Dermot

Please contact our customer service department by phone or email.  They will be more then happy to help you resolve your problems.

What you are describing is not something that happens often.  I would recommend that you do a full uninstall and then reinstall.  Before doing that, I would also do a full virus scan.

If that does not work, then by all means contact our technical support team for further assistance.

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Can anyone tell me why my doors in the library preview pane appear to have a dark color on the exterior side?  My door defaults are set so that each side should be white.  So...what other setup could be controlling how these doors are being displayed?  

I don't think this has anything to do with rendering techniques, shadows, video cards, or a lot of what was said in the above posts. 

It's all about the materials and how they are setup in the library symbols.

All of the door panel symbols that are in the core libraries that ship with Chief are setup to use your Material Defaults.  When you place one into a plan it should automatically use your "Doors (Interior)" and "Doors (Exterior)" material.

The only thing that is probably confusing is where we get the material from when generating the library preview.  In X9 and X10, we get the default materials from your default template plan that is setup for new plans in your preferences.  In prior versions, we would get the materials from the current active plan.  This caused some inconsistent behavior because the previews could show different materials depending on when they were last updated.  Trying to keep them updated every time you activated a new plan led to performance issues.  Since the library browser is really independent from all of your open plans we felt it was better to get the default materials from somewhere that was not changing frequently.

Please note that if you create your own library symbols, your materials may be set to use a specific material instead of a default material.  In this case, the library preview should always show you the specific material.

If you find any problems with any of this, please feel free to contact our tech support team for more help.

You will need X10 if you want to insert these kinds of symbols directly into the cabinet.  If you are still using X9, you can import the symbols as fixtures/furniture, manually position them and maybe block them with the cabinet to keep them together.

Version 8 should be able to read plan files created using version 5 through version 8.  I can't think of any reasons you might have problems reading in one of these files unless the files are somehow corrupt.  You could try posting one of the plans and someone else might try opening it in X8 (or an older version) to see if they can.  You could also try contacting tech support but I wouldn't be too optimistic.

If you have any files older then version 5, you are probably out of luck.  You would need a really old version like 5, 6, or 7 to read them.  Even if you could find one of these old versions, I doubt that you would be able to get it to run on a newer computer. 

By software standards, version 8 is about as old as the roman coliseum and version 5 is about as old as the pyramids.

X10 will only read plan files that were written by version 10 and newer.

If you have upgraded to X10, contact tech support to see if they can provide you with a solution to convert your older files.  All you really need to do is get the X8 Client Viewer (or any other version of Chief from V10 to X8) and you will be able to open these older plans and save them in a format that X10 will be able to read. 

Since they are so old, you should expect to have to do some amount of manual cleanup.  We have worked very hard to make sure that when you bring plans forward that they do so with very minimal changes but when you bring plans this old forward you will have to deal with all of the minor changes that have happed over the 12 versions you missed.

Saved plan views work very similar to the way layout boxes work.  They basically capture all of the same info. 

If you have a system that already works for you, you don't really need to change. 

Here are some advantages:

Saved plan views don't require you to always work with a layout open. 

You can switch between different saved plan views using the new toolbar dropdown.

You can open and close them using the project browser. 

You can have as many plan views open as you like and they're more independent of each other now. 

You can create new ones by saving any plan view at any time. 

I can see this problem in all versions of Chief that I tried.  I am getting consistently inconsistent results though.  Most of the time if it starts moving on grid it ends up moving off.  Once it is off grid, it seems to stay off.  It seems to largely depend on how much you move the window and how much you are zoomed in.  It may also depend on whether or not you moved the window on grid using the dimensions before you started to drag it.  It may also depend on whether or not you are looking at the interior or exterior dimension which will show different values because it is usually impossible to get both on grid.

There does seem to be a difference in X10 related to the bumping and pushing but I think this is really just making some problems that were already there more apparent.  We will look into this more but I can't make any promises on when this might get resolved.

I would still recommend that you position your openings using the dimensions and not depend on dragging them to get them positioned accurately.

