DBCooper

Not that I know of, but you might want to search the manufacturer or bonus libraries: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/3d-library/index.php?r=site/library&reset=true If you are trying to create the wagner 900 railing that Robert posted above, this would be very easy to build yourself, except for the multiple post styles. Chief doesn't handle multiple post styles out of the box so you will have to use some kind of a workaround. The simplest way to handle this would be to just manually place the corner posts on top of the one that Chief does automatically. This recent post had some different ideas for how to handle different post styles: https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/topic/37231-newel-posts-between-post-to-beam-posts/ If you want something else, then you should probably post a picture with an example.

Here is a great thread on how to build your own materials using substance player: https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/topic/21560-custom-material-generation-with-substance-player/ It won't be able to create everything, but what it can create will look really good in Chief.

Another way that you can handle different cabinet styles is by using style palettes. If all you want to do is change the cosmetic details like moldings, door styles, hardware, materials, etc. you can setup style palettes and just click in the kitchen to update all of them. This won't work if you are going to have different layouts though. If you need to have different cabinet layouts, you might be able to create an architectural block out of them. Swapping out an architectural block is pretty easy when you want to see one config vs another.

I never use the edge line and pattern line defaults. I just setup the line weights/colors in the elevation view the way I want them to look. Then in the "send to layout" dialog, I make sure "use edge line defaults" and "use pattern line defaults" are both unchecked. WYSIWYG.

You could just manually place the newel post from the library that you want, anywhere you want. The picture below is just an automatic post to beam railing and then I manually added some different newel posts.

See if blocking the 4 rectangular windows first and then adding the arch to the block works better.

Well, it's good that you solved your problem but other people still might want to know how you solved it. For example, you could just delete your terrain but that's probably not a very useful solution. You could also just manually rebuild your terrain and the extra cursor should go away but it will probably keep coming back. This is actually a perfectly fine way to work as long as you know what you are doing. The solution that Mick suggested would mean that your terrain should always be up to date, but it might also slow things down if you have a very complex terrain. In this case, just manually building the terrain when you want to update it might be the better solution. There is another solution, turning off the behavior indicators in your preferences, but I think this is probably a bad idea since it can hide other problems.

Try the "reset side windows". It looks like the toolbar you are missing is actually the "tool palette".

On a side note, if you ever want to see what layer an object is on, if it appears in a view and you can select it, the main layer will display in the status bar. If you want to see all of the layers associated with it, just select it an look in the ALDO (active layer display options) or open up the "object layer properties".

Did you try the "check knowledge base" button? Did you have a look at this tech article? https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00106/troubleshooting-3d-camera-view-display-problems-in-chief-architect.html My guess is that if it just started happening yesterday that you may have gotten a video driver update and that is what is causing the problems. You could try rolling back your driver to see if that fixes it.

There are (at least) two different ways to do a finished basement. One way is to draw a foundation wall with a separate framed wall drawn inside the foundation and bumped up against the foundation wall. The framed wall should be marked as furred in this case. You can find more info here: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00181/creating-furred-walls.html The other way is to create a new wall type that has both concrete and framing. If you are doing it this way, I don't think you want to mark the foundation wall a furred wall. You should not get any extra rooms because you are only using one wall (even though it has both concrete and framing built in). I don't know what is going on with the problem in the last picture. You probably need to post the plan.

Yeah those would be a little bit of a pain to model in Chief. Doable, but a pain. I always look for something close in Chief's libraries or the bonus ones you can download. If the light is pretty simple, I will model it myself using Chief. If it is more complicated, I will look to see if there are any available online that I can import. Why? I certainly wouldn't switch to vectorworks just to design my own lights.

I don't think you should make your foundation walls furred walls. Normally, like when you are designing a finished basement, you would make the framed walls that you butt up against your concrete foundation walls furred but I always leave the foundation walls alone. Also, if you make any wall furred, it won't define rooms which can lead to other problems.

I think you are looking in the camera dialog. Look for "toggle patterns" in the 3D menu or look for the "patterns, 3D views" in the layer display options.

I don't think you should read too much into why a person might be still using an older version. There could be lots of reasons. The bottom line is that it might not be worth trying to work with them just because they won't be able to open your plans and would have to redraw them over from scratch.

You can't save it into the library as a cad block and then use it for a molding profile. You need to save it as a single polyline instead. Here is a support article that might be helpful: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00166/creating-and-editing-molding-profiles.html

Check out this thread for more info about it including how to use videos: https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/topic/21560-custom-material-generation-with-substance-player/

Here is the link to the thread about substance player: https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/topic/21560-custom-material-generation-with-substance-player/ It's super powerful and it will allow you to create lots of different materials. It will even generate the maps and patterns you need if you want to make sure it will look good in all views.

Window dialog (or defaults), rough opening. You might also need to check the add for concrete cutout setting too.

Post the plan or at least a picture (of the floor plan and the view you are seeing).

In your preferences, under "render", you can uncheck "enable gpu raytracing". I don't have a video card that supports it so my option is always disabled. You might also be able to turn it off in the "render technique options", for either the camera or in the render technique defaults for all cameras. There is an option under "global illumination" to turn off ray tracing but I don't know if this works the same as turning it off in your preferences. This option is also disabled for me. There is more info in the help under "gpu raytracing". To be honest, if your card supports it, I don't know why you would want to turn it off. From the pictures I have seen, you should be able to get much nicer views.

I can think of several ways although I am not sure which way is "best". - you could use a molding polyline. - you might be able to use a stacked molding for the wall cap that also includes the bottom piece - you could create a thin cabinet just like we use for interior wainscotting.

Yes.

I'm not sure from your picture if that is what you want. If it is, then great, you're done. There are a couple of different ways you can do this, but I think a very useful tool is to use the reference display. You can display as many different floors as you like using what ever layer sets you want using the reference display. So if you have roof planes on different floors but you want to see them all in one view, you can create a reference display for each floor and use a layer set that just displays the roof. This can be used instead of the "display on floor above" tool. If all of your roof planes are displaying on one floor, but you only want to see some of them, you can put them on different layers so that you can just display the ones you want. But if the roof planes are on a different floor, you will need to turn on reference display to see them.

I believe that auto save for unsaved plans was added back in X13. I don't think this was Ben's problem though since I don't think you could send an unsaved plan to layout in X12 either. The only other thing that might have been an issue is if you did a save as on the plan and might be looking for the wrong backup version? I don't know if this will help, but there is a tech article about archive files here: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00099/accessing-your-archive-files.html