Dermot

Chief Architect Moderators
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Everything posted by Dermot

  1. If you change your Number Style to decimal inches, the dialog will display your values with all the accuracy you need. It would be nice if the program was smart enough to change the display automatically when the numbers were small like this.
  2. After spending some more time playing with the line style management dialog, I could not reproduce any problems (other than the previously mentioned problem with the line style editor displaying the sizes rounded to the nearest 1/16"). I think I may have clicked on the wrong line style to modify and got confused by the inaccurate display which may have been what happened with Scott as well. If any one can reproduce any other problems, then please report them to us.
  3. Your "tiny dash 1" is actually 1/32". If you modify it to be 1/16", it should look correct. You may have found a bug with the line style management dialog. While I was playing with this, I ran into some strange behavior. I'm not sure what is going on here but I will look into it further.
  4. I really hate to point out when Joe is wrong but I will just have to make an exception in this case. If you want a line style with a segment that is 1/32" long, then just type in 1/32". The dialog will display it as 1/16" but the program will keep the actual value that you typed in. You can even type in smaller values such as 1/64" or even 1/128" but the dialog will display these values as 0" (but they will still work!). This is really something we need to fix so that it is less confusing. It's on our todo list but I can't make any promises on when we will get to it.
  5. This is the kind of thing you should always contact tech support for. It sounds like your plan file has been corrupted. It also sounds like other files on your system have been corrupted. You might want to check your system for any viruses and look into the possibility of hardware problems (such as a problem with your hard disk). It is very unlikely that the program corrupted these other files. As far as reinstalling the program, keep in mind that uninstalling and reinstalling does not remove anything in your user data folder. This means that things like toolbars, hotkeys, templates, and custom libraries are not uninstalled. If you are having a problem with your toolbars, you may need to manually force the program to use the installed ones. You can do this by simply renaming the toolbar folder in your user data folder and then running the program. I would encourage you to contact tech support for any additional help though.
  6. The best way to make this schedule smaller is to make the row height smaller. To reduce the row height, you need to reduce the column width used for the preview image. You can not reduce it smaller then the column header so you may also need to rename the column to something shorter to get a smallest size. You could also create multiple schedules showing different objects if you wanted to reduce the size. You can filter a schedule by floor, by room, or by object type. In your case, you could make 3 separate schedules, one each for outlets, switches, and lights. Unfortunately, there is no way to arbitrarily split a schedule into multiple schedules.
  7. In X11, you can now display multiple reference floors all using different layer sets. The ability to change which layer set is used for your reference floor display was removed from the Layer Set Management dialog as a result. Unfortunately, our help file was not updated to correspond to the program changes to this dialog. I apologize for any confusion that this has caused. To specify any of the information associated with your reference display, you can use the Change Floor/Reference dialog. The easiest way to get to this dialog is to click on the current floor button for any plan view. You can also modify this information in the Saved Plan View specification dialog if you are using saved plan views. More information about Reference Display and Saved Plan Views can be found in both the help files and training videos. Doing a search on these terms should lead you to the most relevant information. In the future, if you find any errors in the help files, please report them directly to our technical support team. You can report problems here: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/
  8. Turning off the label, either for the layout box (as shown by Eric) or for all layout boxes (as shown by Chopsaw), is only going to solve one of your problems. You should probably not link your layout boxes to your "working plan view". Open the layout box specification dialog box. Go to the plan view settings and set the linked plan view to "none". If you set the view to "none" before you send a view to layout, this will also make sure that you don't link the layout box to the "working plan view".
  9. It was moved to the 3D View Defaults dialog when the camera defaults were expanded.
  10. Have you tried looking in the bonus libraries that are available online? Click on the "Get Additional Content Online" tool at the bottom of the library browser. Then you can type in what you are looking for in the search bar to see what's available. There are a number of free libraries as well as many others that are free if you have SSA. https://www.chiefarchitect.com/3d-library/index.php?r=site/detail/635
  11. Dermot