You should always report any problems you find directly to tech support.  We don't usually read Chieftalk posts looking for problems.  The only way that you can be sure that we will know about them is to report them to tech support.

As far as I know, this is how Chief has always worked.  I tried it all the back to X5 but did not go back any further. 

The program does not currently use your grid snaps for placing or moving openings in plan views.  It does use your grid snaps when moving openings in elevation views though.  Maybe this is one source of the confusion?

Regardless, it seems like it would be good if the program did use your grid snaps for placing and moving openings.  If you would like this behavior changed, then please submit a report to our tech support expressing your desire.  It means more coming from you then from me.

For now, I would recommend always using your dimensions to position your openings accurately.

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The response I got from the support case a month back was to manually edit the wall and the issue would be looked into.  Manually editing is fine but stops auto rebuild so not ideal.

 

Today I chased up to find out if this issue has been confirmed/logged as a bug given the X10 official release version still has the same problem.  The response was to request the plan in X9 format which I provided a month ago when I raised the case and specifically stated it was still in X9 format.  This makes it appear this hasn't even been reviewed to date.

 

We have been able to duplicate this problem and we are looking into it further.  We will try to get a fix into the program as soon as we are able and hopefully it will be fixed by the next available update.  For now, if you wish to work on this plan in X10, you can manually edit your wall to correct the problem.  Unfortunately, this also means that if you make additional changes to your plan that you may have to make additional manual edits to this particular wall.

I would classify this kind of problem as "lost functionality" because this was something that worked in X9 that is not working correctly in X10.  Normally, problems such as this are one of our highest priorities, second only to things like program crashes.  Unfortunately, there was a failure in our internal processes which meant that this particular problem did not properly get onto our developer todo list the way it should have.  I apologize for any inconvenience that this has caused.

Thank you for taking the time to report this.  We appreciate it when our customers take the time to help us make our products better.  If you find any more issues like this in X10, please help us by reporting these as well.

There are no known issues with the 19.3.1.8 update.

The latest update available is always the one you should be using for every version of Chief Architect. 

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In X8 in Preferences turn off the Update Check under General ie make it 0 to stop it asking every time you open X8

I do not recommend this.  This message is telling you that you are not using the latest version of X8 and an update is available.  The update probably has some very useful things like fixes for crashes or other program bugs.  Not using the latest version is only going to make your life harder, not easier.  You should download and install the latest update and the message will then go away.  Turning off the preference will then prevent you from getting any future messages if we ever need to update the older version again. 

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Hi all anyone experiencing an issue when opening an older plan version.

I have downloaded cheif x10 beta and checked a few things so all good whilst also keeping the x8 version.

Also tried to keep everything separate , new jobs in x10 and old jobs in x8 etc.

Doing new projects in X10 and keeping your older projects in X8 is a perfectly fine strategy.  We work very hard to try and make sure that legacy plans will come forward with very few problems but they can sometimes happen.  The older the plan file the more likely you will see problems.

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It just so happens that when trying to open older x8 file a window pops up requesting permission to upgrade x8 to newer version (x8).

I have gone thru process of choosing no  on one occassion and then choosing yes on another but with no success.

Attached screenshots describe situation.

Your screenshots are missing so I can only guess what you are seeing.

If you see this message when you launch X8:

This means that you are not using the latest version of X8.  You should download and install the update.  Once you are using the latest version, you should not see this message again.

If you see this message when you launch X8:

This is just informing you that a new version is available.  Since you already have X0, you should check the "Do not show this message again" box and then click "No".  This message will not show up again unless you reset your message boxes in your preferences.

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My problem now is that i have an x8 file that i want to open in x8 but cant.

Why not?  Are you trying to open the file from the program or are you trying to open it from Windows Explorer? 

If you are trying to open the plan from Windows Explorer, you may have issues because of Windows file associations.  A file type can only be associated with one program and there is no way to associate X8 files with X8 and X10 files with X10.  I recommend that you only open the X8 files from within the program to avoid this problem.

