" folder in your user data folder. When you start the program, it should automatically copy the installed toolbars into this folder. If this does not solve your problem, then you may want to contact technical support.

The edit toolbar button just turns it on/off on a countertop edge. You have some more controls in the custom countertop dialog. This tech article also has some information that might be helpful: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-02936/creating-a-waterfall-countertop.html

Not exactly but there are a variety of tools that can make it easier to change the style of objects within a plan. You can import defaults from a template plan (or any other plan) into an existing plan. This will change your defaults but won't necessarily change the objects that are already modeled unless they are using dynamic defaults. You can also setup and use style palettes to quickly change the style of objects in a plan. You can also use replace from library to quickly change objects within a plan. You can also use the object painter to quickly transfer settings from one object to one or more other objects. You can always just group select objects to quickly change their style settings all at one time.

You can either continue to work on your X10 plans in X10 or migrate them into X12 (or X13) if you want to take advantage of the new features. If you are migrating plans, using the Backup Entire Plan tool (as suggested by others) is a good way to create a backup of your old plan and make sure you don't lose any referenced files. You should not find any significant problems bringing your old plans forward, but the older they are the more likely it is that you might find some minor problems. Please feel free to always report any problems you might find to our tech support team. You may also want to review the "What's New" guides below: https://cloud.chiefarchitect.com/1/pdf/documentation/chief-architect-x11-migration-guide.pdf https://cloud.chiefarchitect.com/1/pdf/documentation/chief-architect-x12-migration-guide.pdf And if you are interested in X13 which is now available to beta test: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/whats-new/

Just to clarify, stairs can be modeled as either separate sections or as subsections contained within in a single section. If they are separate sections, they can have different widths along with other attributes such as railings and materials. If they are subsections, they will all have the same attributes. One easy way to tell that you have subsections instead of separate sections is by paying attention to the handles and labels you see when you select it. If you see "1-1" and "1-2", this means that they are subsections. If you see "1" and "2", then this means that they are separate sections. You should also note the different edit handles you get. See the picture attached below to see these differences. By using the "Break" tool you will take a stair section and split it into two subsections. By using the "Complete Break", you will split it into two separate sections. If you have a stair section with multiple subsections, you can also use the "Disconnect Selected Subsection" tool to break it into two completely separate sections.

You need to specify the drawing order. See if this video helps: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/61/controlling-the-drawing-order-of-objects.html?playlist=97

The same way you report any other bugs. You can call (1-208-292-3399), email (support@chiefarchitect.com), or use the online support center (https://support.chiefarchitect.com/home). More info about contacting support can be found here: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/#contact

Depending on how you want to build this, it can be as easy as adjusting the bottom separation:

If you want the joist direction line to control your deck joists, you need to draw it on the floor below. Personally, I would recommend that you use the room specification to control your deck joists and planks. Just turn off the "automatic" option to calculate this based on the size of the deck and then you can specify the directions you want. I would also turn back on the auto regenerate feature until you need to make any custom framing changes. Here is a tech article with some more info: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00794/customizing-deck-planking-and-framing-automatically.html

There are a lot of ways to draw lines and adjust the length/angle after the fact. Since you have come from another cad program, I would encourage you to watch some of the training videos: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/playlists/97/cad-tools.html