Dermot

In the Layer Display Options dialog, we will display a symbol in the Used column. This symbol can be a "+", a picture of a "wrench", or an "S". The "+" means that an object is used in the plan somewhere. The "wrench" means that it is used in your defaults somewhere. And the "S" means that it is a system layer. Layers can be used for multiple things though so we use a priority for the symbol we display. We will always display the "+" if you have anything in the plan that is using a layer even if it is also used in defaults or a system layer. We will always display the "wrench" if it is used in defaults even if it is also a system layer. We will only display the "S" if it is not used in the plan or defaults. The good news is that if you hover over the symbol, you should get a pop-up hint that explains where it is being used. Hope this information helps.

You renamed the system layer for text and then you added a new custom layer with the same name as the original system layer name. This is probably not a good thing to do. I recommend that you don't rename system layers. All this does is lead to confusion. Open the Layer Display Options dialog and use the Reset Layer Names button to restore your system layers to their default names. When you copy text (or any other object), the layer does not change. In the first plan, the text in the plan is using the system layer for text and when you copy it to a new plan, it is still using the system layer for text. If the text is set to "default" for the layer, then all this means is that it is using the system layer for text. It doesn't matter that you renamed the system layer, it is still the system layer for text. We don't copy system layers because they already exist in every plan. The bottom line is that when we make a copy of an object we don't change the layer. You can't do what you are asking for. If you want us to modify the way the program works, then you need to ask for some new functionality with a feature request.

As for layers, when you copy text (rich or normal) from one plan to another, the layer will not change. I don't know of any way to change the layer when you paste*. If your text is using a custom layer that does not already exist in the new plan, the program will automatically copy the layer into the new plan. I believe this is also true for all other objects. *if you are pasting text from some other program, Chief will create a new text object that should follow your current text defaults. In theory, you can use the paste special tool to change the type of text but I don't think this is a very good solution for what you are trying to do.

How are you trying to create your camera view? If, for example, you are trying to create a full camera view and you are drawing it the wrong way in plan view, then your camera view might be blank. If you are using the perspective full overview tool and there is nothing in your model or all of the layers are turned off, then your view might be blank. These are just a couple of very simple guesses but there could be many, many different kinds of problems that could result in a blank screen. You need to give people more information or a plan if you want them to make better guesses. You might also want to check out this support article: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00021/troubleshooting-small-or-blank-camera-overviews.html Or if all else fails, then contact our technical support team during their normal business hours. https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/

Your mouse problems are most likely a hardware or system issue. If you can't solve the problems on your own, then you might want to try contacting technical support.

The answer is in your picture. Your library browser is only showing two windows and it should be showing 3. If you look near the top, you will see a horizontal bar with a dot in the middle. Select this and drag it down.

You should probably not ignore error messages when you get them. My guess is that there is something in your model that is causing the performance problems. Here are a couple of tech articles that might help you: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-03093/message-unable-to-perform-photon-mapping.html https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00010/speeding-up-a-ray-trace.html If not, then you might want to either post a plan or contact technical support.

It sounds like something is wrong with how you have modeled things. I would suggest either posting the plan to see if someone can figure out what is going on or contacting technical support for help.

Your counter top looks fine to me, except that the back line doesn't actually follow the wall. I liked the way you used a molding to create your skirt. You could also use many other ways to create the skirt such as a polyline solid, molding polyline, partition, etc. I see you placed your sink as a cad block. You should be able to place a sink symbol as a free-standing fixture and then just move it over the custom counter. You may need to manually adjust the height if you want it to look good in a camera view.

I don't know anything about "Homestyler" so I can't comment about that. You might want to look into seeing if you qualify for a student version of Chief Architect: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/academic/ Or, you might want to download the trial version of Chief Architect Interiors and give it a try: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/products/trial.html Or, you might also want to contact our sales department so that you can speak with someone more about your specific questions: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/company/contact.html

If you think you have found a bug, then please report this to our tech support team. Please don't ignore them or assume that someone else will report it. Also, it's best not to try and report them directly to me using this forum. While I try to keep an eye on these forums, I really don't have time to give them my full attention and we have a whole team of people working in tech support to help with these kinds of things.

