DBCooper

I found this in the help system: When content is deleted from the Library Browser, data associated with that content may remain in the library database. If you delete library content for the purpose of increasing available disk space, you can right-click on the User Catalog as well as the Trash and select Vacuum from the contextual menu.

According to Chief, that message means that the file is corrupt and there is nothing they can do to read it. Your best bet is to find a backup or archive file that is not corrupt. Here is a recent post about the same problem:

See if this tech article helps: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00914/creating-steel-wall-framing.html

Open the wall dialog and go the the "wall types" section. Change "align pony wall" to "outer surface".

I think if you make any changes to the material in a plan and then paint it from the library, then you will get a duplicate. Changing the material in a plan does not change the library material. Or if you make changes to a material and then copy something from one plan to another, then you will get a duplicate. Changing the material in one plan does not change it in any other plans. This also means that if you open up an old plan and then paint a new library material that it might be different then the old material giving you a duplicate. Or copy something from an old plan to a new plan. Or... I would be that there are a lot of other ways to get duplicate materials. As far as I can tell, Chief doesn't really care about the name of the material and it just looks at all of the settings to see if anything is actually different. This is completely opposite of how it handles things like layers where it only cares about the name and ignores all of the other settings. This is why the purge and merge tools are the only way to keep your plan materials sane.

If Glenn's solution doesn't work for you, you should post a picture of what you are trying to do.

I assume you are just using "file-export picture" directly from the cross section view. I have not seen a problem like this and it is possible that this is related to your video card. Try updating your drivers to see if it magically goes away. If not, then you could try posting the plan to see if anyone else gets the same problem. The other thing you might want to do is report this to tech support.

I think the problem with bay windows is fixed in X16 because I haven't seen it happen since I got it. You should try getting the beta to see if it still happens for you. If it does, then you should probably report this to Chief tech support and not just post on the forum.

Your plan has lots, and lots, of duplicate materials. Open your plan materials dialog and merge the ones with the same names. I merged the ones called "pearl grey" and the extra wall lines disappeared.

Did you try setting "swap start block"?

All of the ones used in your layer sets should be imported. So you could also create a layer set that uses all of the text styles that you want to import. It will only bring in the text styles that are not already in the plan and I think it just looks at the names. If you are trying to replace text styles, than that is going to be a bit more work.

javatom's solution is pretty clever and should work. You could also just draw a short railing and then convert it into a door symbol and use that as your gate. Or, you could always just make your own gate symbols using all sorts of other tools. As for the lighted post caps, there is not really a good way to do this automatically. If you want them to look good and actually cast light then they will need to be lights. You can build a symbol for the post caps and make them into electrical lights. The part that will be somewhat painful is placing them manually in a plan and positioning them on top of the posts. This is the part that would be nice if Chief had a way of doing it automatically. Another way you could solve this would be to build a post symbol that has the cap built in but uses an emissive material so that it looks like it is a real light. That might be good enough for almost all cases and much easier. As for riser lights, I don't think there are any good tricks to make this more automatic so you will probably just have to manually place them.

That looks like a camera callout. Click on the camera, then look at the ALDO (or open up the "object layer properties"). You should see that it is using two layers, one for the camera and one for the label. Just pick a different text style for the camera layer. The text that shows up in the camera callout is always controlled by the text style of the layer.

Yes, but I would buy it from the manufacturer that way. Adding insulation to an uninsulated door is usually not worth the trouble. You could drill holes in it and use some kind of spray foam but it might be hard to fill it completely without causing it to bulge. So it really all depends on how you want to show it in your plans. You can just add a note as Gene is suggesting and that is probably the easiest way. If you want to show it in a cross section, you could manually add insulation using the cad tools but I don't think there is any easy way to show this automatically.

1. Siding problem. Don't know and would be best to post the plan so that people could poke around and see what it causing that. You will need to close the plan and probably zip it up in order to post it on the forum. 2. Stair trim. Well, did you try doing the same thing you did on the right side? Usually for concrete stairs like this, I will start with "closed stringers" and then switch to "custom" so I can set the stringer thickness to something like 4-6". I also like to set the "height below tread" to a large value, tread overhang and thickness to 0, to make it look like solid concrete steps. 3. You can get an automatic stair railing on top of a closed stringer. 4. If you build it as a landing, you can have railings on the sides you want. You can also set the thickness to match your stairs. Not sure what you mean about losing your footings though. The picture below is what I was able to do with just a stair and landing. I couldn't figure out an easy way to get the top of the stringer to be cutoff at the landing height though.

He has a puck light on each shelf. You can see it better in the first picture he posted.

See this recent post where someone else was doing something similar: https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/topic/42315-garage-to-living-space/

Try clicking on the "gear" tool and see if you can turn everything back on.

Yes, it's a good thing that TeaTime pointed that out. Maybe if someone had suggested that sooner this problem would have been solved a long time ago?

Go to the window frame settings and turn off the post by setting it to "mitered".

Try adjusting the "cut off angle" to make the cone shape larger and then increase the "drop off rate" to fade the edges.

My guess is that when you remove the column that the door is then getting merged with another door and the quantity is increased. Schedules group objects based on whether the text in their rows match. If you don't want them merged, you can turn this off or you have to show something in the schedule that makes the doors different.

1. My guess is that your elevation view is using a different layer set than the other camera views and the layer is turned off in that set. 2. Not sure. Maybe post the plan? 3. I am definitely seeing materials in your pictures above (otherwise you wouldn't see anything). Maybe you want to see the textures instead of the patterns? Or do you want to see both? By default vector views only show patterns but you could use a different render technique that will show you the textures instead and if you want to see both you can add lines on top of the textures. Here is a basic video about render techniques to get you started: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/6150/rendering-techniques.html

Select your terrain perimeter. Use the "make terrain hole around building" tool. Edit shape as needed.

Madcow, you just need to pay attention to what is on your screen when you click on a dimension. On the right side, you should see two buttons. The button with the 2-headed arrow will just move the side of the poly and the button with the 4-headed arrow will move the whole object.