Dermot

"I have even opened a project that I did in X11 in X12 and have not changed anything and still get very poor lighting when ray tracing." If you have an X11 plan that does not look the same in X12, then please report this to our technical support team. Please send us the X11 plan, and not one saved in X12, so that we can compare them ourselves. Please include a saved camera in your plan so that we can be sure that we are both looking at the same thing. As far as I know the only thing that has changed is the ability to use lighting sets when raytracing. If you have a saved camera view in X11, it should look the same when opened in X12.

All you need to do is expand the Categories to Include by clicking on the ">" in front of the main category. Actually, all schedules have been modified for X12 so that you can mix and match objects to create your own custom schedules now. See this similar post made a while back: For a more complete list of what's new in X12, check out this pdf: https://d2haqc5836ials.cloudfront.net/live/attachments/2020%20-%20What's%20New%20in%20X12.pdf

Currently, as far as camera views are concerned, stairs are all or nothing. Basically, the stringers are treated as part of the stair and not as framing. If you would like this to work differently, then you need to submit a feature request. In your feature request, you need to be very clear about which components of the stairs, ramps, and landings you want to be handled separately, what new system layers you would like added, how you would like these layers to be treated in plan view, etc.

You can create a cad block with a text object ("2%") and an arrow. Save it in the library Create a distributed path. Choose the cad block. Adjust the spacing as needed.

Make a cad block and then use it in a distributed path?

You probably want to use the Kitchen and Bath Template. The other question is, do you want to always start new plans with the K&B template? Or is this a one off case? If you want to create a new plan using a different template than normal, then just use the New Plan From Template tool as Robert has suggested. If you want all of your new plans to use a different template, then go into Preferences>General>New Plans and setup your template defaults.

This means that the program can't find any plan template files. It is not recommend that you start a new plan without a template. See if this info helps: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00001/migrating-chief-architect-to-a-new-computer.html If all else fails, then you probably need to contact our technical support team.

My best guess is that your active dimension default does not match the default that is set for the manual dimension line that was drawn. Select the manual dimension line. Open it for specification. What dimension default is it using? Now open the Default Settings dialog. Go to dimensions. What is your currently active dimension default? If they are not the same, than that is why they look different.

For more info about shelf ceilings see this video: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/64/using-the-shelf-ceiling-room-structure-setting.html

Another thing you might find helpful is our web page for getting started resources: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/getting-started/

You can't resize individual row heights. You can control the overall row height by making the 2D column smaller. You can also turn off the image scaling if you want a more uniform size. Take a look at the attached picture for an example.

We don't. If you haven't done so yet, you might want to call our sales team and speak with one of our sales people. I think you will find it to be a very different experience.

There is no easy way to prevent walls from snapping together. Just some interesting workarounds. If all you want to do is have your railing post offset from the main wall, there are controls to do this in X12. You can also switch between having a full post, half post, or none.

Post a plan. What you are describing doesn't seem right. 1. In general, you should be able to select the "Specify Label" radio button and then type in whatever you want to appear as the label. This should be simple and fast. You can also use built in macros or custom macros for added functionality but that is a much more advanced topic. 2. You probably don't need to suppress any labels unless you have a particular object that you don't want to ever display a label. It is much better to control the labels through your layers. For example, click on your cabinet and then use the Object Layer Properties tool, you will see all of the layers associated with the cabinet. If you turn off the "Cabinet, Labels" layer, this will turn off all cabinet labels in the current layer set. You can use different layer sets for different views so that you can have some views with labels and other views without. If you suppress a label, it will be off in all views.

Yes, but you need to learn more about layer sets and reference display. I would start with these: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00765/understanding-layer-sets.html https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00475/using-the-reference-display.html https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/5435/using-the-reference-display.html?playlist=100

Apparently, the program switches the attic wall into an invisible wall to prevent it from getting rebuilt automatically. I was not aware it did this but it makes more sense now that I think about it. Attic walls will regenerate when there is no wall already there. If the program allowed you to just delete it, it would keep magically coming back.

