Dermot

This probably depends on how old the plan is that you are opening. The "Ceiling Break Lines" system layer was available in earlier versions but at one time the name was "Walls, Beams" (a very long time ago). All you need to do is open the Layer Display Options dialog and use the "Reset Layer Names" button. You are going to find lots of differences between an older plan brought into X12 and a new plan started in X12. Again, this will probably depend on how old the plan is that you are bringing forward. This will mostly be a result of all of the default settings that are stored in the template plan that is used for new plans. You can use the import tools to transfer the settings you want from your template plan into your legacy plans. You could also use the edit area tool to copy the model from your legacy plan into a new blank plan that already has these settings. Some people prefer using one of these methods over the other for various reasons. More information about migrating legacy plans can be found here: https://cloud.chiefarchitect.com/1/pdf/documentation/chief-architect-x12-migration-guide.pdf

If you are using a different plan for your reference display, and you want it to line up with the current plan, you will need to make sure they are using the same origin. The easiest way to do this is to just use save as to create the different versions of each plan (and then don't move anything). How I would handle this in your case is I would use the Input Point tool to put a point at 0,0 for the origin. I would then use the Edit Area (All Floors) tool and the Point to Point move tool to locate the corner of the plan at the origin. Then do the same thing for the other plan and they should then line up.

Did you turn off "Automatic Rail Openings" in the stair specification dialog? If so, then turn it back on or you can manually place a doorway in your railing.

I recommend taking a look at the X12 migration guide: https://cloud.chiefarchitect.com/1/pdf/documentation/chief-architect-x12-migration-guide.pdf I wouldn't recommend that you try to migrate any of your settings or templates from your old version but you might want to pay particular attention to the sections called "For Files Created in Version X# and Prior". This should help you when you want to bring any old plans forward. You might also want to review the older "What's New in X11", X10, X9, X8, X7, X6, and X5 documentation and/or videos to see what all has been changed since your version. The other approach that might work well is to just treat X12 like it is a brand new program and start from scratch with all of the current training videos. A lot will already be familiar to you but there have been enough changes over the years that starting from the beginning might be the best approach.

Chief will create either an interior or exterior door based on the room types on each side of it. If the door is between an exterior room type and an interior room type, it will be an exterior door. If it is in between two interior room types, it will be an interior door. If the door is between two porches, like it is in your plan, the program considers this an interior door. I really can't say why, but my guess is that it has always been this way and that this is not very common. The good news is that you can still specify all of the settings (such as the casing and materials) just like you can for an exterior door. All you need to do is check the "Separate Trim and Materials on Each Side" option that Michael was hinting at. The other solution is to change the room type of the fully enclosed room to some interior room type.

Have you tried just deleting these unwanted attic walls? Metric plans and imperial plans use different template files. There are a lot of settings that are different in these templates. Many of these settings are purposely set different so that metric plans will make more sense to people who typically design in metric (usually outside of the US). Sometimes the settings are set incorrectly though. Although Home Designer Suite is based on the same engine that Chief Architect Premier is, it is very limited in what settings you can modify. Home Designer Pro is a much more capable program with a lot more control over the building structure. If you need a lot more control over the structural details, you might want to consider upgrading to Pro. If you think you have found a bug in either the program or in the template plan settings, please feel free to report these directly to our technical support team: https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/support/#contact

"So I see that my wall type changes to Interior-4 and turns into invisible. How do I keep the wall type as divider wall?" The program doesn't want you to because as a general rule, this wall won't work. In the real world, you will probably need to have framing and drywall in any situation where the either the floor height or ceiling height changes. In order to to build the 3D model correctly, the program uses a normal interior wall. If you don't want to display this wall in plan view, just turn off the wall's layer and draw your own dashed line wherever you want. If you really want the program to build a very thin wall, instead of a real interior wall, then create a custom wall type with a very thin 1/16" single layer. I believe that as long as your wall has at least some thickness the program will not convert it automatically into an interior wall.

To eliminate the mortar joints from the texture I would recommend using an image editing program, something like photoshop. You should create a copy of the original texture and you will need to have two different materials so that you can use the one with the mortar for the wall and the one without for the sill.

1. Did you check the trash can? If it's not there, was this a user library folder or one of the core library folders? If it was a core, manufacturer, or bonus library, the easiest thing is probably to just download it again. If it was a user library and you don't have a backup, well that's a problem. If you placed any of the objects into a plan, you could always open the plan, select the object, and then add it back to the library. 2. Just right click on the folder and export it to a suitable location. See this help article for more info: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00001/backing-up-chief-architect-content.html#User

"I have also tried creating the notes in Word and coping them into the text editor but then I loose the columns and the bullets just turn into basic numbers." This should work but it probably depends on how you are copying the data in. If you paste the data in as rich text, all (or at least most) of the formatting should remain exactly the same. If you paste it into "simple" text, you will lose all of the formatting. You may get different results if you paste the data directly into a plan versus creating a new rich text and paste the data into it from within the dialog. The only thing in your picture above that looks questionable to me is the table embedded in the notes. One of our more experienced users may want to comment on this because this is not an area I have a lot of experience with. The other thing you might want to do is post the word document and then someone here can try bringing it in. There are a number of other ways to create that table though even if it can't be imported as rich text. You could also import it as a cad block, pdf box, or even as an image. If I was doing this, I would probably just create that table in Chief as a cad block with a mixture of text objects and lines. I would then leave a space in my notes and just drop the cad block where I wanted it.

