Dermot

Please report this problem to our tech support team. My best guess is that this is a problem with the importing dimension defaults (done by importing your default sets). I am assuming that your interior dimensions worked just fine before you did this but this should be easy for you to confirm. When you report this you will need to include a simple plan that works fine, the default sets that you are importing, and the exact settings that you are using when you import them. Assuming that we can duplicate this problem, then hopefully we can get a fix in to prevent this.

The red plus means that it is used somewhere in your plan. It may also be used in your defaults and it may also be a system layer. The pop-up hint I mentioned will tell you this. It might just say "used in plan" or it might say "used in plan and defaults". "Used in plan" is still somewhat ambiguous though because it can be hiding in a lot of places. It could be in a saved cross section or elevation view. It could be in a saved cad detail. It could used by an object that is in a cad block. If you want someone to do something other than make random guesses, then you should probably post a plan.

Have you tried going to your plan view and moving it away from the wall?

There is no "blank" callout but you can specify the Size as 0 if you turn of the Automatic size. You can also specify the Marker Radius as 0. This is assuming that you want the line to go with the label, otherwise you don't really need a callout or marker. The %automatic_label% macro will give you the same thing you would get if you were using an automatic label instead of specifying one. I believe for layout boxes this will be the same as the view name that was sent.

If you hover over the symbol in the used column you should get a pop-up hint that tells you where the layer is being used.

If you open an X13 plan in X14, your manual dimension tools should pretty much work the same without having to change any settings. If you import your X13 dimension defaults into X14, they should also work the same as they did in X13. If you are finding any cases where this is not happening, then please feel free to report this to our tech support team. Are you manually drawing your interior dimension using the "Interior Dimension" tool or are you using the "Manual Dimension" tool? If you draw a dimension line using the "Interior Dimension" tool it should always pick up both wall sides. You can set them up to locate either wall surfaces or the main layer in your dimension defaults. You can also set them up to display the wall width if you like. If you draw a dimension line using the "Manual Dimension" tool, this will locate your walls according to the settings on the "Locate Manual" panel of your dimension defaults. You can set them up to locate either side of your interior walls or both using the Primary Side and Secondary Side check boxes. If you are doing something else, then you will have to explain further.

I played around with the furred wall and I could not get it to reverse layers. You must be doing something different than what I did. Regardless, whenever you have a wall automatically switch layers and you don't want it to, you can always manually reverse the layers using the Edit toolbar button. Once you manually reverse the layers, the program should not automatically change it anymore. You can also manually create a new wall type (as suggested by Mick) that combines the layers for both. I'm not sure that one way is better than the other though.

Since you have migrated from HD Pro to Chief Architect Premier, your situation is a going to be different then most. I would not recommend that you migrate your templates, toolbars, hotkeys or any other settings from HD Pro into Premier. I think you will be much better off if you start with the out-of-box settings from Premier. If you have already migrated things, you can always get back to the installed settings by just renaming the folder in your user data folder. When you launch Chief, the program will automatically create new folders and transfer the installed content into them. This is the quickest and easiest way to get back to factory installed settings. As for bringing any legacy plans forward, if you want to have all of the same settings that you have when you start a new plan in Chief you either have to import them all or start a new plan and then use the edit area tool to copy your model into the new plan. Either way is a bit of a pain and require some manual work.

I know that you can't buy an older version (or even an additional license for an older version) using our web site. I don't actually know if sales can or ever would sell a version that is that old. This is why I recommend that people contact sales if they need more specific info. As far as other people selling older versions of Chief or any Home Designer products, once you have upgraded to a newer version, you can't sell your older version and keep using your new version. In the old days, we used to give people a new hardware lock when they upgraded and the old ones would sometimes get sold. Since we don't use hardware locks anymore, this is no longer a problem. Now you have one license that is authorized for one or more versions and if you sell it, then you are selling access to all of your versions.

