DeLayDesign

Try copying the attic walls that are cut by roof into a duplicate of the wall, but mark it Partition.

I've also come from a background using Softplan. I was in that world for three years. It runs very similar to ChiefArchitect. Neither are without issues. Recently we hired someone who comes from a REVIT background. As I have been teaching him Chief nearly every other sentence from his mouth is; 'wow, Revit make doing that a bit more complicated'

We build all of our second story addition over existing ceilings this way. We've always just thickened up the floor structure in Chief, but I would love a way to change the direction of floor and ceiling joists so they aren't stacked running the same direction. We don't always run then perpendicular to the ceiling, but sometimes we do. The reason we don't sister is the added floor structure allows for HVAC and plumbing with ease. I know this thread is old, but has anyone found a solution?

Hi @ChristinaW In order for the attic to be usable space, it needs to be built like a floor. So your plan will tech have '3 floors' Once you've accomplished that it's a matter of forcing your roof to sit at the correct plate height (AKA - the second floor wall height) Once you've done that Chief should understand what you're trying to do. I'm not entirely sure why it's not building the attic wall for you now, it should be; but it's hard to know without seeing the plan file.

This has been an issues for as long as I've used Chief. It's unfortunate an frustrating. It seems to happen for my team more when they have 'custom' buttons or toolbars active. I've been able to restore them by importing the tool bar again, although it doesn't always work. Back with version 10.08 we use to have to make a copy of the toolbars folder, rename the old toolbars folder as something else, then paste the copies version back into the main folder in order to get them to re-establish. (C:\Program Files\Chief Architect\Chief Architect Premier X13) or in your case X12. Good luck!

Without access to the file it might difficult to know exactly what you happened. My first stop would be to check your materials under the 'materials' area of the wall dialog box. Perhaps you accidentally painted the exterior material with a transparent finish - like Glass?

Hey Experts. I need to create a framing plan, but when I 'build framing' it's showing everything including the existing structure. What is your tip on only showing what's new? Thanks so much!

Google actually has an add on, but I use Screen-o-matic. The free version allows up to 30 mins of recording time.

It worked great in X13; but ha been 'broken' along the way. Chief released a new update, I think Friday that resolves the flooring issue you have there... They still need to work out the kinks of the header when the bay intrudes into a porch area though.

Nice! Would love a link to the actual 3D warehouse file! If you import it as a 'molding' instead of a fixture, you can use it as a 3D molding. Rock Wall Molding.mp4

Hey Gene, As long as you have your terrain elevations set the way you wan them, you can use the 'Polyline distribution region' tool and use Chief's 3D rocks You can layer distribution regions ontop of each other with different stones in each to get a more unique look. Finding someone on 3D warehouse is always a good idea too.

Hey Gene, Can you open the appliance/ door/ drawer/ option by clicking on Specify. Then for the top and bottom overlay change that to 3/4"?

2D plants can show shadows, just not in PBR (apparently). Turning off Refractions does resolve the image files not showing up through a window, but does not seem to help with Shadows. This is something Chief says they are 'working on resolving'

For something like that the 'easiest' way to get it to at least look the way you need is with Polysolids. It looks flat on two sides, so opening an elevation and drawing it with a polysolid would get you the look quickly. If all the sides need to slope, you could also build it using walls up to where it begins to angle in and draw a molding polyline around it and having the poly line be some kind of angled molding. You can create one pretty quickly on you floor plans and add it to your library. I created quick, be it sloppy, video for you to see how to create a custom molding. Custom Shaped Chimney.mp4

Chief says it's a known issue and they are working on it, but they gave a similar option to what you recommended. My issue with it, is a lack of 'glass' texture in windows would take away from the realism. I can use 3D plants to accomplish the look as well, but most of my planting beds are saved using Image files. I would just need to take time to update the beds w/ 3D items, which is just annoying more than anything. I suppose my biggest grip with it, is it seemed to work fine in other versions, but X14 is really struggling.

