DBCooper

First, your pictures above are super small which makes it pretty hard to see what is going on.  I am currently working on a laptop remotely and it's already too small for a lot of normal stuff.  So basically I can't tell what the warning message says so I can't offer much advise.

Second, there are two common reasons why you might not be able to convert a polyline into a terrain perimeter.  One is that the polyline you selected is not "closed".  The second, which what I think is going on with your plan, is that you already have a terrain perimeter in the plan.  Chief only allows one terrain perimeter at a time.  If some of the other terrain stuff is enabled but not the perimeter, then this almost always means that you already have a perimeter.

My guess is that when you went through  the import process that the program automatically built a terrain perimeter to hold the other elevation data you imported (only it's probably not going to be the size/shape you want).  You might be able to get around this by building the perimeter first and then importing the elevation data into it.  You also might be able to import the perimeter directly but this may or may not be easy with the data you are importing.  

Importing terrain can sometimes be tricky depending on the data you have.  You could always post the DWG file for someone else to take a look at and give you recommendations on how to import it.

There is also a tech article that has some info that might help here:

https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00719/importing-terrain-elevation-data-from-a-dwg-or-dxf-file.html

A dogear arch can be set to left or right side only.  Unfortunately, it can only be set to a 45 degree angle which may not match the slope of your stairs exactly.  Also, if you are using a symbol for the door, it will stick out of the corner which may not be a big deal if it doesn't show.  You can get around this by using one of the parametric door styles, like "panel" which will be built to fit in the opening.

If 45 degrees isn't going to work for you, then you could maybe use a pass-thru which has the "shape" page and then you can get the corner you need.  You will then have to manually place a door symbol and put it in the opening.  It's too bad they still don't have the shape page for doors because that would be really good for cases like this.

As far as I can tell, the "interactive material editor" will only let you offset, scale, or rotate a material.  These are all things you can also do in the material definition dialog but it can be easier to see what you will get when working in a 3D view.  If the actual texture is not right, then this tool probably won't help much.

From your first picture, it looks like the problem you are having is that your material is not "tiling" or "wrapping" correctly.  I think you need to be pretty good with a photo editor program to make a material like that so it will wrap correctly and look good when mapped on surfaces.  I know it can be done, but I am probably not the right person to tell you how to do it.

This sounds like something that the "material builder" might be able to do.  I have seen some pretty good things done as examples but I have not played much with it myself so again I am not the right person to tell you how.  There is a video about how to use it that may help get you started you though:

https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/10301/custom-tile-materials-new-material-builder.html

Quote

 

But here is my dilemma. Say I delete window W19, but I still want window W20 and the others after it to retain their original designation.

When changes are made during the bidding process and I delete a window and they are renumber on my plans then the window quotes don't align with my plans.

 

As far as I can tell, this is how it is already supposed to work.  If you delete W19, you will have a "hole" in your schedule and W20 should be the same.  Now if you add any new windows, they might get added in the slot at W19 instead of at the end.  You could drag it to the end, but unfortunately, it will then move W20 into the W19 slot.  Also, there might be some other things you can do that will force the schedule to renumber even without you using the "renumber" tool.  Not sure what all these are though but my guess is that this is what you are running into.

Another thing you could do is convert the schedule into a normal text table which would remove any automatic behavior.  You would then have to manually edit the table to add or remove any windows and you would also lose your automatic callouts.  

See if this helps:

https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-02963/features-introduced-in-each-version-of-chief-architect.html

Then, you might want to try the X17 trial version to play around with it yourself.

https://www.chiefarchitect.com/products/trial.html

You can create as many different materials as you like in either your plan or in your library. 

I don't think it makes sense to create copies of library materials with different position offsets though because these are going to usually be very specific to where you are using the material in a plan.  I would only make copies of the library materials if you want to make them visually different for things like changing the scaling, colors, textures, etc.

FYI, I wasn't the one who gave you the down vote.  Not sure why someone did, maybe they didn't like the cryptic title to this post?  Personally, I like more descriptive topics (but not really long ones!) so that I can tell if I want to look further.  Maybe something like "How do I edit my posts later?".  Not sure if you can change your post titles later because I very rarely start new ones.

As for making changes to your posts later, if you look at the top right of your post you will see 3 dots.  Click on these and you will see the "edit" as well as a "delete" option.

Sometimes it is better to start a new topic, such as when you want to bring up a new issue or question, and other times it is better to continue a thread, such as when you want to add some very related info to the original topic.  It's really just a judgement call.  

