Dermot

"Why can't I type the dimension of the length of a lines WHILE I'm drawing a polyline shape?" You can. Just hit the tab key after you start drawing the line and type in the dimension. Or, try using the "Input Line" tool or the "Input Arc" tool to specify a line or arc. Or, just draw a line and then open up the specification dialog and type in the info you want. Or, draw the general shape you want and then use the temp or manual dimensions to make it accurate. Or, if you want to move an object, use the Transform/Replicate dialog. There are lots and lots of different ways to do things in Chief. "I am using the wrong program if I'm expecting this accuracy?" Chief is very capable of quickly creating extremely accurate details and models. Modelling some things is going to be much easier than others though. If I wanted to create an accurate model of a house, I would choose Chief over any other program available but if I needed to create an accurate model of a toilet, I would probably choose something else.

From your description it sounds like you are sending views to layout that are linked to a Saved Plan View. If you change anything associated with the Saved Plan View, such as the layer set or current floor, then this will affect your layout view. Here are some ways to solve your problems: - You can stop using saved plan views by switching your Saved Plan View Control that appears in the default toolbar to "None". You can also do this in your default template so that new plans won't start in a saved plan view. - You can unlink a layout box from a saved plan view by opening the Layout Box Specification dialog and setting the Linked Saved Plan View combo box to "None". In X11, there is also a new edit toolbar button that will allow you to link or unlink a layout box from a saved plan view. - You can learn how to use Saved Plan Views. If you use a different saved plan view for each layout view, you won't have to worry about accidentally changing them. More information about Saved Plan Views can be found in the reference manual or in this video: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/2421/saved-plan-views.html?playlist=100

Unless I have misunderstood, Brian and Richard are talking about copying a "Cad Detail". Michael and others are talking about copying a "Layout Box". These are not doing the same thing.

The Active Layer Display Options dialog is designed to give you quick access to your layer information while you are drawing. As a result, we only put tools on it that would be the most common and used the most often. The ability to reset your system layer names doesn't really fit into this category since it would typically be used only once when bringing a legacy plan forward. The good news is that the Reset Names tool, along with some other less commonly used tools, will appear in the normal Layer Display Options dialog. There are lots of ways to get to this dialog, and not just through the Defaults Sets dialog. You can even setup a hotkey or customize your toolbars (if it's not already there) to open it more easily.

Yes. For a more complete list of what's new in X12, you should look here: https://cloud.chiefarchitect.com/1/pdf/marketing/x12-new-features.pdf And in the future, if you have ideas for things that you think could improve the program you should always post a suggestion here: https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/forum/8-suggestions/

This probably has nothing to do with your questions but you do not have the latest update for your version of the program. You should download and install the latest version (20.3.0.54). There are a lot of bug fixes and other improvements that you are missing. Just check out the update notes: https://cloud.chiefarchitect.com/1/pdf/documentation/chief-architect-x10-update-notes.pdf

Assuming that you are using Chief Architect Premier X11 or X12, you could use the reference display tools. Check out this video: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/5435/using-the-reference-display.html?playlist=100

Try this:

This is just an FYI for those that care... The unused symbol data that is stored in the plan is only cleared out when you open a plan. This means that if you are playing around placing things like fixtures, furniture, or electrical objects, and then delete them, they will probably still be in your plan file when you save it. Once you close the plan and then open it again, the unused data is removed but you won't see your plan file shrink until you save it again. If you are using imported symbols with lots of surfaces, this can cause a bit of file bloat. The file size doesn't really matter all that much until you want to send your plan to someone else or post it somewhere but it might also affect your undo performance. If you are in a habit of placing and removing lots of symbols in your plans, you may want to close and reopen it every so often to see if you notice any differences.

BTW, the drag/copy method has been around as long as I have. It has the added advantage of allowing you to keep the copy aligned with the original object by default.

All you need to do is expand the framing categories by clicking on the ">" in front of the main framing category:

The Copy and Paste in Place tool has been changed for X12. The Copy and Paste in Place tool that appeared on your main Edit toolbar in X11 has been removed and replaced by the Paste Hold Position tool that will now appear on the copy sub-mode toolbar. Simply hit the Copy/Paste tool and then hit the Paste Hold Position tool to get the same behavior in X12. The new method changes this to a two step process but makes it harder for people to accidentally make duplicate objects right on top of each other. There are a number of other ways to make a duplicate of an object: 1. You can use hotkeys to copy (Ctrl+C) and then paste hold position (Ctrl+Alt+V). 2. You can find the Copy and Paste In Place tool in the main Edit menu. 3. You can customize your toolbars and/or hotkeys to use the Copy and Paste in Place tool. 4. You can use the drag/copy method. Select an object, hit the Copy/Paste tool, drag the new copy out using the center handle on the object. 5. You can use the Transform/Replicate Object dialog to make one or more copies that are in the same location as the original object. In my opinion, the drag/copy method is the best choice to use when you want to make a copy of an object and don't actually want it in the same location. Creating duplicate architectural objects in the same location is a good way to confuse the program and cause problems. Especially with architectural objects like cabinets, windows, doors, electrical object, and walls. The picture below shows copy sub-mode toolbar and the drag/copy handle which will both appear when you use the Copy/Paste tool:

You should post your questions is separate threads.

