Dermot

I would start here: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/playlists/92/dimensions.html

There is a wall type for "Siding - Thick" that is similar. There should also be a "Wall, Siding-6" in the core libraries. If you draw a wall in your plan using the library one, it will automatically add it to your plan's list of wall types. If you want that exact wall type from your legacy plan, you can copy a wall from the legacy plan into your new plan which will also add it to the list of wall types. You could also build your own wall type to be whatever you would like. Some more info about wall types can be found here: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/playlists/85/walls.html?playlist=1 https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-02944/defining-a-new-wall-type.html

There is also a tech article that might be helpful: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-03107/creating-a-stair-rake-wall.html

An X8 version should not be needed since X12 should be able to read any V10 plans. If you still have any .pl1 files, just open them up in V10 first and then save them. This will create a .plan file that you can then open in X12. You don't have to manually make copies of your old V10 plan files. X12 will automatically create a backup of them in your archives folder when you first save them. You should still be able to open these archive files in V10. You may still want to create your own backup/archive system though if it helps you to better keep track of your older files. When you installed X12, it took over the system file associations so that all .plan and .layout files will automatically open in X12 whenever you try to open them. There is no way that I know of to have two different programs associated with a particular file extension. You can either have V10 associated with them or X12 (or neither) but not both. If you would rather have V10 associated, you will have to change this manually. Here is a tech article that includes a link for changing file associations manually: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-01131/associating-plan-layout-and-library-files-with-the-latest-version-of-chief-architect-or-home-designer.html You may also want to check out this migration guide that has a lot of good information about migrating from older versions: https://cloud.chiefarchitect.com/1/pdf/documentation/chief-architect-x12-migration-guide.pdf

I recommend checking out these tech articles: Backing up Chief Architect Content Restoring Chief Architect Content

There have been a number of improvements made in this area so X12 should work much better than X9. You may want to post a plan with your problems and we can see if it works better in X12.

In X12, the "Reset Side Windows" tool should restore the sizes of the preview and selection windows back to the system defaults. In X11 and prior, you may have to do this manually. Just pull the very hard to see resize handle up as shown in the picture below or in Eric's video above.

I believe all of the buttons that are in the toolbar are also in the menus. So technically, you don't actually need them to finish your assignments. Please see this tech article for more help: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00467/troubleshooting-missing-toolbars.html

My guess is that you blended the wallboard material with the tile material you already had instead of replacing it. More information about working with materials can be found here: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/category/8/materials.html

If you post the plan, someone will probably be able to figure it out without having to make guesses. If all else fails, you can always contact technical support. I missed that detail from your first post. Eric was correct in that you can't really do that with a soffit. If you are using an automatic bay window, you can probably get what you want by just lowering the ceiling:

Soffits can corner join at either the front or back corner the same as other cabinets. They can be joined even if you draw them sloppy, but I prefer to set a temp point to get them to join exactly where I want them. Polyline solids, slabs, or counter tops will also work and would give you some more freedom with the shape.

You can always make a new save plan view just using the "Save Active View As" tool, as mentioned above. You can import any saved plan views from a plan that already has the ones you want, as mentioned above. In addition, you can also create new saved plan views for a legacy plan by opening the layout and selecting the views you want and using the "Create Saved Plan View" edit toolbar button. You can also set them up pretty quickly just using the Project Browser. It has tools to create new ones from scratch as well as make copies of any existing ones. It also has the ability to group select so that you can make changes to multiple saved views all at the same time.

The interior and exterior labels in the door dialog preview just show you the side of the door that you are currently looking at. To know whether a door is considered an interior or exterior door, you should always look at the dialog title. See the picture below. The program will place either an interior or exterior door based on the wall that you place it on. The wall will be considered an interior wall or exterior wall based on the room types on both sides. All of the rules for the different room types can be a little bit confusing but most of the time it should just make sense. Please note that door can actually change from an interior or exterior door if you later change any of your rooms or move it to a new location. This may not always be obvious because only some of the door settings will change automatically". When any setting that is a "dynamic default", such as the door style, is set to "use default", this setting will change based on the current door defaults being used. Settings that are not dynamic defaults, such as the door width, will not change automatically. For example, if you draw a simple 4-wall box house and then place a door, the door should be an exterior door. If you then delete one of the walls, causing the program to lose the room definition, the door will automatically switch to an interior door but it will remain at the original exterior door width. On a side note, this behavior is changing in X13. Interior and exterior doors will be determined at the time they are placed and will not change automatically based on changing your rooms or moving them to a new location.

Chief Architect Premier X9 should have all of those options.

If you are mostly doing interior work, try this: - In your General Wall Defaults, set the Resize About to Inner Surface and turn on Show Wall Length When Editing. - In your Auto Exterior Dimension Defaults, turn off Auto Refresh Dimensions - In your Temporary Dimension Defaults, turn on Locate Wall Surface and Locate Both Wall Sides

See if this tech article helps: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-03064/live-views-on-layout-appear-blurry.html If not, then you should post a plan and layout that demonstrates the problem you are seeing. If all else fails, then you may want to contact technical support during normal business hours.

Stairs will only display automatically on the floor above if they within an open below room. You can either create a fake room around your exterior stair using invisible walls or use the reference display to display them. One advantage of the fake room solution is that the up arrow will automatically switch to a down arrow and you have some more control over how stair break lines will display.

See if this tech article helps: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00521/troubleshooting-slowness-in-chief-architect-plans.html

You can't take your user library from X12 and import it into X11 (at least not easily). You also can't take any plans created in X12 and open them up in X11 (although you can export a plan as 2D cad and import this into X11 and trace over it). Your best bet is to try and resolve your X12 issues. These kinds of problems are almost always hardware or system issues, usually video card related. I would encourage you to review this tech article (if you have not already done so): https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-03049/troubleshooting-chief-architect-software-closing-unexpectedly-on-windows.html I would also recommend that you continue to work with our technical support team to see if you can get this resolved.

Just to clarify... You can only delete a layer that is not being used. When you see the big red "+" symbol, it means the layer is being used somewhere in your plan. If you hoover your mouse over the "+", the program will give you some hints for where to look.

You might want to check out this thread too: https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/topic/26361-filter-through-objects-in-your-plan/

I was told that we were not participating in the virtual event this year. I doubt that we would have passes to give out as a result. You should call our sales team during normal business hours to confirm if you want to be sure.

There is only one wall cabinet default in a plan but you can customize it to be any style you want. You can also save different cabinet styles in the library. As for corner cabinets, if you try to place a default cabinet into a wall corner, it should automatically switch to a corner cabinet. You can also change a cabinet into a corner cabinet from the dialog box.

Sloped soffits work well for something like a false beam sitting against a sloped ceiling. For your situation, I would probably use a polyline solid drawn in an elevation view. You could also take a symbol and rotate it if your post was a more complex shape.

By default, arrowhead lines can attach to other objects at both the head and tail. You can tell whether or not the arrow head or tail is attached by selecting it. If the end handle is filled, then it is attached. If the end handle is open, then it is not attached. If you move or resize an object that has an attached arrow, then the program will also move the arrow to keep it attached. If you want to disable this automatic behavior, you can turn off "Attach Head to Other Objects" and/or "Attach Tail to Other Objects" in the Line Specification dialog. The picture below shows an arrow attached to both a text object and a cabinet. If you move either the cabinet or the text, the arrow will move as well. I can't really tell much from your picture but it is possible that either the head or tail is connected to some other object then the one you thought it was. You may have modified this other object causing the arrow to move.