DBCooper

Check what layer set your plan view is using. Maybe you accidently changed it to something that isn't displaying anything.

I don't know if or how ColePOC solved their problem but it it's happening for you on every plan than it sounds more like a system/install issue. You probably need to contact tech support.

You can control how lengths and angles are displayed in dialog boxes by clicking on the "number style" button in any dialog. This does not affect plan views and is reset every time you start the program. To change how lengths and angles display in plan views, I think you need to change it in the general cad defaults.

Try this, draw 2 cad lines and select them both. If you don't see the "make cad block" tool, then there is something wrong. Maybe you are not actually using Chief Architect Premier? If you are, then you might want to post your plan or call tech support. If you get the make cad block tool for 2 lines but not for some other group of objects, then you probably selected something that can't go into a cad block. Most architectural objects, like cabinets and walls can't go into a cad block.

I don't think just breaking the wall will do it. I think you would have to create different materials with different texture offsets for each room.

Are you still on X11? If not, you should probably update your signature. Here are a few things that may help you (and I *think* they all work in X11): - you can make a cad line or wall perpendicular to an off angle wall using the make parallel/perpendicular tool. - you can always just type in any angle you want in either the wall or line dialog - you can setup allowed angles if you want to have a building that is on a non-standard angle - you can use edit area and transform/replicate or make parallel to move a set of walls to a new non-standard angle - probably some others that I have forgotten as well

I don't know of a way to set the default for roof labels to use a macro. If you want an easy way to change them all at once, you can use the "edit all roof planes" tool. And, to get rid of the white background used for the label, you just need to change the text style that is being used. Check the box for "transparent (not used when fill style available)".

Seems to work fine for me. Check to make sure the depth of your niche is correct and if so, you probably need to post your plan.

As far as I can tell, +Y is always on the right side of the wall going from start to end. Doesn't matter which way the door swings or whether it is an interior or exterior wall. +X is along the wall in the same direction as the wall. Chief uses the same rule for window and wall labels. This is another reason that you should make sure your start and end indicators are turned on in your preferences (under "edit").

Take a look at the drawing sheet setup. If you are using the OOB template plan, then it is set to 1/100 mm. You can change it to something else if you want.

Assuming you have X16, just right click on the object in the library. Look for the "tags" menu and then add a check next to "favorites". Then hit the "apply" button. Now you can just type "favorites" into the search and they should show up. In X14, I think you could do something similar by adding search attributes. In either version, you could also create a folder in your user catalog called "favorites" and just copy items into it.

Start here: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00914/creating-steel-framed-walls.html Also, just an FYI, but using all caps is considered yelling on forums.

My best guess is that you are using either the wall elevation or cross section camera tool to create the camera callouts in those bathrooms. In this case, when you close the view, the callout goes away. This is because you did not save the view. If you were to draw any cad, text, or dimensions in the view, then the program would ask you if you want to save the camera when you close the view. If you don't add anything, it just closes the view without saving. Just use the "save active view" tool after you open it and then when you close the view the callout will remain.

Does it follow your cursor around? If so, I am guessing it is something other than Chief that is doing that because I don't think that is a one of the built in cursor types for Chief. If it just stays on your plan in a particular place, or in a particular place on your screen, then maybe it's a "watermark"? Either that or an imported image. If you can can't figure it out, you could post your plan and then someone else could see if it shows for them.

Did you draw the railing wall on the first floor or the second? I think it only works if you draw it on the first. Did you make a 4 1/2" gap between the stairs? If there is not enough room for the railing wall it will not always work. If that doesn't help, you might need to post the plan. As for the transitions, just click on the help button while in the stair dialog. The help system explains what they do and even has pictures showing you what they should look like. Your probably not seeing a difference because I think they only show up where the stair rail meets a landing rail or a normal railing wall (not a solid rail/half wall). I don't usually turn them on because I have seen too many cases where they do something strange.

