DBCooper

Have you tried using the backup entire plan tool? https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00987/using-the-backup-entire-plan-layout-tool-to-send-files-to-another-user.html

I think the tech article that Eric posted above has a lot of good general info and it might help you solve your problems. Another thing you might want to do is post a copy of the plan that you are seeing the problems with. You would need to use the "backup entire plan" tool to make sure that all of the materials and other files are included and you will probably need to put it on an online location (like dropbox) because it will probably be too big to put on the forum. Then someone could see if they are getting the same problems as you. If they are, then it probably has more to do with what is in the plan than with the machine you are using. They might also be able to figure out what in the plan is causing the biggest slowdowns. What I typically do in cases like this is just start deleting things until I see a big speedup. And if all else fails, call tech support because they might be able to help.

Yes, PBR RT is going to look better and be sooooo much faster than CPU ray tracing. The grass in X15 is going to make a big difference all by itself. Not sure if your video card supports it but you can check your video card status in preferences and see if "hardware ray tracing" says "yes". I have an NVIDIA RTX 4070 and the speed is amazing compared to the CPU ray tracing. You might also want to check out the ray trace videos that Chief has that are marked for "GPU ": https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/playlists/103/ray-trace.html This recorded webinar might also be good: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/10251/real-time-ray-tracing-setup-optimization.html?playlist=171

I think he means the "display on floor above" edit button when you select a roof plane.

Chief always uses an absolute elevation for the molding poly height. It looks like when you convert a 2d poly into a molding poly that the program sets the absolute height to 0, regardless of what floor you are on. What it should do is the same thing it does when you draw a molding poly and set it to the absolute floor height instead. You might want to report that to Chief tech support and maybe it is something they can fix. There are probably a lot of ways to avoid this problem though. One way would be to draw a molding poly instead of a 2d poly and then have to convert it. Another thing you could do is to just add the molding to the cabinet (or soffit, countertop, or whatever) so that it's height is relative to the cabinet instead of absolute. The really nice thing about putting the molding on the cabinet is that it sticks to it as you make changes. And when you run into a case where you need to customize it you can just use the "make cabinet molding polyline" tool to convert it into a custom molding poly and it keeps all of the settings you need.

Is there an attic space above that ceiling? If so, then you could use custom ceiling planes. If not, you should be able to just use the underside of the roof planes. Lots more info here: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/category/26/ceilings.html

I don't think you can. I just tried this by exporting a model from Chief and noticed that when brought in as an STL that you only get one material. You might want to try using a 3DS model instead. BTW, you could probably model that cabinet in Chief as well but that wasn't what you asked.

So you can always import saved plan views from any plan into any other as Robert is suggesting. I think you missed a couple of fundamental things though. It looks like all you did was create a new "layer set". That's all fine and dandy but a "layer set" is not a "saved plan view" so you really can't expect it to show up in the drop down that shows all of the saved plan views. Layer sets can control what and how things look in any view. Saved plan views can keep track of the layer set but they can also keep track of your selected defaults, reference display, and other settings. There are a bunch of ways to create new saved plan views but here are a couple that are easy to do: - you can use the "save active view as" tool. - you can right click in the project browser. Regardless of how you create a new plan view, you can then use the "edit active view" tool (or "edit view" from the project browser) to make sure it is setup the way you want.

I would look for one of the free apps that can convert a pdf to DXF or DWG. Then you can import it and modify it however you like.

This is a common problem with imported textures. when you look at the texture by itself, your eye can't pick up the differences between the left and right sides (or top and bottom). But when you map them to a wall, it is obvious that the texture has differences. It is possible to fix these difference using a program like photoshop. Personally, I think that it takes some real skill to fix these kinds of issues which is why there are people called "graphic artists" who have no problem doing this. How I usually solve these problems is to find something in the Chief library that is close enough. Sometimes you can use a Chief material and then use the "blend color" with material to adjust the color to your liking without having to create a brand new material. The other thing you can do is take a look at using substance player to create your own custom textures. I am no expert but it looks like it can be pretty useful to generate a variety of different materials. You can find more info here: https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/topic/21560-custom-material-generation-with-substance-player/

You might want to use a room with a floor platform instead of a landing in this case. In general, I use landings in between stair sections and then floor platforms for where the stair starts or ends. Regardless, if you need to move a landing up or down you can open the dialog and set the landing height to whatever you want. For more detailed help, you should probably post the plan.

Assuming that you are using X15, click on the "gear" tool at the bottom of the browser and then make sure "filters" is turned on. I don't know if there was a way to turn this off and on in X12 (which is what your signature says you are using).

This is how I like to draw them (and I don't think you need to mess around with ceiling heights).

Did you use a railing and mark it as "post to ceiling"? These would normally go up to the ceiling below the roof. Not sure why they wouldn't but if you post your plan it should be easy to figure out.

Since he is moving the wall using the middle move handle I don't think it is exactly the same as what you are showing. I think you are right that the wall is snapping to itself though since it looks like it is just picking up the other side of the wall. I tried this in an old version X12 and it does the same thing so I don't think this is anything that was changed. I guess I never really noticed this before but I am pretty sure turning off object snaps would prevent this regardless.

If I am trying to match contour lines, either imported as a picture or cad, I will just draw elevation splines to match them. If I need flat areas, for things like building pads or whatever, then I use elevation regions. And, just as everyone else has said, Chief will barf if you ever have two different elevations (regardless of what is generating them) even close to the same location.

You could just use a different layout. You can send a plan view to as many different layouts as you want.

I don't know a way to do it automatically, but you could cheat by temporarily merging the walls, build the framing, then split them and change the wall type. It looks like Chief will keep the original framing as long as you don't rebuild it.

What's your definition of "reasonable"? Chief recommends an RTX 3080 with 8 GB but I have a RTX 4070 with 12 and I think it is great. Here are Chief's system reqs: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/products/sysreq.html You might also want to check out this Chief blog with more recommendations: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/blog/computer-for-design-and-gaming/

In your video, do you see the red "X" when the wall jumps? I think that means you picked up an "intersection" snap point so you must have something, maybe behind the picture, that you are snapping to. Turn off object snaps and you won't see that happen. If you want the wall to move on even increments, then you can turn on grid snaps and use the arrow keys like Mark suggested.

They always say that if they can repro a problem then they can usually fix it. The bad ones are the ones that only happen on your machine or the ones that are mostly random.

Not sure exactly what you want different but the auto built roof seems *ok*. You might want to update your signature since you are using X15 now.

@tundra_dweller Have you tried reporting this to tech support? This sounds oddly specific so it might really be a program bug instead of just a video card problem.

Not sure why you are using X12 if you have X14 (according to your signature). You might want to see if you have the same problems using X14. FWIW, here is Chief's tech article (which may or may not help with problems in X12 or X14): https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00106/troubleshooting-3d-camera-view-display-problems-in-chief-architect.html

I don't think so. You could place a cad marker at the center but it won't move if you change the wall radius.