Dermot

Basically, it means that Windows put Chief in time-out because you were crashing too much. Step 1 is to resolve what was causing the crashing. If this was the result of a program bug, please be sure to report this to our technical support team. Step 2 is to get out of time-out so Chief will perform normally. See if this information helps: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-03114/message-windows-fault-tolerant-heap-fth-has-been-enabled-for-this-application.html If all else fails, please contact our technical support team during our normal business hours.

This does not sound like it is related to the original poster's problem. It sounds more like a video card or driver issue. See if this tech article helps: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00106/troubleshooting-3d-camera-view-display-problems-in-chief-architect.html If all else fails, then contact our technical support department during our normal business hours.

I agree that "Active Defaults" can be somewhat confusing. What it really means is that "None of your saved Default Sets match your currently selected defaults below". Technically, this is not a problem because Default Sets are completely optional and should be thought of as just a quick way of changing all of your selected defaults at once instead of one at a time.

Have you tried using the built in watermark? https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/2432/adding-watermarks.html

Saved Plan Views keep track of the layer set and a whole lot more. Just open up the Saved Plan View Specification dialog and take a look at what they keep track of. I would start with these training videos: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/2421/saved-plan-views.html

Here are some thoughts and suggestions: - it is better to post pictures directly to the forum rather than a pdf that contains a picture. pdfs have to be downloaded and then opened to see them. - you should update your signature since you are using X10, not X7. - Eric's pictures are using the vector view rendering technique. The picture in the pdf looks like it is using standard render technique. Vector views display materials with patterns. Render views display materials with textures. If you are using vector views and your partner is using render views then you are comparing apples to oranges. - My best guess is that your partner accidentally turned off the display of textures. Look under the camera view options for this tool. There are other possibilities but this is the first thing to try.

See if this video series helps: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/11/dimension-defaults.html?playlist=82

I think Mick is correct in that this sounds like a video card problem. See if this tech article helps: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00106/troubleshooting-3d-camera-view-display-problems-in-chief-architect.html If that doesn't work, then you might want to contact tech support during our normal business hours. https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/

You can find more information in this article: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00010/speeding-up-a-ray-trace.html I would also recommend these videos: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/playlists/103/ray-trace.html

Select the terrain perimeter and use the Make Terrain Hole Around Building tool to convert the automatic hole into a manual one. Then modify the shape of the hole as needed.

The best solution is to create these symbols as actual furniture objects instead of fixture objects. Unfortunately, just changing the layer they are on does not change the type of object you have so doing this can involve a bit of work. In X12, you can easily put fixtures into a furniture schedule (or vice versa). In X11, you could always just create a fixture schedule and change the schedule title to "furniture". If you already have a fixture schedule, you may need to make sure your furniture objects are marked as some fixture type that you can exclude from the real fixture schedule. For questions about upgrading your student license, you should call our sales team during our normal business hours and they will be able to discuss all of your options.

Just to clarify, the %elevationf% macro will display the elevation formatted using the "Displayed Line Length Format" found in your current CAD Defaults. The %elevation% macro will display the elevation without any formatting. Adding the ".to_ft" will convert the inches into feet and adding the ".round(2)" will display it rounded to the nearest 2 decimal places.

Did you see this help info? Notice that this dialog also shows the model's Surface Count and the Texture Size. It's recommended to keep the number of exported surfaces below 500,000 and exported texture memory below 50MB. For information on how to control these numbers, please review article KB-03044: Optimizing a Chief Architect Plan for Export to the 3D Viewer. The full article is here: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-03068/viewing-managing-and-sharing-3d-viewer-models.html If all else fails, then contact tech support.

Try this: - temporarily disconnect the deck - generate the automatic dimensions - group select all of the dimensions (should be easy to do when you are in dimension mode) - open the specification dialog and then click ok to close it - click yes when asked if you want to turn off the auto regeneration of the dimensions - reconnect the deck The automatic exterior dimensions don't want to generate when you have full wrap around deck. Disconnecting the deck will allow you to generate them and then converting them into manual ones will allow you to keep them. This is the kind of thing that I would encourage you to report to tech support when you run into them.

