Dermot

If you turn off the electrical layer in one view and it also turns off the electrical in another view that can only happen for a couple of reasons. Either you accidentally had "Modify All Layer Sets" checked which means you turned the layer off in all your layer sets or that your views are using the same layer set (the more likely case). There may be other more obscure cases but I really can't think of any at the moment. Either way, I recommend that you review this help information about layer sets: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00765/understanding-layer-sets.html If you would like some better guesses, then I would recommend that you post a plan and layout. Or, if all else fails, you may want to contact our tech support for more help.

"...struggling to break the stairs in X10, am I missing something obvious?" My apologies, I did not notice that you are still using X10. X10 does not have the ability to create two independent stair sections that can still connect together to form a staircase. In your situation, I would probably just turn off the whole rail on that side and then manually create your railing.

Unfortunately, the program is not designed to cut off stair railings when they run into a ceiling. If this is something you would like the program to do, then you might want to make a formal suggestion here: https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/forum/8-suggestions/ Regarding Mark's comments about using the complete break tool on stairs, this tool actually does create a complete break so that you will have two independent stair sections that can have completely different attributes. If the end of one stair section is reasonably close to the start of the other one, then the program will still treat the stair sections as if they are part of the same staircase and enable a lot of automatic behaviors. If you would like to modify some of the settings of one stair section and not modify any other ones that may be connected in a staircase, there are a couple of easy ways to do this. First, you can just drag the end of one stair away to temporarily disconnect it from the staircase, make your changes, and then reconnect them. The other way is less obvious but I think is even easier. Just hold the shift-key down when you select the stair section you want to modify. This puts you into group select mode and when you open the stair dialog you will only modify the selected sections rather than all of the other ones that might be connected in a staircase.

If you want different views to display different things, then you probably need to use different layer sets. See if this help article helps: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00765/understanding-layer-sets.html

Angle Snaps can be toggled on or off through the menu, your preferences, or as Stephen has pointed out, through a toolbar button. You could also setup a hotkey for this but I don't believe we have one setup by default. The most likely case is that you accidentally hit the toolbar button.

It is not recommended to turn off all of the behavior indicators in your preferences. This will only hide problems. If you accidentally turn off something like angle snaps and then draw out a plan, you will have lots of problems because nothing will be on even angles. There are lots of other indicators that you may miss as well.

The next version, currently called X13, is scheduled to be released during the first half of 2021 (very similar to what we have done for the past several versions). All of your libraries, toolbars, hotkeys, template plans, etc. should migrate forward pretty much automatically as long as you install X13 on the same machine as X12. You can also migrate them manually if you install on another machine and we have a tech article to help you with this process if needed. You might also be interested to know that there is a sale going on right now that includes 20% off on upgrades. You should be able to upgrade from X11 to X12 for $556 instead of the $695 regular price. If you upgrade now, you should also get a full year of SSA which will allow you to get X13 when it is released next year. I have no idea how long the sale is going to last but you may not want to wait until December. For more information about upgrades, you might want to check out this page: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/products/upgrade.html For more information about what is included with SSA, see this page: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/products/ssa/ For the full list of what's new in X12, see this pdf: https://cloud.chiefarchitect.com/1/pdf/marketing/x12-new-features.pdf If you have more specific questions, I would encourage you to call or email our sales team during our normal business hours.

When you draw a polyline solid in an elevation view, the floor number is either controlled by where you draw it or by the floor the camera is on. When you draw the polyline solid against a wall, the polyline solid goes onto the same floor the wall is on. If you are drawing it on a gable or attic wall, then it might be on the floor above the one you wanted. When you draw a free floating polyline solid, it goes on the floor the camera is on. This is usually the floor you drew the camera on but you will notice that you can move the camera up or down floors even in elevation views. If the polyline solid does not appear on the floor plan view you want, you can always move it up or down using the cut and paste tools like Robert suggested. Just dragging it up or down will not change the floor number.

I disagree with Michael on this (and apparently so do some other people although I am not one of the people that down-voted him). I actually think it is easier to learn and use saved plan views than it is to learn and use default sets. It doesn't have to be that complicated and you don't need to spend a lot of time setting them up. Just think of them as working the same as saved camera views. If you have a view you want to work in or send to layout, just save it and then you can reopen it anytime you want. You can pretty much ignore default sets until a later date when and if you want learn to be even more efficient.

One of our goals is to make the program as flexible as possible because different people like to work in different ways. I believe working with saved plan views is the most efficient way to work with Chief. They are really no more complicated than working with saved camera views. They are entirely optional though and if you don't find them helpful, then don't use them. Personally, I wish that we would have introduced saved plan views years ago, before we introduced annotation sets, because then we wouldn't have any of this confusion about them. BTW, I was not the person that moved this thread from the suggestions forum to the Q&A. Since I am not a moderator, I can't move threads.