See this similar post:

Those things are controlled by layers. Different views can use different layer sets. So yes, you can draw a dimension or display a label in one saved plan view and not have it display in another one. I would highly recommend that you also watch the video series I posted above.

Based on the limited information you have posted, this does not look like a bug. Objects in schedules are grouped based only on the text information that is displayed in the schedule. The preview image is not used for comparison. It is just a representation of the first door found by the program. In your pictures above, it looks like your schedule is including the door label that includes the hinge side, "L" or "R". Since the doors to the garage are mirrored, they do not match, as far as the schedule is concerned. If you want those doors to be grouped together, you will have to remove the hinge side information. If you have other doors grouped together that you don't want grouped, you will have to add some more information to the schedule that makes them different.

When you make a copy (or "duplicate") of a saved plan view, the program will not automatically make copies of the layer set or any of the other defaults that your saved plan view is using. So when you copied the Electrical Plan View and called it Plumbing Plan View it was still using the Electrical Layer Set. If you then went and turned layers on/off and modified the settings, you were changing the way both views looked. It was also still using the Electrical Dimension Defaults so if you made changes to them you would also affect how the dimensions work in both views. The same with any of the other defaults. So if you actually want to create a new saved plan view that is not sharing any layer settings or other defaults, you would also need to make copies of all of them. One way to do this is to right-click on the new Plumbing Plan View you created and then use the Edit View tool. If you go to the Selected Defaults panel, you will see that everything in your plumbing view is still using the electrical stuff. You will find lots more information in this video series: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/#playlist-100

Just an FYI, the "Toggle Patterns" tool will just turn on/off the layer called "Patterns, 3D Views".

The view on the top looks like it is using the standard render technique. The view on the bottom looks like it is using the vector view render technique. Render views will display textures and vector views will display patterns. It looks like your material has a texture but no pattern. If you want it to display a pattern in vector views, you will need to add one. You also need to make sure that the layer for patterns is turned on. You also need to make sure that your pattern lines are not the same color as your material. More information about materials can be found in this video series: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/playlists/170/materials-patterns-textures.html If that doesn't help, then you should either post a plan or contact technical support for additional help.

I don't think this has anything to do with the M1 but I don't really have enough information to make any good guesses. I would recommend that you either post your plan for someone to take a look at or contact tech support for more help.

Assuming that you still meet our qualifications, yes. See this web page for more info: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/academic/ If you still have questions, please contact our sales team at at 208-292-3400 or email sales@chiefarchitect.com.

Framing should work the same on all OS versions. X13 supports horizontal framing but previous versions do not. See if this training video helps: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/200/creating-horizontal-wall-framing.html

You might want to check out this tech 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 solve your problems, then I would recommend that you contact tech support: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/

The default roof rafter spacing can be specified in either the Build Roof dialog or the Build Framing dialog. The actual roof rafter spacing that is being used will be shown in the Roof Plane Specification dialog. If you change it in the Build Roof or Build Framing dialog, and your plan already has existing roof planes, they won't necessarily update. This will depend on whether or not you have Auto Rebuild Roofs turned on. If you want to change all of your existing roof planes, you could also use the Edit All Roof Planes tool. Once you have modified the rafter spacing, your roof framing still won't update automatically unless you have Automatically Build Roof Framing turned on. If it's turned off, you will need to manually rebuild your roof framing to see the changes. Normally, if you change the rafter spacing in the Build Framing dialog, you should see this message:

Auto Rebuild what? Walls, floor and ceilings? Roofs? Framing? Terrain? Dimensions? Foundations?

Joe is correct but maybe he was not clear enough. - Select the camera symbol in a plan view. - Open the Object Layer Properties dialog box. The layer called "Cameras, Labels" will control the label ("Elevation 1"). The layer called "Cameras, Wall Elevation" will control the camera symbol ("E1"). If you have put either your camera or the label on a different layer, then this dialog will display different layers. - Select the "Cameras, Wall Elevation" layer (or what ever layer your camera is on). - Select the appropriate size text style you want to use. If this does not work, then you should either post a plan or contact technical support.

I don't think that is possible, If you can reproduce that problem, then you should send in a bug report.