Dermot

"Do a File>Backup Entire Project to a folder and the folder will show you everything in the Plan..." The backup entire plan feature will show you all of the external file references. These things should not have a significant affect on file size (although they could affect performance). The most likely cause of large files and performance problems is all of the symbol data, things like fixture and furniture objects, especially if any of these objects were imported from outside sources. You can use the Delete Objects tool to figure out what is taking up space and causing the slow downs (although these things may not be the same things). You will likely get better answers if you post the plan.

If rebooting does not help, see if this help article does: 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 tech support team.

Please do not try to use this Q&A forum to submit feature requests. The forum moderators do not look for feature requests on this forum which means it is very unlikely that it will ever get logged into our internal database. If you would like to submit a feature request, you can post it on the Suggestions forum here: https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/forum/8-suggestions/ Some more information about making suggestions can also be found in this post: https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/topic/4095-guidelines-for-posting-on-the-suggestions-forum/

Aerial view was removed. For a more complete list of what is different in X12, you may want to check out this migration guide: https://cloud.chiefarchitect.com/1/pdf/documentation/chief-architect-x12-migration-guide.pdf

If there are people that like the way it works now and people that would like it to work differently, then it sounds like an opportunity to add some more user control. Maybe someone needs to submit a feature request. I remember a similar debate in the past concerning the Convert Polyline tool. In X12, you now have control over what layer is used for the polyline. I think this was a good solution to the problem. We may be able to come up with something similar for placing library cad blocks into plans although we probably don't want to open up a dialog every time you want to place a block.

One of the features that Premier has that HD Pro does not is a tool for evaluating living area calculations. Basically, you select the exterior room of the building you want to evaluate and use the Make Living Area Polyline tool to generate a polyline that shows all areas included in the living area calculations. You could download the Premier trial version and try it out if you are interested. The picture below shows the polyline generated and it has at least two areas that are questionable. The first is the utility room next to the garage which is included in the living area. This is easily correctable by changing the room type or marking the room so that it is not included. The second is the hole created by the double wall in the living room. In theory, that should be included in the living area and the easy way to correct this was to just delete it. You could model this area by using a single thicker wall or by using a soffit for the bumpout. I did not spend much time looking at the other floors but it looks like the second floor does not have well defined rooms yet.

In addition to our mobile viewer app, we have a free desktop viewer that runs on Windows and Mac machines that will display the reference floors/plans the same as Premier. You can request to download it here: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/resources/viewerrequest.php

Please do not try to use any of the Chieftalk forums to report bugs to us. Although we have moderators that monitor the Chieftalk forums who will occasionally answer questions, they do not look for reports of bugs. You should always contact our technical support department if you think that you have found a bug in one of our products. For information about contacting technical support, see this support page: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/ Please do not use this Q&A forum to try and submit feature requests. The forum moderators do not look for feature requests on this forum which means it is very unlikely that it will ever get logged into our internal database. If you would like to submit a feature request, you can post it on the Suggestions forum here: https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/forum/8-suggestions/ Some more information about making suggestions can also be found in this post: https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/topic/4095-guidelines-for-posting-on-the-suggestions-forum/

By default lighting is done per room. See this post for some more info:

Joe, It looks like your reference display layer set is set up to have all layers displayed red. My only guess is that your view is not actually using your reference display layer set. If you post your plan, someone will be able to give you a much better answer.

You probably don't really want to disable the Select Next Object (tab) tool. You probably just need to learn how to use it less. Are you using both and left and right mouse buttons to select objects? A left mouse click will only select objects based on your current mode and a right click will select anything just like being in Select Objects ("arrow") mode. Are you always clicking on the right area of the object you want? Different objects have different hot spots and how close you are to them will affect their priority. If you want to select something that is based on a polyline, it is usually better to click on one of the edges rather than in the center. If you are trying to select an architectural object, it can sometimes be better to click as close as you can to the center. Are you using layer sets to simplify the view you are working in? You can put objects on appropriate layers and switch your views based on what you are working on, For example, if you are working on roofs, then you probably don't want to see your cabinets so they should be turned off and then you can't accidentally select them. If you need to see objects but you don't want to accidentally select them, then just lock the layer they are on. And if all else fails, zoom in closer before trying to select something. I also recommend reviewing this video which covers left vs right click: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/5428/selecting-objects-with-the-mouse.html

You can build that with a single cabinet. Just make opening sections, remove the shelves, and then set the cabinet interior material to whatever you want. The ability to specify a different cabinet interior material is new in X12.

Please submit feature requests for any thing you would like changed.

Have you tried using the Marquee Select Similar tool?

Fortunately, someone else has already reported this particular problem to our tech support. We are currently working on a fix that should be available in the next available update.