Please note that although the default toolbars may have changed, the majority of the features from X10 are still in X12. You should probably review the What's new in X12 video as a starting point: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/94/features-introduced-in-x12-overview.html You might also want to review these migration guides: https://cloud.chiefarchitect.com/1/pdf/documentation/chief-architect-x12-migration-guide.pdf https://cloud.chiefarchitect.com/1/pdf/documentation/chief-architect-x11-migration-guide.pdf

I don't believe Chief allows you to change this and we should display the text according to your system settings. So it is unlikely that a program reinstall is necessary but a reboot may solve the problem if your computer is in a bad state. I would first check your system Display Settings and then try a reboot. If that still doesn't solve your problem, then you might want to try the reinstall since that apparently solved the other person's problem. If all else fails, you can also contact our technical support department during normal business hours.

The program should let you build an auto stairwell for a stairway that ends with a landing but for some reason it will not. This seems like the type of thing someone might consider a bug so if it is something important to you then maybe you should report it to our tech support team. Regardless, the auto stairwell tool is really more of a shortcut tool and most of the time it will not actually build the stairwell opening that you want. In these cases, you can use the auto stairwell as a starting point and then manually adjust the walls and rails to better suit your model. You can also build your own stairwell at any time by using a combination of interior walls, railings, and/or invisible walls to create a proper room and then mark that room as either a stairwell or open below. It usually works best to turn on your reference display so that you can see where the stair and walls are on the floor below. The other thing that is helpful with stairs is to always draw them accurately. Although the program tries to let you be as sloppy as you like, they can be very finicky about certain things. For example, in your plan posted above, you have drawn the stair and landing partially inside the wall. Stairs and landings should be next to the wall without overlapping it and when they are not, things like overhangs, wall trim, and handrails may not generate correctly. In cases where you are drawing walls below the stair to enclose a space like a closet, then you should make sure the walls are completely underneath the stair. Walls that are half over or half under stairs will just confuse the program and may give you unpredictable results. In your plan, I would first make sure your stair and landing are located accurately on the floor below before I would worry about the stairwell upstairs. Another thing that I find helpful is to use the vector rendering technique when viewing the model. It makes it much more obvious when you have modeling issues because this technique will show all of the edge lines. In the picture below, it is much easier to see things like the railing against the wall at the top of the stair (probably created by the auto stairwell tool when you did not have the landing), the baluster railing along the stair against the wall (because the stair is not against the wall), the missing landing edges against the wall (because it is not against the wall), etc.

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

I recommend that you leave "Connect Island Rooms" turned on (and yes, this is available in Chief Interiors). The program puts them in because having unconnected island rooms can cause a multitude of problems with room definitions which can affect things like living area calculations, floors and ceilings, room moldings, etc. If you don't like where the program puts them, then just move them or draw your own and then you will be able to delete the ones the program automatically put in. If you don't want to see them, then just turn the layer off. If you want to see your room divider walls, but not the automatic ones, then just put them on a custom layer and turn that layer off. Please remember that just because they are hidden they may still affect things like bumping, snapping, dimensions, etc. For this reason, I would keep them turned on in your working drawings but turn them off in your construction documents.

Please go ahead and post a picture of the About Chief Architect dialog so that we can confirm that you are using the correct update.

Every layer is always available in all layer sets. All layers will always have the same name in all layer sets but they may not have any of the other settings the same. The only way I know of to see which layer sets a layer is turned on in is to select the layer and scroll through all of the layer sets. The layer display options will tell you how a layer is being used and why you can't delete it. If the layer is showing an "S" image then this means that it is a system layer and it can't be deleted. If the layer is showing a wrench image, then this means that one of the program defaults is using this layer and it can't be deleted. If the layer is showing a "+" image, then this means that something in your plan is using the layer and it can't be deleted. Something in your plan could mean it is in a plan view, a cross section or elevation view, a cad detail, or maybe inside of a cad block somewhere. If you hold your mouse over the "+" in the layer display options dialog, a pop-up will tell you if the layer is also used in defaults or is a system layer.

There appears to be a problem with your product installation and registration. Please contact our technical support department during our normal business hours for additional help in this matter.

I would use corner boards. They are with the other trim tools.

A layout page table is actually a schedule. This problem will be fixed in the next available update.

For the original poster: Please contact our technical support department during our normal business hours for further assistance. For Alan: Does your library have any cad blocks with schedules in them? If so, then you are probably experiencing the same problem discussed here: https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/topic/26268-serious-error-occurred-send-report/ (Which is very unlikely to be the cause of problems in any HD products since they do not have schedules or cad blocks.) If not, then you should continue to work with tech support so that we can determine what the problem is.