    doors

    You might also find these articles helpful: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00117/locating-and-importing-3d-symbols.html https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-01808/creating-a-custom-door-symbol.html
  12. The "Floor Above Display" setting is only used if your stair has the breakline turned on. Stairs will only appear automatically on the floor above if they are within an open below room. If you don't have an open below room and you are using something else to create a hole in the platform, you would not see the stair on the floor below. There are a number of other reasons why you might not see the stair but if you want a more helpful answer, then you should try posting the plan and I bet someone could figure it out pretty quickly.
  13. You might also want to use the "Closed Stringer" option under the "Style" panel to more accurately model the existing stairs:
  14. This is most likely the result of a video card or driver problem. See this help article for more information about video card problems: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00106/troubleshooting-3d-camera-view-display-problems-in-chief-architect.html If all else fails, then you might want to try contacting our tech support team.
  15. You can also blend the color in the Define Material dialog:
  16. As far as I can tell, we have not received any reports of any problems similar to what you have described. If you can reliably reproduce these problems, then please report them directly to our technical support team. If we can reproduce them in house, then we will always try to get a fix into the next available update. On a side note, if you ever get an error message that says "unhandled exception", then you should treat the plan as if it is now corrupt. You should either exit the program without saving or do a "save as" to make sure you do not accidentally overwrite a good version of your plan.
  17. "...can you create a poly line arch/curve and convert it to a interior/exterior wall?" - Yes, using the cad to walls tool but I'm not sure it's actually going to be easier. There are a lot of special rules you need to follow in order to get the cad to walls tool to produce the results you want. There are some other things that might be of more help though. If you open the wall specification dialog, there is a setting for the exact radius if you know what you want it to be. You can also turn on the display of Arc Centers to make sure the center of the arc is located where you want it. You may be able to snap the wall ends to your cad lines and then set your arc radius to what you want to get the wall arc to match your cad arc. Another thing that could be useful is that you can use the Arc Creation Modes for walls as well as cad lines. These tools are often overlooked and can be very helpful when working with arcs. Personally, I find the free form arc tool that is the default is usually the least helpful if you need a very specific arc. And, as Steve pointed out, you can turn any straight wall into an arc by using the Change Line/Arc edit tool. One more thing that can help is simply drawing a straight wall and turning it into a curve by holding down the alt while you are dragging one of the end handles. Most of these tools work for walls, cad lines, stairs, and even some other objects. "I didn't see a curved wall option" - If you look under the Build->Wall menu there are a number of curved wall options. There is also a toolbar family with the curved wall tools in it (as shown in Mick's picture above). More information about drawing curved walls and arcs can be found in the reference manual and in the training videos.
  18. First, I would encourage you to get the newest trial version for X11. This will have all of the latest features and be a better program for evaluation purposes. If you decide to buy, then you will probably actually be purchasing X11. Since you are using the trial version, you will not be able to save any plans. You could post the plan that you started with though. Also, since you can't save any plans, you might want to post screen shots of what you are seeing in the program. You could post a picture of what you are seeing in the room specification dialog as well as what you are seeing in the camera views and people might be able to give you some better answers.
  19. You may also want to try downloading the X11 trial version to see if the same behavior still happens. If it doesn't, than this could indicate that the problem was from an old bug that has since been fixed. If it does still happen, this would be another indicator that it is something specific to your system as I am not aware of any current reports of problems that would cause this.
  20. My best guess is that this is the result of a problem with your video card or the driver. You may find some helpful information in this tech article: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00106/troubleshooting-3d-camera-view-display-problems-in-chief-architect.html One other thing you might try to do is pay attention to the information in the status bar when using the material painter or eyedropper. It should indicate which object and material you are picking up. This information may help you to avoid picking up the wrong object. Given that I think you have a problem with your system, I have no way of knowing whether or not this will help. If all else fails, you may want to contact tech support during normal business hours on Monday.
  21. Making a copy of your active layer set only makes sense if you know almost nothing about layer sets (or if you understand them completely and find it a convenient way to create a new one and always specify a more reasonable name). It also has the side affect of disabling the linking of layout boxes to saved plan views. I suspect that your real problem is that you are sending a saved plan view to the layout without realizing that the layout box will be linked to the saved plan view. Please check out my comments on this thread regarding saved plan views:
  22. Make the concrete platform a landing and the stairs should wrap automatically. More info about wrapped stairs can be found in the manual or here: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00788/creating-mitered-or-wrap-around-stairs.html
  23. The pony wall "Display in Plan View" setting is not stored in your layer sets so changing layer sets will have no affect on this. The default setting that you can specify in your pony wall defaults is stored with saved plan views and layout boxes though. This means that as long as all of your pony walls in the plan are set to "Default", you should be able to have different saved plan views with different defaults.
  24. Repairing or reinstalling the program will probably not solve your problem. See if this info helps: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00090/obtaining-library-content.html