You could try offsetting the posts the 1 13/16" (not sure it's just my chief or how they have it programmed, but anything less than 1 13/16 will cut the panel). Then whatever 'panel' you are using for the railings, open it in symbol editor and offset it in the "y" position 1 3/4". If it's a chief installed or manufacture's panel, you'll need to copy it into your own custom library first in order to edit it. I don't have the particular railing the person in the video before me has so you'll want to try to find or build one that matches the style you're looking for. Once it's saved, you should be able to access it from your library as a panel whenever you want. Deck Railing.mp4

Hey Experts, I've already reached out to Chief about this issue, but I was curious if I was the only one who is experiencing it. I've during a PBR when doing an interior Physics Based Render, the plant image files You can see through windows for exterior landscaping disappear. Even though they are active. Additionally doing exterior PBRs the plant files don't appear to be casing a shadow. If I run a normal retrace everything works fine. Plant files show up and plant files create shadows in normal raytracer. In my examples (no where near complete) you can see what I'm referring to. Am I the only one? Vector View Interior PBR Interior PBR Exterior Normal Raytracer Exterior

Some of our older PCs had issues with this as well. We have tried a number of things as well. Try turning off Time Tracker. The freeze for most of my team happens after Chief idles for 5 mins. I suspect the pop up is triggering something with MacAfee which is the antivirus we recently switched to (I hate it) I suspect the antivirus is triggering your issue like you stated. We had to white list Chief as a non-threat for Microsoft defender. We installed X14 on someone's PC that didn't have MacAfee yet and Microsoft wouldn't allow the install bc it saw it as a 'Ransomware Threat'

Oh!? I had no idea. I've always just 'clipped' the image with the 'clipping tool' from Microsoft. I'll give the image exporter a try.

The company I do full-time work for has similar issues. WE ended up breaking down and buying a new laptop for everyone who's laptop was older than 5 years. At first we thought it was our virus protection. At the same time we upgraded to X14, we also switched to McAfee. Chief has stated they have had issues with McAfee and their software with past version; so I'm suspicious this may be the case with X14. Every time the software goes to ideal for some folks it will freeze but not go unresponsive. We think it has something to do with the time tracker, so we switched it off on some PC's. Unfortunately and fortunately, we received the new PCs so I'm unsure if the freezing ever got resolved. When we uninstalled McAfee and let Microsoft defender take over, defender considered Chief a threat of ransomware. Perhaps your antivirus is doing the same thing? Try adding it to your 'white list' of software you trust and see if the lag goes away. Personally, X14 is a bit of a mess for me. I'm finding new irritations every week... so I'm hoping there is a patch soon.

Are the walls above brick veneer? If so you can adjust the brick ledge by opening the wall type and changing it in the wall perimeters.

Yes! We are noticing that some PCs that work fine with X13 are having major issues with X14. Slow to load library on start up, crashing, freezing etc. We think part of the issue is our Antivirus software (just switched to McAfee - which has been known to cause issues in past version of Chief Architect). We are experimenting with turning off the time tracker to see if it keeps the program from freezing when the time tracker dialog idle kicks open.

Good point! I only recommended whitelisting Chief because that was a solution their customer support recommended.

I'm sure it's not; but today my college and I discovered a few issues with antivirus protection and how it interacts with Chief Architect. We've been upgrading the company's computers to X14, some of them are older pc's but Chief X13 has been working great on those units so we figured there wouldn't be any issues with X14. At the same time we also switched the company from Malwarebytes to McAfee (no one wanted this). McAfee has been causing a few issues with programs, google chrome, and Chief X14 doesn't seem to work great on everyone's PC. The software would seemingly freeze for some unknown reason, but always around the 5 min. mark of letting it idle. We are experimenting with the Time tracker being turned off. It seems to be working for the most part. Talking with Chief Architect about this issue, they did let me know that they did have issues with McAfee a few versions ago, but that they hadn't heard any issues with X14. Interesting. So we tried uninstalling McAfee from one of the pc's that was about to get the upgrade and something strange happened. We couldn't get X14 to install properly. The X14 data folder that goes into your 'documents' wouldn't show up, even after it would say it installed successfully. Opening Chief X14 and it would just crash over and over again because it couldn't connect to the missing folder, an issue I've never run into before, and I field a lot of questions from the team. I had to turn to the IT guy who through the power of google (Why didn't I think of that?) discovered that some virus softwares have issues with Chief. None being installed on this computer we discovered that Microsoft's defender was blacklisting Chief Architect as a ransomware threat! A quick 'add' to the whitelist and 'pop'... the missing folder showed up and X14 worked as intended. We have notified Chief of the situation; but I'm curious as to why this is happening. I don't know enough of the inner workings of Chief Architect to know what would cause Microsoft or any other third-party antivirus software to think it was a threat.

I was told I was using a 3D object that had too many faces to it. I did receive this warning when I opened the plan after closing it but thought nothing of it. I was trying to use a 'live edge' to get a more realistic look to the stone cap. When I changed it back to a normal molding the issue resolved itself. Thanks @ChiefArchitectfor the explanation.