Quote

I have the same problem with 15 and wall not able to delete. Anyway I can do this easly? 

I haven't had any plans where the invisible walls get added automatically since they got rid of the "connect island rooms" checkbox.  You should post your plan and someone might be able to figure out what is going on.  Or, just turn off the layer they're on.

I don't think there is a way to do this automatically but maybe someone else can come up with a hack.  You might want to send Chief a feature request if this is something you really want:

https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/forum/8-suggestions/

This is actually the forum for Chief, not Home Designer.  The forum for HD is here:  https://hometalk.chiefarchitect.com/

That said, Chief has a toolbar button and hotkey (F8) to turn the color on/off.  Maybe you accidently turned it off?

Probably not but "flared" stairs might work good enough.

So typically what you want to do is first select the object that is located by the dimension and then select the dimension # you want to change. If you have a true point-to-point dimension, then there should be a marker at each end so you would need to select the marker first and then move it by typing in the dimension value.  Sometimes other things can block the movement though.

In your case, changing the dimension rounding (as suggested by Michael) will probably work fine but I wouldn't do that with more important things like walls where you want them located correctly or other things can get messed up.  Another thing you can do in cases like this is just override the dimension value that is displayed.

A normal curved stair in Chief can only be a simple arc with one radius.  If you need a J-shaped stair, you will need to have multiple sections with different radius.  Might want to start with cad lines for the centerline just to figure out the correct path and radius to use.  Good luck.

Quote

 

Is this on a wish list?  Seems like something any modern cad program shold be able to do

 

Not unless someone sent it into to Chief.  If it is something you want, you should send in a suggestion:  https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/forum/8-suggestions/

Chief is getting confused by your foundation (for some reason probably related to your walls).  If you select the terrain, and use the "make terrain holes around building" tool, you will see the hole that it is using.  This hole has holes in it which is why you can still see the terrain inside the building. 

So one way to solve this is to turn off "hide terrain intersected by building", select the exterior room by clicking on an exterior wall and using next, and then use the "make room polyline" tool, and then convert it into a terrain feature, and then make it a hole.  You could also just edit the polyline made by the make terrain hole tool or draw it yourself manually.  Since your building shape was complicated enough I think auto generating the polyline from the exterior room was a good shortcut.

Not sure what that flag pole is btw.  It looks like it might be coming from a bad wall connection which may or may not have anything to do with the terrain hole problem. You might want to see if you can figure that one out and if not someone might be able to help.

You can turn off the opening indicators for the whole cabinet which should work in your case. 

Open the schedule dialog and turn off the "group similar objects" option.

Also, just as an FYI, objects in schedules are always grouped according to the text that is shown in the schedule.  So depending on what columns you have turned on, you may get objects that are grouped together that you don't want grouped.  You can always add columns to show data that is different, sometimes even just notes, to get your objects on separate rows.

Also, just as another FYI, best to post your general questions in the Q&A forum instead of the sales or chatroom (and you should only need to post it once).  And the use of all caps is considered yelling in online forums so most people prefer normal case.

Need to make sure you are editing the correct dimension defaults for the view you are working in.  Double-clicking on the dimension button should take you there.

Need to make sure you change the locate settings for "locate auto exterior".

Quote

While we're at it... anyone know how to have the "%room.dimensions%" macro show from framing instead of finished drywall?

You could try something like this:

%(room.dimension1+1.in).to_s("'-\"")% x %(room.dimension2+1.in).to_s("'-\"")%

I just drew the addition using normal walls and then built the deck off it.  Would need to add proper support beams and posts but seems pretty straight forward.  Not sure why you are losing the top of the wall above the deck though.  You might want to post your plan.

I think the camera callouts will always use the text style for the camera layer, not the camera label layer.

You might be able to get what you want easier using a "room divider" instead of a cad line or framing member.  I just made some room dividers and marked them as "no room def" and then put the length and angle in the label.

Also, if you want to change your "defaults" and then make it so that new plans will start with these defaults, you will need to setup your plan template to have them.  This tech article might help:

https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00463/creating-and-using-plan-templates.html

Another thing is that when you need there to be a 3/4-way switch, you will have to manually place the 3/4-way switch because the automatic stuff won't work when they are not actually connected.  Just place the switch directly from the library and it should stick to be what you need.

My guess is that you don't have your walls on the first floor properly defined/connected.  If you don't have at least one room, you will not get any foundation walls.  Could be other things too so if this doesn't help, you probably want to post your plan.