Kbird1

I think in Pro the Stairs Defaults are chosen by the Template you use to start the Plan ( Cottage,Arts and Craft,Urban Chic etc) and not all of them are changeable IIRC.... eg the type of Rail or Newel these are some Pics I made years ago of each one for my own reference , not sure if they still are all the same.... amer.cas. A&C Col. Cottage Default Med. T.Trad. U.Chic

the previous people had there issue resolved with a Nvidia Driver update.....which won't help you since you are using Intel's HD 4600 I have not installed the latest update (.8) as I read that it was only a Menu Update for Academic Users.....ie if it aint broke..... and have not seen the issue.... sorry I am not much help but perhaps reinstalling an earlier version if you have the patch to .7 for eg may work ...but if you can you should call support 1st perhaps... KB.

Great community around here , you'll learn alot by just hanging out and reading..... just make sure the plan is closed in CA before you try to attach it ....no need to zip it if under 25mb.... M.

because you have manually played with the foundation and auto rebuild is off you will need to do as Eric and Shane suggested and break the wall and do it manually. M.

Render views use the graphics card, that's why a single reasonable spec Nvidia gaming card is recommended by CA , (even a 1050ti 0r 1060 is probably ok) as CA does not utilize SLI ( made that mistake way back) they do not recommend spending extra on the Quadro line either as there is no benefit in CA unlike for some other CAD and CAM Programs. If there was a budget issue or you were building a system yourself you could likely pull one of the dual cards for another system and not lose too much performance in CA especially since alot of the work is in 2D anyway. I have a system with a EVGA 950SC which is okay with CAX9 , my main system with the 980ti is quicker but it wasn't a OMG difference in Render Views , I think the 500GB PCIE m2 drive made more of an impact.....they are about 4 times the speed of a standard SATA SSD eg the 850 EVO. M.

Even my Surface 3 will run Chief , I use it if working out of town mostly , but it is no speed demon especially in 3D as it only has the integrated Intel HD Graphics. I use a mini display-port to HDMI adapter to view it on larger screens if needed. An option maybe a 15.6" gaming laptop for transporting and then connect it to a larger monitor in the Office.... Lenovo, Acer, Asus, MSI, all have options in that category... a few are mentioned in this thread.....

Viki's post last week has some good info in it if you missed it ? Also Dual cards in Chief are not much benefit as it does not use SLI either rendering or Raytracing (RT is CPU bound so more cores are better), A GTX 1070 is plenty for 3D CAD , better to put the extra into RAM or a .M2 PCIE SSD drive like the Samsung 960 EVO.

Your 1st image shows a weird wall section exactly where the shadow board stops , so have a look into that.... close the plan and attach a copy of it if you need more help ...there is WAY to much guessing without a plan file to look at....

you maybe able to use the Split Framing Option on the Double Wall Tab too , see this tutorial on the knowledge base... https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00925/using-marriage-walls.html

If new to Chief check out the Documentation if you don't already have it... the Tutorial Guide Steps you through many things (600pgs) , not sure if the X7 version is still available or as good but most of the basics are there as some stuff hasn't changed in years... : https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/documentation.html the Knowledge Base (KB) is worth checking out too: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/database.html eg creating layouts....https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00737/creating-and-using-layout-templates.html or this sections of the Videos (caveat is that SSA maybe needed for Videos) https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/#playlist-105

Forgot I had this library from the Design Diva that has 1 grass material in it , it is from 2015 so should work with X8 i think..... Also there are some textures mentioned in a thread here : Design Diva_Roofing+Grass.zip

382.05 that came out in May is a very stable Nvidia Driver , though I just updated to 388.0 yesterday and have not noticed any issues (yet?) on a desktop 980ti Card. M.