You can copy any folder in the core or manufacturer libraries that you want by right-clicking on it in the library browser. You can then paste it into your user library as a full copy of the original items or as shortcuts to the original items. You can also add your own search attributes to any library object in any folder.

There are no defaults for saved plan views. If you use the New Saved Plan View tool in the project browser, I believe the program will just use whatever active defaults you currently have. Opening the specification dialog from the project browser will give you the ability to review and change all of the settings. You can also make copies of existing saved plan views in several ways. - using the Save Active View As tool. - using the Duplicate tool when right-clicking on a saved plan view in the project browser - switch the current saved plan view to None and then use the Save Active View tool If you don't have any saved plan views in a plan, you can also just save the active plan view. You can also import saved plan views from other plans using File->Import. You can also make new saved plan views from layout boxes using the Create Saved Plan View edit tool that appears when you select an unlinked layout box.

As Eric has suggested, you should see if you can find a backup of the plan that does not have the problem. Another thing you might want to do is to try and figure out if something in your plan is causing the problem. You can do this by removing things from the plan to see if you can narrow down what is causing it. Since you were removing walls I would start with trying to make sure your walls and rooms are all OK. You could also try posting the plan on this forum and someone here might be willing to look into it to see if they can figure out what the problem is. For more information about these kinds of problems, you might also want to checkout this help article: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00802/troubleshooting-exception-and-assertion-error-messages.html If all else fails, you may just have to contact technical support during normal business hours.

The only reason is that we haven't added in the necessary code to put hardware objects into schedules. In theory, with some of the schedule improvements that we have made in X12, this should be easier to do in the future. If this is something that you want the program to do, then you should submit a feature request. In your request, you need to clarify which type of hardware objects you would like in the schedule (free standing hardware versus hardware attached to things like doors and cabinets). You should also ask for any specific information you want included in the schedules. In addition, you should absolutely include a sample plan or picture showing us what you want and how you want it displayed. The number one problem with 99.9% of the feature requests we get is that people do not give us enough information about what they want. The other big problem is that they never actually send us a request and somehow think that if they mention something in passing in a random forum thread that we will automatically log a feature request for them.

"I used the polyline method to create a hole in the roof and drop the skylight into the hole." I'm still not really sure what you are doing but if it's working for you, then all is probably fine. Just to clarify, the only difference between a skylight and hole in a roof is whether or not the "skylight" checkbox is checked. You can either place a 2'x2' skylight by single clicking or draw any size skylight you like by clicking and dragging. This is not always obvious to new users. The only reason I can think of that you might need two separate objects, a hole and a skylight, is for the situation where you have a skylight on a roof plane and a ceiling hole in a custom ceiling that is below the roof plane.

"if you don't mind, what parameters qualify an 'appropriate' hole below it. I would imagine size needs to be at least as big as the skylight.. but is there an upper limit to the size of the hole?... and is there a limit to the distance, both vertical and horizontal from the skylight?" If you play around with the tools, you might be able to figure out what will work and not work pretty quickly. If you find a real-world case that you think should work and doesn't, then please be sure to submit a feature request or bug report to our technical support team.

Just to clarify, it all depends on how the symbol was created. If the symbol is a fixture or furniture item, it can be placed into a schedule. If the symbol is a hardware or millwork item, it can't. You can tell what type of symbol it is by placing it into a plan, selecting it, and looking at the status bar. You can convert a symbol into another type by selecting it and using the Convert Selected Into a Symbol edit tool. Just make sure to choose the Symbol Category that you want it to be.

As far as I know, the program will never change a wall into an invisible wall automatically. My guess is that you accidentally clicked on the Make Walls Invisible edit button.

Just to clarify, the "automatic" setting for the reference floor will normally display the floor below. If there is no floor below, it will then display the floor above. This means that it might actually change on you if you add/remove a foundation or link the layout to another plan that has different floors available. X11 works the same as X12 in this regard but they are both different than X10 and earlier since we added some significant improvements to the reference display in X11. For this reason, I would recommend that you specify the actual floor you want to reference, especially if you are trying to show the reference floor as part of your construction documents.