HumbleChief

Hey Thomas, can you reproduce the crashes? If not there's not much tech support can do to help but that's always the first step in my opinion in these cases. If you can reproduce the crashes then the first step is still a chat with tech support. Good luck and please keep us posted on a solution. EDIT: If by chance you can reproduce the crashes perhaps a plan posted here, describing the crashes, could give other users a chance to trouble shoot?

Would you mind sharing where that setting might be? Thanks

Currently when I Send to Layout it looks like Plot Lines are selected by default and I forget to change it manually to Live View which is what I prefer before I Send To Layout. I see that Chief will remember the last selection but is there a way to set that preference/default to Live View without first sending a view to Layout?

Lane if you can figure out how to turn on End and Start (I forget) of your wall you can adjust the angle by locking either. You can also add that angle to the allowed angles if that wall gets stubborn. Also holding the control key will allow free movement of the wall.

The garage of the plan I opened does not show as a monolithic slab foundation. I think if it were me I'd rebuild the foundation as a mono slab and set the garage floor height (which is usually 4 - 6" lower than the main room heights but can be the same) in the rebuild foundation dialog box. It will clean up the floor height issues.

I'm going to go with my theory above re: X12 Layout files. I'll see if I can find an exception to the theory...

I THINK I know what's happening. It looks like it could be loading X12 Layout PDF pages rotated incorrectly when opening an X12 file in X13. Could explain it's seemingly random behavior as I don't really know which file is/was X12 and which was not. I just tested an old template X12 Layout file and when opened in X13 the template's PDFs I have in the X12 plan are all rotated.

Don't think so as all previous PDF's (for many, many years) are sourced and loaded from a landscape orientation.

Thanks Mick, I import various PDF's from my structural engineer, Title 24 calcs and other vendors, not Chief plan files. This happens to be a stock PDF file provided by the County that we can use for what we call Accessory Dwelling Units. It's about 20 pages of predefined plans and spec's. that I imported into a Chief Layout that I can modify as needed. All 20 pages are rotated after saving them in landscape mode. Not sure why yet...

Everything printed in landscape and sent to Layout and looking OK. Reopen the file and they are rotated. Not every time and may not be able to duplicate behavior but has happened many times. Not a big deal, usually. This Layout has about 20 pages, all rotated. PIA. Anyone else seen this? I'll see if I can isolate the behavior.

It's been pretty consistent that my PDF files are rotated in X13. Anyone else see this behavior?

THANK YOU VERY MUCH. Like I posted, I was making it too difficult...

Probably making this too difficult but I have a house plan with 3 or 4 places with 45 degree corner conditions and hip roofs everywhere. Chief builds the hips dutifully as it should but it can't resolve the small hips as illustrated in the video and plan file. The framer doesn't care what the pitch is on these small hips as he'll just fill in the roof planes to match ridges but I would like to get the pitches corret for the model elevations etc. Can these pitches be calculated? Can Chief find the pitches automatically? THANKS ROOF PLAN ANGLES.plan

Reference display is your good, good friend. A little complex to grasp initially but incredibly powerful. I've simply defined a few different Ref Sets for different needs. https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/5435/using-the-reference-display.html

Pretty slick...

After re-reading your post the issue you describe that a new floor is added to the wrong building sounds like you may be thinking that Building B needs its own separate and unique second floor? Remember that since this is a single plan file, once that second floor is created for Building A there is ALREADY a second floor available for Building B. Simply go to Building B, select the floor you want to draw on (first, second or third which are already there from Building A) and start drawing Building B's floor plan. If that solves the initial post's issues then there are more questions like how many buildings? Different first floor heights? Flat terrain? Sloped? I prefer using a single plan file for multiple buildings for the (interactive, changeable) reasons Glenn states. If there are too many buildings and the plan file gets unwieldy for the computer's power then symbols work but each symbol is then a static representation that can only be changed by opening each building's plan file, make changes, recreate a symbol and re-import that symbol.

I thought I'd try an AMD CPU for my latest build and could not be happier with the machine in my signature. Not saying one brand is better than the other and this isn't the only thread with computer problems so most likely very isolated to the OP's particular setup. Not much help I'm afraid and hope you get it fixed. Can we assume you've talked with tech support?

Glad you got it figured out and don't feel bad I've used Chief for over 20 years and had no idea that it behaved that way nor how to fix it.

It's not "the first release of this new feature" and you know my feelings about the chances of them actually improving this tool. I would LOVE to be wrong but my guess is it ain't gonna happen. Down votes please...aaand thank you..

VERY helpful Thanks. And hope it helps the OP.

This^^ Not the easiest thing to understand with Chief but in your sample plan if all of the walls are deleted and new room created, IN THE SAME LOCATION it will be called Fluffy as Chief "remembers" the previous room name over that location. There's some good things Chief does with this behavior but in a lot of cases it's pretty disturbing, and hard to understand to be honest.

Is that wall defined as a foundation wall? And instead of a 'sample' plan can you attach the actual plan that is showing the problem?

Seems like 2 issues? The plan you attached reproduces Fluffy rooms with each wall addition as Chief is taking the original room name and applying it to the newly created rooms. Not seeing or getting the "bath" issue as described above in the OP. Also Chief does apply certain rules to certain room 'types'. The rooms in the plan you attached are defined as "Court". Is there a reason for that? What if they were defined as bedrooms or living rooms? Still not getting the bath issue as described above.

"Fluffy wants a foundation..." that's adorable. Sounds like a new Disney movie. Better yet perhaps post the plan here so others might help.

I have, of course, custom tool bars that I wonder if they would load in another system? Love the 'normal' tool bars. Is there really such a thing as normal tool bars?