Gene, Although I thoroughly enjoyed your story, I think the message you were sending is a bit harsh. People learn in different ways so what works for one person may not work for others. Some people learn best by reading the manual, some by watching videos, some by taking classes, some by asking questions, some by trial and error, and some by a mix of all of the above. I still remember a time when I was working in my first real job out of school that I was assigned to a mentor. I had a tendency to ask a lot of questions. One day my mentor was obviously frustrated with all my questions so he asked me, in a tone that I will probably never forget, "What school did you go to?", as if they could possibly teach you everything you need to know in school. I realized later that he was the kind of person that didn't ask questions because he liked to figure everything out on his own but he expected everyone else to do the same. After that, I avoided asking him any questions which made it much more difficult to learn my job. He may have been very good at his job but I really don't think he was a very good mentor for me. If you think a question is easily solvable, you can always just not answer it. What might work better though, would be to point someone in the right direction so that they can find the answer themselves. We all know that Chief is far more complicated than it first seems. I often think that Chief falls into the category of "easy to use but hard to master". I am constantly amazed at the things I am still learning about the program even after using it for many years. So Michael I would encourage you to continue to ask as many questions as you need to. I would also encourage you to see if you can figure out the answer on your own first though because you might be surprised what you can do.

My try doing a reset on your preferences (they don't get reset by an uninstall/reinstall). If that doesn't work, I would call tech support.

Are you still using X14 or did you bring your X14 template forward? The reason this matters is that I think it has something to do with that door symbol and the fact that part of it sticks out. I just opened the door and replaced it with the E21 from the X16 library and then it worked fine. My guess is that they fixed something in the symbol that was causing the problems. In any case, you could probably just use a different door symbol (like maybe E20 instead) and not have that problem.

Check out the "edit area" tool.

If you are using a standard render technique (or physically based), you will see the affects of lighting in the view. It sounds like you solved your problem by turning off all the lighting and turning up the ambient to then make it look brighter. That works but I am pretty sure that you could have also solved the problem by just adjusting the the sunlight (or some other light?) so that it was not shining on the wall. Not sure why this didn't work for you without a plan to play with. Another thing you could do is adjust the material on the wall so that it does not show the lighting highlight. You might want to watch some of the training videos about materials and lighting. Understanding how these settings work might make it easier to get the views you want in the future.

If this problem is even happening for a brand new plan with just a box house, then it is probably a video card or driver issue. Here is a tech article that might help: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00106/troubleshooting-3d-camera-view-display-problems-in-chief-architect.html If that doesn't help you solve your problems, then I would recommend calling tech support again before I would go out and buy new hardware. If you are determined to buy a new machine, I would check out the latest recommended system requirements here: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/products/sysreq.html Personally, I think the 4060 should be fine but a 4080 would be better. I'm not sure the 4090 is really worth the extra cost though. Here is a post talking about video card performance that you might find interesting:

Did you use the material painter? If so, then don't. The material painter just changes the surface material on a wall and usually isn't what you want to do. If you mistakenly change the wall surface material for the "exterior room" it will override everything else. One way to fix these kind of problems is to repaint the walls with "use default" for the material. The best way to have one wall with one material and another wall with something else is to use two different "wall types". Setup one wall type as brick and the other as stone and use them for the different walls. Here is a pretty basic video that may help: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/5/drawing-walls.html If you need a more specific answers, then you probably need to post a plan (or at least some pictures) along with more specific questions.

Here is a (somewhat contrived) example, I want to move the window and sink base to the other wall and keep the same distance from the corner. I can just reflect it about the corner but in X15 I would have had to draw a cad line first.

If you turn on the layout box border layer, it might be easier. You still need to look at every layout page and try and find the boxes that are blank. It would be nice if a box with a missing link would display something obvious to let you know or if there was another way to find them easily.

I don't think you can count on someone from Chief reading this. They have said in the past that they don't have people to read all of the posts on all of the forums. I know they have moderators that seem to respond pretty quick when you report spam but I don't even know if they look at other posts. I also know that the "sticky" post at the top of this forum says to always send in bug reports and not just post on the forum. So here is my take on this, they added a new feature in X16 that you find is making it more difficult to do some things and you would like a way of turning it off. Is that a bug since the feature doesn't work the way you think it should? Or is that a new feature request to add the ability to turn it off? I think it's up to you to decide what you think it is and report it accordingly. Chief may not agree with you, but at least you know they would have the report. If you think it's a bug, you can report it to tech support here: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/ If you think it's a feature request, you can post it here: https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/forum/8-suggestions/ Or email them here: suggestions@chiefarchitect.com