Another possibility is that you accidently saved the X8 file using X10.  X8 will not be able to open any files that have been saved by X10.  The program will automatically create a backup of the original X8 file for you when do this.  You should get a message if you do this explaining where the program saved the backup.  The message looks something like this:

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Do i have to remove x10beta off system??

No.  You should be able to continue to use X8 and X10 on the same system.  I recommend that you develop a file management strategy that allows you to keep your plans separate and avoid any confusion.

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Any advice appreciated.

If all else fails, contact our technical support department for more help.

Your walls are on the second floor and are on the "Garage" layer which is turned off in your "All On" layer set.  Go to the second floor, turn on this layer, then you can select and delete the garage walls.

You have some other layers turned off in your "All On" layer set that you might want to turn on. 

You also have a missing symbol in your electrical defaults that you may want to reassign.

I did not look for any other issues but I would recommend that you go through and review your other defaults (especially your room and floor defaults), purge unused cad blocks, delete unused cad details, get rid of saved cameras you don't need, and such.

Rather then purchase an older version of Chief Architect I would encourage you to consider taking advantage of our rent to own program or purchasing one of our other products, like Chief Architect Interiors or Home Designer Pro.  Purchasing a current version of the software will always give you the most current features, best available support, best available training materials, and access to most current libraries.

More information about our rental program can be found here:  https://www.chiefarchitect.com/software-rental/

More information about Chief Architect Interiors can be found here:  https://www.chiefarchitect.com/products/interior-design/interiors/

More information about HD Pro can be found here:  https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/products/home-designer-pro/

If you have additional questions, please contact our sales department during our normal business hours.  Someone here will be more than happy to go over these options in more detail to help you decide which product best fits your needs and budget.

SSA has absolutely nothing to do with program security.  SSA is an annual subscription that includes program upgrades, technical support, training videos, bonus content, and more.  The first year of SSA is included with every new purchase but is completely optional after that.  If you decide not to renew your SSA, you will be able to continue to use your software as long as your computer and operating system will still support it.  You can get more information about SSA here:  https://www.chiefarchitect.com/products/ssa/

All versions of Chief Architect software come with some kind of program security to prevent unauthorized use of the software.  Prior versions were available with either software security or hardware lock security.  X10 is only available with software security which requires regular access to the internet to verify that it is a legitimate version of the software.

If you have questions or concerns about any of this, please contact our customer service department during our normal business hours.

Technically, there is no way to turn off framing headers and still get the header labels.  If you set the header fill style to "none" and the line style to "invisible", they are essentially hidden.

Currently, the program does not fill out the automatic header label when you switch from automatic to manual like it does for other objects. 

It's pretty easy to create your own custom header label using the insert macro menu.  You don't even need to know ruby or purchase any third party packages.

See attached plan and picture.  One window is full auto.  The other has a custom header label.  You could just as easily make this the default label for all windows and doors by specifying it in your window and door defaults.

I used the following:  %nominal_size% x %length% HDR (%header_count%)

header label.plan

X10 already has header label defaults.  Look on the Framing panel of your window and door specification (or window and door default) dialog.

You can retain your legacy wall framing by not rebuilding it.  You can always manually specify whatever labels you want.

You should probably make a proper suggestion if you want more control over header construction styles.

Reread Bill's last post.  You will get multiple header labels if you bring in a legacy plan that already has wall framing.  When you rebuild the framing in X10 you should then have only one label.

If by "chief people" you mean employees of Chief Architect, then I would recommend you make your request in the suggestions forum.  We don't look for suggestions in any of the other forums.

Please note that once you save a plan in X10 that you will not be able to open it in X9.

The height that you specify in the "Make Room Molding Polyline" dialog box will determine which doors and windows the molding will get cut out for.  More information can be found here:

https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00070/adding-a-belly-band-to-a-structure.html

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I only want to have the exterior door labels showing and not the interior ones. 

You could turn off the labels for your interior doors by selecting them all and checking "suppress label".  This will turn them off for all views regardless of the layer settings.  If you never want labels on interior doors, you could also set this in your interior door defaults before placing any doors.