DBCooper

Try opening up the terrain perimeter dialog and turning off "hide terrain intersected by building".

Not sure why it would do that either. You would need to post your plan so that someone could look at it more closely to figure it out. Yes, in your dimension defaults you would need to turn off the locate object settings for everything related to openings and just turn on "casing". It also depends on what type of dimension tool you are using to figure out where the location object settings are. For example, if you are using the "wall elevation" tool and creating dimensions using the "auto elevation dimension" tool, you need to change your "locate auto room" locate settings. You may also need to make sure you are locating wall surfaces instead of the framing ("main layer"). Not by default. You would need to setup your own custom plan template and make sure that it is the default for when you create new plans. Here is a video on dimensions that might help: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/506/dimensioning-kitchens-baths-other-rooms-using-auto-room-dimensions.html Here are some tech articles that might help: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-03162/generating-automatic-dimensions-that-follow-nkba-standards.html https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00941/changing-what-dimensions-locate.html https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00658/specifying-which-wall-layer-dimensions-locate.html https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00463/creating-and-using-a-plan-template.html

If you want to remove a face item from a cabinet, just click on the face item in the cabinet dialog and delete it. If you delete a door, it will convert it into an opening with shelves so you need to delete it twice. You could also just use a soffit so that you don't need to. Adding a molding to a soffit or cabinet is pretty basic but here is a tech article if you get stuck: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00701/adding-moldings-to-cabinets.html

I really can't think of anything else to try because I am pretty sure that it always exports the same thing you see on the screen. You could try posting your plan and then maybe someone else can try exporting to see if they get the same problem.

Are you in a floor or full overview? Do you have any other camera views open? As far as I know, it will always export whatever you see on the screen. So if it looks good on the screen, it should match.

You can use the delete surface tool in a camera view to remove then parts you don't want and then convert what you have left into a new symbol. May not work all that well with that symbol if you will be left with holes after deleting so then you might have to add something else to fill the holes. If that were the case, then I would just make a new one. If it's not tapered, you could just use a soffit with some moldings.

I just tried it and it seems to be working fine for me. You might want to post your plan.

I was able to get 3 studs with 1/4"-1/2" side rough opening and a 5" space between the windows. I could not get 1-2 studs to build with larger rough openings even though there was space for them. Must be some kind of built in limitation.

It looks like it will always draw a solid line when you are using "lower wall outline". I think you can get what you want by changing to "upper wall and lower wall" and then setting up the lower wall to be dashed lines with either a solid fill style or no fill style.

If all you want is the layer sets, you can import them from the factory installed templates (as already suggested above). If you need everything, you can also import most of everything else. Another way to do this is to just start a new blank plan and use "edit area all floors" to copy your model into the new plan that has all of the defaults. Either way is going to be some amount of manual work.

You can't convert a line (curved or straight) into a counter top. It has to be a closed polyline and then you can. Another option, if you want a really fast way to create something that looks like Mick's picture above, is to just use a curved half-wall and adjust the "wall cap" to be the counter top you need. This will be much easier unless you need something like an edge molding or a shape that doesn't follow the wall.

IMO, probably not. I think it could be really useful if it was more automatic but the way it works currently looks like more work than it is worth.

Nice job Shayne! I liked the way you started by using the cabinet tools for everything that they can do easily and then mixed in other tools as needed. Polyline solids, molding polylines, and even other symbols (either ones found in the library or made yourself) can all be combined to make more complex furniture pieces. You might want to post your plan so that others can take a deeper look into how you made this. Regarding the original poster's questions, I think there are very few things you can't make in Chief using the tools that are built in but there are a number of things I wouldn't try to though. For example, I would be very willing to build most types of furniture pieces such as the one you are showing but I would never try to design something like say a toilet. Anything with compound curved surfaces will be a real pain but anything that is basically a dressed up box should be pretty easy. For those things that I won't try to design in Chief, I first look for something that is close enough in the library and if I can't find one I look to online sources such as 3D warehouse or the manufacturer's web site. If I can find it somewhere else, then it is usually pretty easy to just import it. There are other 3D modeling programs out there that can handle some of these things better but I have never felt the need to buy and learn how to use one. Another option is that if you are desperate you can always hire someone to make it for you. Another source of good info and free symbols is the symbols and content sub-forum you can find here: https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/forum/9-symbols-and-content/ One of the things you can find there is the substance player that you can use if you ever need to make your own materials.

Not that poly solids are a bad way to do this, but I still think you missed something important about the wrapped stairs. You might want to give them another try to see what it is so that you can use them next time you need them. As Robert shows, you need to make sure the side of the stairs stop at the corner and don't overlap each other as you show in your first picture. As Glenn suggested, it is easier to draw the stairs going down but you can also make them work going up. The trick to making them work when drawing them up is that the top of the stairs needs to be at the right height. Most of the time when you draw stairs going up from a deck, the bottom of the stairs is at the top of the deck so you have to set the heights manually. The other thing that I know can be important is the room type. I believe porches and decks both work but most other room types won't. It looks like your room is marked as a "porch" so this probably isn't your problem (unless you just manually changed the room name). I think there are some other gotchas but I can't remember them at the moment. If you can't get it to work, you should really post the plan and someone could probably tell you in a few minutes.

Did you try zipping it? Or even better, try making a copy and removing stuff (like all of symbols). You might even get lucky and figure out what object is causing the problem.

I've never seen that layer. There is a system layer called "rooms" but this might not do what you want.

Might be something in your plan that is causing this. Post it and someone can see if it happens for them.

The main way to reduce the surface count is to turn off the layers for things you don't need. This tech article talks about optimizing a model for exporting to the 3D viewer which might help: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-03044/optimizing-a-chief-architect-plan-for-export-to-the-3d-viewer.html

One easy way to do this without mucking around with extra floors is to just create a dropped ceiling for this room. Here is how you do it: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-01050/creating-and-framing-a-dropped-ceiling.html Personally, I wouldn't add the stairs. The extra stair is taking up valuable parking space to access a fairly small amount of storage space. I would probably just build a loft space in the storage area with a ladder attached to the wall. I used a room divider to separate the area with the dropped ceiling from the normal room in the picture below.

See if one of these helps: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00575/creating-a-plot-plan.html https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/1930/creating-a-site-plan-or-plot-plan.html

I think Robert missed that you drew a circle. You can't add a circle directly to the library as a molding polyline. You need to either draw 2 half circles (which will make it a polyline) or convert the circle into a polyline using the "convert curve" tool.

It looks like a bug to me. In X15, it would put the 3d molding line up against the wall and in X16 it seems to be somewhere else. You should probably report this.

Open the layout box dialog. Check to see if it is actually using the same layer set as the elevation camera. If it's not that, then you might want to post the plan and the layout so someone could look into it more.

What I like to do in cases like this is to see if they go away using the "all off" layer set. If so, then you can usually track down the layer it's on pretty quickly. When the layer is locked, you can't select it by clicking on it. One of the best new features they put into X16 is the "find objects on layer" tool in the ALDO.

As far as I know, there is no way to make a temporary dimension permanent. You can control your automatic dimensions through your dimension defaults and you should be able to make them look like you want. You can also turn your auto dimensions into manual ones (just by editing them) so that you don't need to draw all of your manual dimensions "one by one". If you want more help, you should probably explain what you don't like about the automatic dimensions and how you want them to look instead. Then someone might be able to tell you how to do it. Also, you may want to review this video series even though some of it may not apply to X13 most of it is still pretty useful: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/#playlist-92