In addition to the things already mentioned above: - 3D box primitive - there is a "Closed Box" in the shapes library - the ever versatile soffit - custom counter top - floor material region - landing - and if you feel clever, you could even use a terrain feature but you will have to turn off the building hole to see it in the house. - and if you really like working harder than you need to, you could create one just using 4-6 3D face primitives. - and if you really, really like working hard, you could probably create a brick symbol and stack them up one by one (but if you want realistic mortar, it's going to be even more work). Maybe we should have a contest to see who can come up with the strangest way to create this?

No, the program won't build an auto filler there. If you just click in the gap with the wall cabinet tool, it should place an appropriate manual filler for you.

You should always use the Send Report button the first time you get one of these messages. If you keep getting these messages over and over, sending us the same report probably won't help us any more than the first one does. If we get similar reports from more people though this can tell us that we have a more serious problem that needs to be a higher priority. The report we will get will tell us exactly where in the code the problem occurred. Unfortunately, it doesn't usually tell us how we got there. It's better than nothing, but a lot of the time it's not enough information for us to actually find and solve the problem. The best thing you can do, especially if you have a reproducible case, is to contact our technical support team. They will work with you to gather all of the information that we need so that we can properly diagnose what is causing the problem. Often we need the actual plan or layout files you are using along with the detailed steps needed to reproduce the problem. Sometimes we will need even more information depending on the type of problem. The majority of the time when we get a reproducible problem like this we will try to get a fix into the next available update. Tech support may also be able to give you some solutions to avoid this problem until we can get a fix into the program. Your particular problem sounds like it is happening as a result of drawing the preview for one or more of your custom library objects. This could be the result of a bug in the program or maybe that these objects are somehow corrupt. We will need a copy of these library objects that we can install on our development machines to properly diagnose the problem. Please work with our tech support team to get us these objects so that we can look into this further.

Your questions were not very clear. Edit Active Camera has been replaced by Edit Active View. Edit Active View works in all camera views, plan views, and cad details now.

You can specify the backdrop in the camera specification dialog (the same as you could in X11). You can open this dialog using the Edit Active View tool when in a camera view or by selecting the camera in plan view and using the Open Object tool. You can also specify backdrops in all of your different camera defaults. For a more complete list of what is different in X12, you may want to check out this migration guide: https://cloud.chiefarchitect.com/1/pdf/documentation/chief-architect-x12-migration-guide.pdf

I believe the FTH issue is usually a side effect of your program crashing frequently. One common reason for this would be a bad video card or driver. This help article may help you to resolve those issues: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-03049/troubleshooting-chief-architect-software-closing-unexpectedly-on-windows.html If all else fails, then please contact our technical support team during our normal business hours.

Regarding the undermount power dock, this symbol was originally designed to mount to the underside of a wall cabinet rather than sit on top of a base cabinet. You can create a copy of this in your user library so that you can then customize it to better suit your needs. Use the Open Symbol tool and on the Options panel change it so that it is Floor Mounted and check the Can Sit on Base Cabinet option. You may also want to adjust the Z Position on the 3D panel so that it will sit slightly above the countertop surface and appear better in camera views. When working in the Open Symbol dialog it is usually helpful to turn on the XYZ origin and the bounding box to see how your changes affect things. And if you ever need to mess with stretch planes, you should always turn on those as well.

Regarding the countertops, you may be doing more work than is needed and giving the program conflicting information which is causing the problems. In most cases, you should not need to manually adjust the height of the countertop unless it is being used for a raised or lowered section. There are two different strategies that generally work pretty well. 1. Leave the base cabinet height at 36" and the "countertop" checkbox turned on. Assuming that your countertop is 1.5", the program will adjust the actual box size to 34.5" to account for the countertop thickness. If you need a custom countertop, then just leave it set to use the base cabinet for it's height and thickness. BTW, one easy way to get a custom counterop is to convert the automatic one into a custom one which works pretty well when you group select all of your island cabinets. It will also match the properties of the default counter tops with respect to how the corners are handled. 2. Set the base cabinet height to 34.5 and turn off the "countertop" checkbox. This will require you to always draw custom countertops. Your manual countertops will not have any kind of corner treatment so you will have to add these manually. In general, I prefer option 1 but I know some users prefer this option for other reasons. If you set up the cabinet defaults appropriately for how you would like to work, then you will have less work in the future.

Two or more callouts almost always means that you have multiple schedules in your plan that each have an entry for the same object. Since schedules can live in plan views, elevation views, or cad details, it can sometimes be a little tricky to find them. A tool that can help with this is the Project Browser that will list all of the schedules you have. If you right click on one, you can use the Find in Project tool to locate where the schedule is or even to just delete it. Another tool that you may find helpful is that if you select a particular row in a schedule, you can use the Find Object in Plan tool to locate where those particular objects are in your plan. You should be able to click on the row for the 5 3/4" tall cabinet and quickly locate it in your plan using this tool.

It looks like those files did not download correctly. Might be a problem on your system, for example, not having proper file permissions, a full disk drive, something interfering with the download, etc. See if this article will help: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-02772/troubleshooting-library-download-issues.html If all else fails, then contact technical support on Monday during our normal business hours.