DBCooper

Could be a lot of things.  Maybe your roof finish layers got messed up somehow.  Maybe your material list layer set has things turned off that shouldn't be.  If you want something better than  guess, you should probably post your plan.

Quote

Unlike other appliances there is no way to select the item and manually change the dimensions. 

Actually, there are a few ways to do this. 

You can just use the tab key to select the cooktop after you have selected the cabinet.  Then you can resize it using the edit handles or use "open object" to do it through the fixture dialog.

You can also use the "open symbol" edit toolbar button when you have selected the cabinet.

You can even edit if from the cabinet dialog by going to the "accessories" page and looking for the edit button next to the "top appliance".

Had another thought... 

Are you using the latest update (27.3.2.5)?  If not, you should definitely install the latest update.  I think they fixed a bug that was related to problems with dishwashers from legacy plans.

If neither of these help, then you might want to post your plan or contact tech support again.

Quote

Is there also a way to have the basement as 001, 002, 003... and then the Main Floor as 101, 102, 103.. and then I can just re-order them?

This is super easy, as long as you are OK with creating a separate schedule for each floor:

    1.  set the schedule to only include objects from floor 1.

    2.  change the schedule number prefix to "W1" or just "1".

    3.  make sure "include leading zeroes" is checked.

    4.  create another schedule for each floor and change the floor number and prefix to either 0 or 2 or whichever floor you need.

Now if you want it to look like one schedule, you could remove the title and column headers from the extra schedules and position them next to each other.  You just need to keep making manual adjustments if your column or row sizes change.  There are other ways to do this but they are more complicated.

Are you using the new dishwashers from X17 (from your picture, it doesn't look like it)?  If you just migrated your X16 libraries and never updated them, then you probably are not.   You should make sure your libraries are up to date in X17.

If you are using the new dishwashers, then the answer is that you don't insert them into cabinets anymore.  Just place your dishwasher as a freestanding appliance next to your cabinets the same way you would a stove.  You might then want to move it out from the wall to align it with either the front of the cabinet box or the door panels because by default they will be back against the wall.

Can't you just export the project, which is supposed to create a complete copy with all of the references, and then delete it?

This tech article might help:

https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-03212/exporting-projects-and-disconnected-files.html

X17 is going to work differently than older versions when you have project management turned on.  So you can either turn off the project management or learn how to use it.

These might be a good starting point:

https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-03217/working-with-the-project-browser-using-project-management.html

https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-03205/copying-projects-or-files-using-project-management.html

Or, if you just don't want to learn how to use it:

https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-03210/enabling-or-disabling-project-management.html

You might need to make sure your dimension defaults are set to locate framing.  I am able to use all of the dimension tools except the interior and centerline.  It makes sense that an interior dimension wouldn't work in details since it is only going to have framing and 2D cad but I'm not sure why the centerline dimension is disabled since you can use it in other views to locate the center of framing.

Quote

1: Is there a way to cause the schedule in the attached example file to combine all like wall types into one row, regardless of differing sq ft areas?

2: Can the schedule total numeric results of macro scripts?

I almost got it.  You need to set your sq ft custom object fields to "format as a number" and then you can set your schedule to "calculate total" and "sum similar rows" for these columns.  Unfortunately, your custom macro gives you an "error" for the non-pony walls but this might be something you can fix in your custom macro by having it just return 0 for these cases instead of "n/a".

So manual roofs is probably the easy way to go but just as an FYI, you can also do this style of roof using the automatic tools.  Should be able to do it using invisible walls or even using roof baseline polylines.  Here is an article that shows how to do it in one of the Home Designer versions that doesn't even have manual roofs:

https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/support/article/KB-01197/creating-a-prow-roof.html

I have no idea why that drawer panel would have the stretch plane setup that way.  You could make a copy of it and fix it like Molly is suggesting.  It also looks like it is just a plain old slab so instead of using the "benton drawer" symbol in your cabinet defaults, you could just switch it to the built in "slab drawers".

Might want to post this on the "seeking services" forum instead.  Might want to call Chief to see if there is anyway you can renew your student license for a short period so you can do this yourself.  Also, you can always rent Chief for just a month.

@davaze I don't think X12 even had CPU raytracing so you are comparing apples to oranges.  X17 is going to take advantage of features of the video card that X12 doesn't use so it should be no surprise that it can run into problems that X12 won't.  As for using outdated drivers, seems more like a video card issue than a Chief issue to me, but regardless, you just need to find a driver that works.

The only thing I can think of that might cause a problem like that is maybe a messed up symbol being used for the drawer front.  If you post your plan, someone could probably look at it and figure it out more quickly.

If your first floor walls do not form at least one room, either because they are properly connected or any of them are marked as "no room definition", then you will not get any walls on your second floor.