I will 2nd this comment as I do similar Work , the ML only has in it what is modelled , ie no glue, nails, screws, hangers etc on the "hardware side" , and generally allows no waste %, not all calculations are 100% accurate or done the Industry Standard way etc , so be careful. Unfortunately the ML portion of CA has not been programmed by/with help from a Quantity Surveyor , it only extracts exactly whats in the model , so using workarounds etc can alter quantities or they aren't reported at all.... personally I find CA's ML alot of work and I don't trust it , I wouldn't use it for a fixed priced Contract for sure... M.

there are new free grass textures in the Library , hopefully one will work for you ..... here : https://3dlibrary.chiefarchitect.com/index.php?r=site/detail/1058

There are CAD Images in the Library with trees by the look.... but don't know what you need these for 3D renders or Elevations etc? https://3dlibrary.chiefarchitect.com/index.php?r=site/detail/765 can you import those trees from Sketchup perhaps?

I assumed Chief Certification when I read it .... https://www.chiefarchitect.com/training/chief-architect-certification.html

I think the Tech maybe trying to get Viki to buy a new system from him/her perhaps ???

edit : what JJ said precuts depend on where you are locally and even which lumberyard you use so ask ...... this is in California but these are also my local suppliers precut lengths ie for 8' it is 92 1/4 http://haywardlumber.com/product/pre-cut-studs/

Ouch $1700 to reinstall windows and some programs ? $200-300 hour? offer to pay your neighbour's kid a $100 to do it just make sure all your Chief Files/folders and other important documents are backed up to an external drive 1st At that age it maybe that the Motherboard has issues leading to the BSODs, and there is no repairing that Ram is likely DDR3 so won't re reusable...I had the same issue upgrading from my 960 but the 1060 GFX card is still very usable , perhaps the HD too but a new comp should have a 500GB SSD to install Win10 and most of your programs on..... the old HD can still be used for storage/data backups assuming you are right about it's condition etc. A number of people here like the Dell Alienware systems actually , there have been a few threads lately on new computers on this forum and in the Chatroom including laptops... M.

it sound like chief is having trouble drawing the 0" thickness layers you defined so you are getting what is call Z-fighting (shimmering effect), make the layers 1/32" each and make the 2x4 3 7/16" thick so the wall thickness isn't altered instead. I couldn't find the shiplap wall....but best as Eric said to add a shiplap layer for those walls using a new walltype instead. I am not sure why you have a 0 " thick insulation layer on one side of you interior walls? it's also outside the drywall? if it was meant to be soundproofing in the wall? just check the INS box in the wall definition on the 2x4 Stud line.....see the images below...

Clean up your template as I did in post 47 and it seems to work ok afterwards , I am sure that house won't take you long to redraw on the Clean Template... M.

Me either ? probably I was in too much of a rush to get out of the Office and missed a Setting? .....post you plan and I'll check... I am sure the OP can use it too. Here we would put the vertical Insul. on the outside of the foundation wall and the whole slab would have 4" of rigid under it. On the inside is better than nothing and means you don't need to protect the Foam from Damage on the exterior though... eg with a cap and Stucco....

yours specs don't seem bad , are you on a SSD or standard hard drive? been a few years since I ran windows off a HD and now I have a .M2 PCIE SSD things are pretty quick. You can always reinstall Win10 Clean if you think it is a bloatware issue....

This type of Foundation is the goto Foundation in NZ ( and Oz?) in alot of areas , so the Guys and Gals from Downunder may have some pointers for you but as Eric has shown it can be done , it may just be a PITA 1st time around as you will need a new foundation wall type etc setup. I haven't tried it but the top block with the inside only 1/2 height/thickness maybe difficult to show but i think you could use a ponywall with 8" thick CMU as the lower wall and 4" thick CMU as the upper wall to get close. **edit ...the ponywall does work ( set both heights to -8) but the Slab doesn't auto fill the floor to the 4" block but you can always use a custom slab to do that

I found that if I didn't delete the Floor on level 1 the issue remained, (marquee select>delete didnt fix the issue) so I used the easy Delete Floor command to do that , but as you noticed it Deleted your "Warehouse" too .....the easy fix there is to Marquee select the whole "Warehouse" and Copy it ( don't paste yet) go up to Build>Floor> Delete current Floor for both level 1 and 0 (foundation) , now Insert a Floor if you no longer have a level 1 ( may only have Attic Level now ) , NOW right click on level 1 and chose Paste Hold position and you should have your "Warehouse" Back. Or just download this plan ...... seems to work ok now for me ...see saved cameras. Humbles_stem_wall_height_2.plan