You will note that the layout box in the picture I posted is not using a saved plan view. This is why it says "None" for the Linked Saved Plan View. If you are using a saved plan view, you will either need to change the setting in the saved plan view or unlink your layout box from it.,

The plan was either created before the saved plan views existed or the person who created the plan did not use them. Saved plan views are completely optional. You can either create new saved plan views as needed or you can import them from a plan that has ones you like. If the user also sent you a layout file, you can easily create saved plan views to represent each of the plans sent to the layout. Just select the layout box(es) and use the Create Saved Plan View edit tool. You could also work on the plan without using any saved plan views. If the plan has proper layer sets, you could easily switch the layer set as needed to change the display. If you are using the Active Layer Display Options (aka ALDO), the combo box for changing layer sets is usually available by default.

In a nutshell: Saved Plan Views just keep track of everything you need for a particular plan view that you might want to use for either a particular task (such as working on your electrical or roofs) or as a view that you would like to make part of your construction docs (such as a view you might want to send to your layout). They are similar to saved camera views. By saving plan views, you can more quickly change between tasks or views without having to change a lot of different settings. Default Sets (formerly know as annotation sets) are just a convenient way of quickly changing all of your active defaults that are related to your annotations (such as dimensions and notes). Since all saved views basically remember all of their active defaults now, Default Sets are not nearly as important as they used to be. In my opinion, it is much easier and more powerful to use a saved view then it is to just switch your active defaults. Layer Sets are just a convenient way to quickly change what is currently being displayed and control how it looks (such as line styles and text styles). Have you watched all of these videos yet? https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/2421/saved-plan-views.html https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/2433/developing-saved-plan-views.html?playlist=84 https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/10199/productivity-tips-saved-plan-views.html https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/playlists/100/saved-plan-views-layers-annotations.html If you have, then what parts are you still finding confusing? Please be specific so that we know what we should work on.

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"You have to re-send it to the layout page." No you don't. Depending on how you sent the view to layout and whether or not you are using saved plan views, you can toggle the reference display in either the layout box specification dialog or in the saved plan view specification dialog.

"Occasionally, when the elevation view is closed then re-opened, that schedule will re-organize itself. This has happened on more than one file." As far as I can tell, schedule row ordering is very stable. I have tried everything I could possibly think of to get this to happen and the only way I could do it was by manually doing a cut/paste on the schedule. Schedules won't maintain the row ordering if you take them completely out of the plan and then put them back in. Other than that, they always stayed exactly how I set them. I tried a note schedule and even a window schedule and found no strange behavior (even when doing things like reflecting a wall or using edit area on the wall). If you are ever able to reproduce this problem in any kind of repeatable way, then please report this to our technical support team.

That certainly doesn't look right. You should still be able to get what you want by adjusting the column widths and/or the overall box width (there is a difference). If all else fails, post the plan or contact tech support.

You can put schedules where ever you like, plans, details, or elevations. For complex plans, putting your schedules into cad details can improve performance and limit plan clutter which is why we recommend it as a best practice. As for sorting your schedules, as pointed out by Robert, by default schedules are basically sorted alphabetically based on the information in the schedule rows. Changing the order of your schedule columns can give you what you want. The other thing to note is that you can also just rearrange the schedule rows manually by selecting the schedule and then dragging the row handle up or down.

Of course there is a possibility. We have every intention of implementing all of the feature requests that we have received. Given that we currently have about 9,000 feature requests in our database, and we are only able to implement about 100 of them each release, I would say the possibility of any particular one getting in the next version at somewhere around 1 in 900. Those odds actually get much worse if it's a feature request that we don't know anything about since we don't look for feature requests hidden in the Q&A forum. The best way to make sure the features that you think are important are brought to our attention is to post them on the suggestions forum here: https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/forum/8-suggestions/

Did you change it in your defaults or did you just change it in the camera view you were in?

You should always contact technical support yourself when you think you have found a problem in the program. A link to a Chieftalk post is almost never going to be enough because 99% of the time the post does not have all of the information we need to properly identify the problem. Most of the time we will need a plan that demonstrates the problem, clear steps to reproduce the problem, and often system information. Without this information, it's like looking for a very small needle in a very large haystack. For information about contacting technical support, please see this web page: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/

When you installed the X12 trial version it changed your system settings to associate .plan and .layout files with the new version. This is pretty standard behavior when you install a new version of the software. If you would like to change the file associations back to your version of HD Pro, see if this help article helps: 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 On a side note, you might want to contact our sales department to discuss your options. We usually have upgrade discounts and a we also have a rental program that might make it easier for you to make your decision.

You probably have two schedules. For more info see this help article: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-02968/removing-duplicate-callout-labels.html

Try placing the cad block for the custom muntins from the library onto a window in an elevation view. You will probably need to resize the cad block to fit the glass area of the window. Then when you select the window, the Load Muntin tool should be available.

My guess is that you created the fireplace using walls and created a new room. Wall elevations only show objects in the current room where the camera is drawn. If this is not the problem, then you should do as Mick suggested and post the plan. If all else fails, then you might want to contact tech support for more help.