If it's not one of those problems, then you probably should post the plan.

"Add an arrow" just adds an arrow automatically when you click ok and close the dialog.  It's not an "attribute" or "setting" so the next time you open the dialog, it will not be checked.  If you check it again, you will get another arrow and it might be hidden because it is on top of the old one.  It's actually pretty dumb and you don't have any control over where the arrow starts and ends until you edit it manually.  You can also just draw the arrow manually using the "diamond" handle when the text is selected or by using the "text line with arrow" tool.  Personally, I like to use the diamond handle because it gives you more control.

You can always tell when the arrow is connected by looking at the end handles when you select it.  When they are both filled, as you show in your picture above, then it is connected to both the text object and to the wall.  If one or both of them is not filled, then it is not connected and your macro won't work.

I am still not sure why you would lose the connections when you close and reopen the plan.  It could be because you have multiple arrows on top of each other.  It could be because you have bad settings in the arrow itself (like Joe mentioned in his post).  Be sure that the arrow is marked as "attach tail" and "attach head" otherwise it will never work.  I don't think the auto position matters unless you are moving either the text or the wall around.  It could be something else, but we would need the plan to know more.

This post probably doesn't belong on the suggestions forum.  Sounds more like a support issue or a Q&A issue.

You didn't say which version you are using or if you have the latest update. 

I haven't seen this problem myself and don't remember seeing any other posts on it.  It might be something different that you are doing instead of a bug in the program.  Seems a shame to give up before you have figured out what the problem is.

Post your plan that you are having problems with.  Then someone can look into it and see if they can figure it what might be the cause.

Or, contact tech support.  It's free with your subscription.  I haven't used them in years but had good luck with them in the past.

If your computer doesn't meet the minimum system requirements (https://www.chiefarchitect.com/products/sysreq.html), then you can either upgrade to a better computer or contact customer service to get your money back.

If your computer does meet the system requirements, then you might want to contact tech support (https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/).  You could also try posting your problems on the Q&A forum to see if someone has ideas about how to solve them.

See if the stovepipe is really on the exterior furniture layer.  Select it in the view you can see it in and check the status bar to see the layer it's on.

Also, probably want to use a better description for you post in the future.  You can always add a signature that has your company name or other info.

I couldn't find a setting to do this.  As a workaround, you could use a bottom rail, make it smaller, and then offset it so that it is hidden inside the stringer.

Use the "horizontal offset" to move the railing outward.  Turn off the bottom rail and use the "raise/lower bottom" to drop the balusters down.  Use the "bottom offset" to drop the newel posts down.

There are lots of other settings in the railings that you might need to adjust to handle the rest of that railing style.  For example, you will need to change the size and offsets of the top railing to get that look and you might want to use a symbol for your balusters and newels if you want the tops and bottoms angled.

Are you using the "export picture" tool?  Do you have "retain aspect ratio" checked?  I think if you don't have retain aspect ratio, and you turn off "use active window size", you can accidently squish or stretch the picture.  If you need the image to be a different aspect ratio, then either set your window size first or edit the picture in a photoshop type program to crop it after exporting it.

I wouldn't bother with a "down" ramp.  Just use a normal "up" ramp.  Set the width and length to the width and length of of the room and turn off the railings. Turn off automatic heights, check the box for "lock heights", and then set the base height to 0, the bottom of the ramp to 0 (or to the floor height), and the top of the ramp whatever you need it to be.  Ramp should then sit on the floor and slope up as much as your need to the top height.

As for the room heights, just treat it like a normal room with floor height set to the lowest value.

Ramp should work if the room is rectangular.  Would probably want to use a poly solid for any other shaped room.

I think there is a way, but it will be a bit of a pain because you will need to do it for each unique roof plane.

Start with an orthogonal full overview.  You will need to turn off everything you don't want to see.  You can do this by putting each roof plane on a custom layer and turning off all of the other roof planes and any other layers you don't want.

So the tricky part is setting up the camera angles so it is looking at the roof plane dead on.  If you open up the camera dialog and go to the "positioning" page, you can enter the camera angle and tilt angle manually.  You can figure these out using math, but hey, who really wants to do that?

Camera angle should be pretty easy since it is just the plan view angle looking at the roof plane from perpendicular to the wall.  If you have any walls that are at odd angles, you might need to go into your plan view and use the make parallel/perpendicular tool to make the camera point at the wall perpendicular to it.

The tilt angle is a little tricky but you can just open the roof plane dialog and check the box for "pitch in degrees" to get the actual roof angle.  Now if you set the tilt angle to (roof angle-90), I think it will always be dead on.

Now you should be able to print out this view to use for your model.  Just make sure that you use the same scale for all of them otherwise you will have a hard time putting together your model.