The X13 plan is converted into an X14 plan when it is read in. If you save the plan in X14, you will not be able to read it back into X13. The program will automatically create a backup of your X13 plan and put it in your archives folder. You should see a confirmation message when you do this letting you know what is happening.

No, not really. It might not be what you want or even very intuitive, but it is certainly not anything new in X14. The picture below shows a bunch of different objects with positive y offsets. Just to be clear though, this is an issue that we are aware of and something we hope to change in the future.

Label offsets work the same in X14 as they did in all prior versions. I believe they also work the same for all polyline shaped objects. Label offsets are always in object space, not plan space. If you rotate an object, you will see that X and Y are still relative to the object's reference direction and have nothing to do with the plan's x and y coordinates.

If your builder wants to use X9, he would need to purchase a used X9 license that is legally transferable. A transfer fee is required and it can vary depending on whether the original license was sold at a discount (such as a second license). You might want to post something on the seeking services area to see if someone currently has one to sell: https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/forum/15-seeking-services/ Another option would be for him to purchase or rent a new license for X13. FYI, X14 is currently being beta tested and will be released in the near future. If he purchases X13 now, he will also get X14 when it is officially released and he will also get SSA which will give him access to tech support and training. If he purchases a used license, you might end up being his tech support and training. You would not be able to share plans with him though since a plan saved in X13 would not be able to be opened in X9. If you need to work together, I would suggest that you also upgrade your version. You might want to contact our sales team for more information about license transfers and upgrades.

Regarding migrating template plans... If we didn't think you should ever migrate template plans, then it wouldn't even be an option. Tech support will often recommend creating a new template starting with the default one that we ship with the program. This is because tech support sees lots of problem plans and they know that creating a new template can help prevent you from bringing any problems forward into all of your new plans. We always migrate our shipping templates forward for every new release. We also have a testing team that looks at them very carefully to make sure that they don't have any problems. If you have a lot of confidence in the template plan that you were using in X13, then you should have no problem bringing it forward and using it in X14. I would be more hesitant to bring in a template plan from an earlier version though. The older the plan is, the more likely it is that you will find problems when you bring it forward.

Please remember that X14 is currently available as a beta version. This means that you may find some problems that were not in prior versions. Please report all of these problems directly to our tech support team so that we can try to correct them prior to the actual release. Feel free to also report any problems that were in prior versions that have not been addressed in X14. The more people that report a problem, the more likely that it will get addressed sooner rather than later. Please remember that posting on Chieftalk is not the same as reporting problems to us. Although Chieftalk is moderated by Chief Architect, it is really just a user forum where the majority of the content here comes directly from users. While some employees may read and even comment on some posts, there is no guarantee that any given post will be looked at by an employee. You can find out how to contact support here: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/

If you are having any issues with your SSA or digital locker, please contact our customer service or tech support team.

If you click on Scott's link above, you will see the official info about X14, including this: Is your SSA current through May? Visit your Digital Locker and download the Beta version. You can expect to see the Official Release version of Chief Architect X14 by the end of May 2022.

Have you tried placing the niche while in a plan view? Apparently, there is a problem in camera views if your wall is too thick. Shouldn't matter how many layers you have or if any of them is marked as framing. It's just the total thickness.

Unless it's back clipped.

You could make your column out of a cabinet or soffit (because they can have moldings attached to them).

It's also in the Object Layer Properties.

General Plan Defaults

KB-00001 is about backing up. KB-00091 is about restoring.

See if this tech article helps: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00091/restoring-chief-architect-content.html

It's not the same issue. Adam found a brand new problem in the recently released 23.4 update that was causing a significant slowdown compared to 23.3. This was a very specific problem having to do with our texture mapping algorithms and some pretty complex surfaces (nested arched mulled units with a custom molding profile). We are working on a fix for this problem and hope to have this available in the near future. When you do figure it out, then please let us know. We will look into further and hopefully we can speed some things up.