Dermot

Easy peasy. The difference between the right and left side heights is 37.5" (90 * 5/12). On the window general panel, you need to set the overall height to 53.5 (37.5 + 16). On the window shape panel, you need to set the left or right height to 16" and then raise the opposite bottom corner to 37.5".

Not sure why you are having a problem but I doubt a reinstall will have any affect. Might be an obscure bug related to how you are creating them. If you can consistently reproduce the problem, you should report it to tech support along with very clear steps for exactly what you are doing. BTW, when drawing your custom muntins, you probably don't want to draw filled polylines. The program will actually try to create a muntin for each line in the polyline. All you need to do is draw a single CAD line for the center of each muntin.

Use Current Screen As Image for rendered views. Use Plot Lines for vector views.

A small number of people have reported problems launching X7 after installing X8. This may be a problem in X7 having to do with the two programs fighting over the Windows file associations. If you try to launch X7 and you get an error message about the program already running, the first thing you should try is restarting your computer. If restarting your computer does not solve this problem, then try using the following steps: - Right click on X7 and click "run as administrator". The program should open without an issue. If it doesn't, then please contact our tech support department for more help. - Open a new plan from within the program using File->Open, then close the plan, and then close the program. - You should now be able to run the program normally (not as an administrator). If you are still having any problems, please contact our tech support department for more help.

It's used for trusses.

Go to Toolbar Customization. Type "wall material region" into the search box. You should find it with the straight wall tools.

Apparently there is a bug with the parametric door styles. If you choose Framed Doors and the set the option for Glass Doors, this does not work for Door Panels. This is actually a bug in X7 and doesn't matter if your Door Panel is on the front or any other side. For now, you can choose a glass panel door style from the library and it should work correctly. We will look into this more to see if we can get a fix into a future update.

Post a plan and I will look into this.

"I made my cabinet front door framed glass, chose custom face for side, and door panel. I did not get a framed door panel with glass.. " My best guess is that you changed the front door by changing the door style for the individual face item instead of changing the door style for the whole cabinet. Changing the door style on the Door/Drawer tab affects the whole cabinet. Changing the door style for a face item only affects that face item. Of course, I can't know for sure what you did without a plan.

In X8, cabinet sides and backs can work just like fronts. This means that you have all of the configuration controls that you have for fronts. Instead of marking a side as "Match Front" you can mark it as "Custom Face" which allows full customization of the configuration. As an added convenience, if you first switch the side face to match front and then switch it to custom face, it will pick up the front configuration which can save some work when you go to customize it. So if you want a particular door style on your cabinet front and a side panel that matches, all you need to do is make the side a Custom Face and make the face item a Door Panel. Door Panels will use your door style but not include any hardware or opening indicators.

You can change the drawing group on the Line Style panel of the specification dialog for any CAD object. You can change the order within a drawing group by using the Move to Front tool. You can also change the order for a limited number of architectural objects.

Just to be clear, there is no reason you can't run multiple versions of Chief Architect on the same computer. I personally have over 2 dozen different Chief Architect products installed on my computer and I am able to run all of them without any conflicts. The only thing that I am aware of that might be causing some people problems has to do with file associations. Windows only allows one program to be associated with a given file type. If you want to be able to double-click on a ".plan" file to automatically launch the program and open the plan, Windows has to know which program you want associated with the plan file. If you always launch the program first and then open your plan using "File->Open", you should never have any issues. This is not a new issue because Windows has worked this way for a very long time. A small number of people have reported problems launching X7 after installing X8. This is a problem in X7 having to do with the two programs fighting over the file associations. If you try to launch X7 and you get an error message about the program already running (even after restarting your computer), you can solve this problem using the following steps: - Close the program and restart your computer. - Right click on X7 and click "run as administrator". The program should open without an issue. If it doesn't, then please contact tech support for help. - Open a new plan from within the program, then close the plan, and then close the program. - You should now be able to run the program normally (not as an administrator). If you are still having any problems, please contact our tech support for more help.

Nelson, I don't think the problems you had were in any way related to what the others were describing. Although it is possible to have problems with file associations with other versions of Chief (including X6 and X7) it does not sound like this is what happened in your case. It sounds more like the program crashed but was still in memory. The reboot was probably what fixed it.

It sounds like the problem is that X7 and X8 are fighting over Windows file associations. Only one program can be associated with ".plan" files at a time. When you install X8, it takes over the file associations so that Windows will launch X8 when you double-click on a plan file. Then if you go back and run X7, it tries to take them back. Normally, this will work just fine. In some cases, this will not allow you to run the program. If this is happening to you, then try the solution that Sandi posted above. If that solution does not work, then please contact technical support for more help. If you want to manually change file associations, then please see this article for more info: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-01131/associating-plan-and-layout-files-with-the-latest-version-of-chief-architect.html

I was just informed that the James Hardie catalog has been updated to include patterns. Please update your catalog and let us know if you find any additional problems.

Go to the label tab of the Bay/Box Window Specification dialog. Depending on whether you have checked "Show Component Labels" or "Show Single Label for Entire Unit" you will get different entries in the window schedule.

Currently, you can't change the Current CAD Layer from the Active Layer Display Options. You can change the Current CAD Layer using the CAD menu or you could even set up a custom hotkey for it. I think it would be just as easy and much more powerful to start using the Active Defaults dialog though. Here you can also change any of the other currently active defaults that affect your annotations. And if you really want to work more efficiently, I would recommend that you start setting up and using your own Annotation Sets so that you can more quickly change these settings as you are working.

You can adjust the shadow intensity in the Vector View Rendering Technique Options:

Go to Michael's post #7 above. His outlets seem to work pretty good in both plan view and 3D. Download his calibz file and then use the Import Library tool in either X7 or X8. You should find a library called "Cabinet Outlets" in your User Catalog.

This is a bug in the X8 beta. If you try to change any of the post or beam defaults through the Framing Defaults or Build Framing dialog, the changes might not stick. This should be fixed in the next available update. For now, the easiest way to avoid this problem is to edit the post and beam defaults directly by double-clicking on either the post or beam tool. In the future, I would encourage you to report these kinds of issues to our technical support team.

All of the currently featured libraries are free to anyone with active SSA. Some libraries are free to everyone. Some libraries are free if you have SSA and available for a small fee if you don't have SSA. Some libraries are only available if you have SSA. Pay attention to the right hand corner of the preview image. If you see "SSA" as part of the preview, then the library is free to anyone with SSA. You can also hover over the "I" button to get more info about the library.

This does not need to be complicated. These are basic options in the railing dialog that have been there for years now. Please reread my post #8 above and then look at Michael's picture in post #15. Or, for those that still need more help, take a look at the attached plan and picture created in X7. X7 glass panel rail.plan

Fun fact...you can change the panel to be any material you want, including glass.

You are using a symbol for your panel. The top and bottom rails you have are part of the symbol. These are designed to butt up against your newel post and can't be extended to go over the top. Instead of using a symbol for your panel, choose "Solid (With Rails)" for your panel type. You will now be able to have the top rail go over the posts and use a custom profile for your top rail if you want. You may also want to do the same thing for your railings around the stairwell on the floor above so that they will all match.

The "Send to Layout" options that are available depend on what rendering technique you are using. You can only send Standard render views as images. You can send Vector Views as plot line drawings.