DBCooper

I would check the system requirements here: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-03167/mac-models-compatible-with-chief-architect-x17-and-home-designer-2026.html Then, assuming your mac is on the list, I would call tech support on Monday.

Open the railing and turn on "follow terrain". I *think* "follow terrain" is the only thing that makes a railing into a fence.

Just remember that once you save a file in X17 that you won't be able to open it back up in X16. X17 can read X16 files no problem but X16 can't read X17 files. Also, the new project management in X17 takes some time to get used to it. If you are really set in your ways and don't want to have to learn a new system, you can always turn it off.

Open the camera dialog and look at the "lighting" section. See if your maximum number of lights is set to 8. If so, then change it to something larger than you need.

Since a room divider is just an invisible wall it looks like the stair ignores it.

@Doug_N As far as I know, those "handrail options" only work with the handrail you get along a wall.

Look for a different symbol. There is no easy way to isolate just that hood in an imported symbol. You could delete all of the surfaces you don't want and then build a new symbol out of it but that would be painful in the case above. It would be much easier to just create it yourself from scratch (and probably a good learning exercise). You could build that hood just using a poly solid for the ends and a box for the middle part. The one in the original picture would only be slightly more complicated because of the extra fillet on the box.

You could create a block symbol that "inserts into wall" and then just place them manually in the wall.

Open the layout box dialog and go to label page. Click on "edit" button next to "use callout". On callout label dialog, go to "attributes". There should be some controls for the text above the line and below the line. You can set it to match the callout text style or use a different text style if you want.

You can try turning on "transitions" in the stair dialog. You can even make them "smooth" if you want. The simple case you are showing will probably work but sometimes I see very strange things happen when you turn on transitions.

Post a picture of what you want to change.

If you still have the old version, you should be able to use that. Just open the plan and use the export 3D model tool. If you want to convert the .pl* files into .plan files, this tech article will tell you how to do it: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00279/opening-legacy-files.html Once you have converted them to .plan files, you will still need a version of the program that can open them and export the 3D model though.

Just an FYI, it looks like it's in both "active defaults" and "default sets" in X17.

Why not just use a fixed window and adjust the shape instead? All you really need to know is how high to raise the bottom on one side and drop the top on the other.

While I can see Ringos point that Joe's first post wasn't as helpful as it could have been, I think everyone kind of missed the target on this post. As useful as it is to know how to find and make your own materials, that probably isn't even needed in this case. And I'm not sure if I would ever go to the extreme of trying to model a concrete block wall using solids. Life is too short for that. In this case, all you really need to do is tell the program to use block walls for your foundation. Turns out that these are actually already built in to the program. When you go to build your foundation, right there in the dialog the program shows you what it will use for your stem walls. If you click on the "edit default foundation wall" button, it will open a new dialog where you can change the default wall type to "8" cmu (block) stem wall". If you have already built your stem walls and you want to change them from a solid concrete wall to a block concrete wall, then all you need to do is select them all and change the wall type. In either case, you should be done unless you want to change the look of the concrete blocks and then you can start playing around with either the wall types or materials.