Dermot

Here is some more info that might might find helpful: - a custom backsplash can be any shape you like. If you click to place, it will normally fill the exposed wall area. If you drag a marquee to place, it can be drawn just like a normal polyline. In either case, you can modify the shape just like any other polyline object. - you can convert a polyline into a Material Region that is very close to the same thing as a custom backsplash. - you can control the thickness of a custom backsplash by changing the Material Layers in the specification dialog. You can also control whether or not it sits on top of the drywall or cuts into it. This will allow you to create more accurate cross sections and materials lists. - An electrical object should automatically sit on top of a custom backsplash but it won't sit on top of a polyline solid. You will normally have to move your electrical object away from the wall by thickness of your polyline solid.

My best guess is that you are working in an elevation view and the "filled rectangle" you are using is just a 2D cad object. If so, then changing the draw order won't work. The electrical object is part of the 3D model and it's draw order is controlled by the 3D geometry. The 2D cad can only be drawn in front of or behind the entire 3D model and not mixed in the middle of it. What you probably want to do is make the "filled rectangle" part of the 3D model. The easiest way to do this is to make it a custom backsplash that sits on the wall. The electrical object should automatically sit on top of the backsplash but if it doesn't you can always move it out using Jerry's method above. If you want the tile to cover the entire wall, then you could also make it part of the wall definition.

We deprecated the Print Model feature because it was very fragile and rather expensive to maintain. And, to be perfectly honest, it really didn't work very well. We had a long discussion about whether or not we should rewrite it or get rid of it and you can see that we decided to deprecate it. The general feeling was that it was not cost effective to rewrite it based on the very few people that actually used it. More people seem to be interested in using the modern 3D printers that work with an actual 3D model instead of the old 2D printer which required you to manually cut out and assemble a model. If you feel strongly that this was a feature that you will miss, please feel free to contact our tech support team and voice your concerns. Or, you can post something on the suggestions forum asking us to bring it back.

Window and door labels should always appear in an elevation view if a reasonable percentage of the window or door is visible in the view. This means that you can sometimes see labels for things that you may not want labels for. For example, if your window glass is clear or your doors are open, you may be able to see windows and doors through it and will then be able to see their labels. One way to solve this issue is by making your window glass opaque. In any case, if you have a label you don't want to see, you can always select the object and set the label to "Hide in this View". You can also force labels to display by setting the label to "Show in this View". See the picture below. Please note that these settings will only affect the current camera view and you can't modify them in a plan view. It can sometimes be tricky to select the items you want and you may need to use the temporary delete surface tool to select them. You can also temporarily move your camera forward to select hidden objects and then move it back.

Just to be clear, elevation views in Chief Architect are technically 3D views. Your problem has to do with the differences between a standard rendered view and a vector view. Rendered views show textures and vector views show patterns. So the main problem is that your texture and pattern don't match. You could see this problem in any camera view depending on which rendering technique you use. And, as Joe has pointed out, X11 has some new tools related to materials that makes it easier to make your patterns and textures match.

I am going to assume that you are still using X7 because that is what your signature says. X7, which was released back in 2015, can't read any files written in the new Autocad 2019 format because this format did not exist when X7 was written. Even X10 can't read any 2019 files because this format was not available when X10 was released. The good news is that X11 should be able to read Autocad 2019 files. If a newer file format is released sometime in the future, X11 will not be able to read it. The bottom line is that you should always make sure the files you are trying to import are in a format that your program version supports.

I recommend reading my post here:

Just to be clear, posting comments like this on Chieftalk is not a very effective way of communicating with us. We do not have enough people or time to read every Chieftalk post. If you want to be sure your comments are received then you need to always report them directly to tech support either through the online support center or by calling them during their normal business hours. You can also post any feature requests on the Suggestions forum. Anything else has no guarantee that anyone from Chief Architect will even see it.

I recommend that you do not turn off the Connect Island Rooms option. Turning this off will mean that you will have to manually connect all of your island rooms. If you forget, then a number of things in the program may not work correctly. You will likely have problems with room related information including floors, ceilings, moldings, and other structural issues. If you don't like where the program has automatically added the room divider, then add your own room divider and then delete the one the program put in for you. If you don't want to see them, then turn off the layer.

Normal text always uses cad style font sizing and always has. Rich text can be set to use cad style font sizing or not depending on what you are using it for. If you are trying to match normal text, you probably want to use cad style sizing. If you are trying to match some other program that doesn't use cad style sizing, then you might want to turn it off. We put this in specifically for when you copy rich text in from some other application and you want the sizing and formatting to match.

Just to clarify, all you really need to do is switch to a layer set that has the framing turned on and everything else turned off. We ship with a default layer set called "3D Framing Layer Set" that will do this for you. The Orthographic Framing Overview and Perspective Framing Overview cameras just use this layer set by default but you can use this layer set in any camera view. Also, you need to be sure and build your framing before you can see it.