See if this helps: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00376/creating-a-walk-out-basement.html

"You can create a division line by making a copy of your material. It does not have to be different in any way other than the name" I believe this trick only helps when you have two parallel surfaces that are merged into one. For example, if you have two slabs bumped up tight against each other they will look like one unless you make one slab a different material. In Alan's case, it looks like he has two surfaces inside each other. The program is not currently smart enough to detect this situation and add the extra lines for you. The simplest solution is to make sure your surfaces are not conflicting with each other. Creating a hole in the slab for the columns should work (and might more accurately reflect how it will be built IRL). I just think pulling the columns up is easier.

Is this something that is becoming commonly used in 3D views?

We write out a unique header record as the first part of every plan file. When we go to read in a plan, we check that this header record matches what we think it should be. If it doesn't match, then we give up trying to read in the file because as far as we can tell, all it has is random 1's and 0's. This basically the same thing that prevents you from taking some other random file and changing the extension to ".plan" and trying to read it in. Unfortunately, the bottom line is that the program simply can't read this file. I have no idea how it got corrupted but it was likely caused by some error during the transfer between machines. You may still have an automatic archive file on your laptop even though you deleted the original plan files. See if this help article helps: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00099/accessing-your-archive-files.html

"I was thinking holes in the sidewalk might be the cleanest." That should work but it sounds like a lot of manual work. Why don't you just raise the bottom so that it sits on top of the slab instead of going through it? And just out of curiosity, why do you have arrows on your roofs?

Does your floor or ceiling structure have a framing layer? If you are trying to build framing, then you should have a framing layer in your structure. If you do, then I would recommend that you either post your plan or if all else fails contact tech support for more assistance.

Automatic floors and ceilings are built based on rooms. Rooms can be created by any wall type including exterior walls, interior walls, railings, or even invisible walls. I would recommend you use the wall types that best represent the real world situation. For example, use either exterior or interior walls based on the actual floor plan and then use room dividers or invisible walls if you want to close off the space to create a room.

Older versions of the program can't read any files written by any newer versions. X12 can read any files written from Version 10 and newer. The older the version, the more likely you will have to do some manual work correcting issues. Please feel to send tech support a report if you ever find a problem with an older file brought into the newest version. You can continue to run X11 and X12 if you like. If you open an X11 plan in X12 and save it, you will not be able to open it up in X11 again. The program will automatically create a backup of your X11 plan for you but many people like to use their own file management system. There is a lot of very helpful information about migrating here: https://cloud.chiefarchitect.com/1/pdf/documentation/chief-architect-x12-migration-guide.pdf

Layout files will only reference plan files through the layout boxes. So you will need to either delete the layout boxes that reference the plan file or relink them to a different plan file.

Roads are basically using a polyline to represent the path of the centerline and then have a constant width along this path. The centerlines of roads should snap together just like normal polylines and I have no idea why this is not working for you. You can always convert a road to a free form shape using the "Convert to Polyline Object" tool (not the "Convert to Plain Polyline" tool). Once it is a free form shape type road, I don't think you can convert it back to a centerline path type road. For more help, you might want to post a plan or if all else fails, contact technical support.

Search for Fix Wall Connections in the help system.

Just to be clear, callouts and schedule callouts are not the same thing and don't use the same defaults. Changing your callout defaults affects the callouts that you manually place using the callout tool. You can find your callout defaults in the Default Settings dialog. Or you can just double click on the callout tool to bring up the currently active callout defaults. In order to change the callouts used when you create a schedule, you need to change the settings on the Labels panel of the Schedule Specification dialog. If you already have a schedule in your plan, you need to change the settings there. You can also change the settings in your schedule defaults but this will only affect any new schedules created. If you already have a schedule in your plan, you can also use the Set As Default tool to quickly make your schedule default match.

The help system that is installed with the program will be one of your best tools. It basically has all of the same information that is contained in the reference manual. Any time you are in a dialog and have questions about a control, note that you have help button. Any time you have a question about a tool, you can also just hit F1 and hopefully it will bring up the info you need. It also has it's own search tools but it may not always be easy to know what to search for. Unfortunately, the help system is only going to explain how tools work but it doesn't really explain how to use them. The training videos do a much better job of that but with limited internet access that may be more challenging. This forum is probably your best alternative. Every time you post, someone will probably ask you to post a plan or picture so that they can better understand the problem. Since that may also be a problem with limited internet, you might want to add something to your signature letting people know you have limited internet access. I also recommend that you always make posts that are as simple and clear as possible. I think your first post on this thread is a good example of this. Your last post has a lot of words with no breaks which will tend to get a TLDR (too long didn't read) response from people. Even just a couple of paragraph breaks can make a world of difference.

Whenever you build a new floor, including the foundation, the program will automatically switch to the new floor. If you look at your toolbar, it shows that you are now on floor 0 (the foundation floor).

There are about 25 videos about moldings available. I would start there: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/search/?default_tab=video&q=molding&page=1