You are using a vector view for your rendering technique. Vector views will only show solid material colors with line patterns on top of them. If you want to see a more photo-realistic view, you should use either the standard or physically based (PBR) rendering technique which will show textures on your materials. Here is a video on rendering techniques: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/6150/rendering-techniques.html?playlist=102

See if some of these training videos will help: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/36/applying-materials-colors-and-textures.html https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/1541/cabinet-materials-changing-and-adjusting.html?playlist=102 Or these help articles: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/category/8/materials.html

My recommendation is to use separate Cad Details, one for each static view that you want to send to layout. Using one Cad Detail with everything in it and then cropping your layout view to show just a small part of the whole thing is probably the least efficient way to work and may really slow down your layout. If you need live views, you should be working in either plans and elevations and use layer sets to control what displays in the layout.

Make sure your windows are sized and positioned properly before mulling them and then set your interior and exterior mullion depth to 0.

Your walls are confusing the program which is causing the automatic molding to generate incorrectly. In situations like this you can always use the "Make Room Molding Polyline" tool to convert the crown molding into a manual one, edit the shape so that it is inside of the room, and then turn on the crown molding for the edge where it is missing. The good news is that the automatic molding looks fine in X12.

If you want to see what the program is actually using for your living area, select the outside of the building and use the Make Living Area Polyline tool. You could then edit the shape of this polyline to include or exclude whatever you want and then display your own custom label.

What layer controls whether or not the labels display? (answer: Cabinet, Labels) What text style is associated with the layer? (answer: probably Default Label Style if you are using the OOB template) Try changing the size in the text style or switch the layer to use a different text style.

Michael's post might be more complicated than you need. Try just turning on the "Details" option in the reference display. More information about the reference display settings can be found in my post here:

You might try turning off the XOR option. If you draw the same line twice with XOR turned on, it is hidden. For some more info about reference display settings see my post here:

Duplicate doors and windows are bad. I know, captain obvious here, but they can cause a lot more problems than just slow downs. There are a number of ways that you could have done this accidentally. It's pretty unlikely that you clicked on the Copy Paste in Place tool over a thousand times (or used the hotkeys to do the same thing). It's also very easy to create this many copies using the Transform Replicate dialog but I am guessing that this was unlikely as well. There may be a number of other ways that I am probably not thinking of at the moment. But all of this leads to me to the unfortunate suspicion that the program somehow did this. If you can somehow catch the program doing this again, then please report this to our tech support team along with the plan and steps to reproduce the problem. We absolutely need the steps to reproduce the problem because just sending us a plan with lots of duplicate doors won't help us very much. If this was the result of a program bug, we would certainly make it a high priority to fix. BTW, an easy way to figure out that you have duplicate doors is to use the marquee select method to select a door. The status bar should then show you how many you have when there are duplicates. On a side note, your plan posted above has a number of things that don't really make sense to me. For example, if you switch to the all on layer set, fill screen (F6), and use select all (control-a), you will see a rather strange railing about 500' off to the right. You also have some joist direction lines and cameras that are out in the middle of nowhere. You might want to clean up some of these things and you may have less problems in the future. Unlike some other cad programs, Chief's "smart" objects can actually cause negative side effects when they are used in ways that don't make sense to the program. For example, drawing two simple cad lines crossing each other should never be a problem but if you draw two elevation lines with different heights crossing each other you will probably blow up the terrain.

I think Eric's suggestion only works if you are using a polyline solid. If you are using simple polylines, the hole checkbox will not appear. Instead, just select the outer polyline, then click on the Polyline Subtraction tool, and then click on one of the holes.

Saved plan views are completely optional and you do not need to use them to produce working drawings. But then again, so are annotation sets. But why would you want to work harder than you need to? Saved plan views are superior to annotation sets in almost every way. They are much more powerful and they are actually easier to use and learn. They contain all of the same information that annotation sets do along with a bunch of other things that annotation sets don't have. We have also provided a number of support tools that make using saved plan views more efficient than just using annotation sets by themselves. For example, all of your saved plan views are available in the project browser where you have tools for managing your views that are not available for annotation sets. I think it would have been better had we introduced saved plan views before annotation sets. If we had started with saved plan views, adding annotation sets later wouldn't have been as big of a deal. In the future, you will likely see a lot more enhancements related to saved plan views and you will probably see less for annotation sets. If you are still using annotation sets instead of saved plan views, then you are doing more work then you need to and this will probably only get worse over time. And if anyone has any ideas about how we can make saved plan views work even better, then please feel free to submit your feature requests here: https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/forum/8-suggestions/