You are not necessarily using them wrong but you are not really using them the way we designed them to be used either. The way to turn off a reference is to simply remove it using the delete button. The way to turn on a reference is to insert a new one. The way to avoid constantly turning things on and off is to use a Saved Plan View with them already setup the way you want them. Switching saved plan views is very fast and easy. Also, taking advantage of the project browser to manage them should make your life even easier. Trying to turn off a reference by switching to the all off layer set is not something I would recommend since you will incur a performance penalty even though you are not drawing anything. Switching to a blank floor will not be nearly as expensive but still feels like you are subverting the whole point of the reference display. That said, the idea of adding a display column to temporarily add and remove them is a perfectly reasonable request. It is probably not something that we will be able to add to X11 though.

Just as an FYI, the color on/off setting is also stored with saved plan views. This means that if you are using saved plan views, the program will remember what state it was in when you saved the view. This might catch some people off guard because in previous versions the program would always turn the color back on whenever you opened a plan.

Thank you. We have determined that the problem is with building roofs. It looks like a fairly complex design and there are a number of problems with roofs and attic walls so I assume that this was a work in progress when you started having the issues. At any rate, we should be able to get a fix into the next update (the official X11 release).

Did you turn the Color Off? If so, try turning it back on.

Yes, you should always report any problems that you find to our tech support team.

This does not sound like it is related. Chad's problem sounds like it is specific to the plan he is working with. Your problem sounds like it is video card or system related. Please check out this help article: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00106/troubleshooting-3d-camera-view-display-problems-in-chief-architect.html If that does not help you to resolve your problem, then I would recommend that you contact technical support during our normal business hours.

I have posted this information before but I might have to keep posting it until everyone has learned about Saved Plan Views. From your description it sounds like you are sending views to layout that are linked to Saved Plan Views. 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

Yes. Please contact tech support to report this problem. If this is indeed a bug in X11, we would really like to fix it before we actually release the program. Tech support will help you get the plan file to us so that we can look into it further. Sometimes all that is needed is for the plan file to be zipped up but in other cases the file can be transferred through drop box or some other online file transfer system.

You install it on a new computer the same way you would install it on a different computer. See if this help article helps. If all else fails, contact technical support. https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00956/installing-chief-architect-on-multiple-computers.html

I think you did it wrong. I can tell because the stair dialog is still showing you both sections. You should only see the section you want as shown in Eric's picture below yours. All you need to do is hold the shift or control key down when you click on the stair you want to modify. It should look like the picture below. This puts in you in group select mode. When you are in group select mode, the stair dialog will allow you to modify just the stair sections you selected and it won't automatically adjust all of the other connected sections to match. Another technique that works is to simply disconnect the stair from the landing by pulling it away. Open the specification dialog and make the changes you want and then reconnect the stair to the landing.

Here is some more information that may help. You should be careful not to setup any annotation sets that have all of the same settings with the only difference being the name. The program does not actually link any views to annotation sets. It only links them to the actual settings. So if you have multiple annotation sets with all of the same settings, you will only be creating more confusion and more work for yourself. Also, if you are using saved plan views, there is very little reason to link your annotation sets to layer sets. The saved plan view is the "king" and it will be the one controlling the layer set, not the annotation set. The main reason that we are still keeping the ability to link layer sets to annotation sets is for people that still haven't learned how to use saved plan views yet. For these and other reasons, I recommend that you only create a minimal number of annotation sets where the active defaults are different and I would not bother to link them to any layer sets.

My best guess is that your problem has to do with whether you are trying to change the door style for the whole cabinet or a specific door style for a cabinet face item. Changing the door style for the cabinet will not alter the door style for a particular face item if it has already been modified to a different door style. It works very similar to dynamic defaults but on a per cabinet basis. If you posted the plan, then someone could probably give you a more accurate answer without having to make guesses.

If you open a doorway from the library browser (something you could not do in prior versions), you will not get a "Show Wall" button. This is because library openings don't have any walls associated with them. So if you store a doorway in the library that has no casing and no jamb, there is really nothing to display in either the dialog or library preview. You would not have a library preview in prior versions either so I'm not sure I would consider this a new glitch in X11 but it's certainly not ideal. I would encourage you to always report problems like this to tech support. This is great example of why we don't do tech support on the forums. Too many questions that have to be asked and answered before we can properly identify the issues.

What kind of wall do you have? Doors and Doorways should have a "Show Wall" button above the preview window. This will allow you to toggle the wall display on or off as needed. The program should also display the wall automatically when you turn the casing off. In your picture above, you are missing the Show Wall button. If your wall is invisible, a railing/fence, or has zero width, you will not get the Show Wall button. In my opinion, we should also have the button for any railings and fences. It probably doesn't make sense to have the button for invisible or zero width walls because nothing will display in these cases.