DBCooper

Couple of thoughts... It is better to post pictures directly instead of as a pdf so people don't have to download it and then open it. "Save in plan" won't help with missing links to Chief's plan files. This only works if you have any imported pictures or pdf documents that are missing. My guess is that your associate either didn't send you all of the files needed or sent you the wrong versions of them. They should have probably used "backup entire plan" instead of just attaching files. As far as Chief making this simpler, isn't that what the new "project management" system in X17 is supposed to do? It is my understanding that they built this system for people that don't have a good understanding of file management so that problems like this are not supposed to happen. Not sure if you have looked at X17 yet but you can choose to use the new system or keep doing things the old way. Since the old way may not always work the way you want, you might consider trying the new way. I don't know if Chief has any videos but they do have a tech article that might help: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00022/message-could-not-successfully-open-all-of-this-layout-s-associated-files.html They even have a whole series on file management that might help: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/category/5/file-management.html You could also just click on the "help" button from the "linked view" dialog page and that might have some useful information.

This should be as simple as setting the proper room height for the porch area and setting the pitch you want for the long outside porch walls. If you are still having problems, then you might want to post pictures or plans of what you have. Also, this tech article covers some of the basics: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-01179/creating-an-attached-porch-or-carport.html

Walls can get cut off by roofs and ceilings (even if you made them invisible), stairs, or manually edited to be like this. Probably best to post your plan if you can figure it out.

I would check the system requirements here: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-03167/mac-models-compatible-with-chief-architect-x17-and-home-designer-2026.html Then, assuming your mac is on the list, I would call tech support on Monday.

Open the railing and turn on "follow terrain". I *think* "follow terrain" is the only thing that makes a railing into a fence.

Just remember that once you save a file in X17 that you won't be able to open it back up in X16. X17 can read X16 files no problem but X16 can't read X17 files. Also, the new project management in X17 takes some time to get used to it. If you are really set in your ways and don't want to have to learn a new system, you can always turn it off.

Open the camera dialog and look at the "lighting" section. See if your maximum number of lights is set to 8. If so, then change it to something larger than you need.

Since a room divider is just an invisible wall it looks like the stair ignores it.

@Doug_N As far as I know, those "handrail options" only work with the handrail you get along a wall.

Look for a different symbol. There is no easy way to isolate just that hood in an imported symbol. You could delete all of the surfaces you don't want and then build a new symbol out of it but that would be painful in the case above. It would be much easier to just create it yourself from scratch (and probably a good learning exercise). You could build that hood just using a poly solid for the ends and a box for the middle part. The one in the original picture would only be slightly more complicated because of the extra fillet on the box.

You could create a block symbol that "inserts into wall" and then just place them manually in the wall.

Open the layout box dialog and go to label page. Click on "edit" button next to "use callout". On callout label dialog, go to "attributes". There should be some controls for the text above the line and below the line. You can set it to match the callout text style or use a different text style if you want.

You can try turning on "transitions" in the stair dialog. You can even make them "smooth" if you want. The simple case you are showing will probably work but sometimes I see very strange things happen when you turn on transitions.

Post a picture of what you want to change.

If you still have the old version, you should be able to use that. Just open the plan and use the export 3D model tool. If you want to convert the .pl* files into .plan files, this tech article will tell you how to do it: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00279/opening-legacy-files.html Once you have converted them to .plan files, you will still need a version of the program that can open them and export the 3D model though.

Just an FYI, it looks like it's in both "active defaults" and "default sets" in X17.

Why not just use a fixed window and adjust the shape instead? All you really need to know is how high to raise the bottom on one side and drop the top on the other.

While I can see Ringos point that Joe's first post wasn't as helpful as it could have been, I think everyone kind of missed the target on this post. As useful as it is to know how to find and make your own materials, that probably isn't even needed in this case. And I'm not sure if I would ever go to the extreme of trying to model a concrete block wall using solids. Life is too short for that. In this case, all you really need to do is tell the program to use block walls for your foundation. Turns out that these are actually already built in to the program. When you go to build your foundation, right there in the dialog the program shows you what it will use for your stem walls. If you click on the "edit default foundation wall" button, it will open a new dialog where you can change the default wall type to "8" cmu (block) stem wall". If you have already built your stem walls and you want to change them from a solid concrete wall to a block concrete wall, then all you need to do is select them all and change the wall type. In either case, you should be done unless you want to change the look of the concrete blocks and then you can start playing around with either the wall types or materials.

If you don't have the toolbar configuration buttons on the screen, I think you can still right-click in the main toolbar area and get a menu with the available configurations on it. You can also open up the toolbar customization dialog and go to the configurations page and see what configurations are available and switch to one of them from there. If you are missing things like your configurations, then maybe you had some problems when you migrated them into X17? You can always try resetting the migration and trying again or just resetting your toolbars back to factory defaults in your preferences. Here is a tech article that covers some of these things: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00467/troubleshooting-missing-toolbars.html

A distribution region can only have one object. There are a few ways I can think of that might work. First, you can always create a copies of a distribution region, set a new object, and overlay them on top of the first one. This may only work if your pavers are the same size though since you don't have separate x and y spacing for the pattern. Depending on the pattern you are trying to model, this could work out. The other thing you could do is make an architectural block with the different pavers already arranged in the pattern you want. This could work out really good if your block ends up being basically square shaped so the spacing works out good. In either case, you may have problems around the edges because I don't think there is any way to make the program clip the objects to fit your shape. This means you might have some pavers sticking out past the edges and some gaps in other cases. And as a last resort, you could always build the pavers individually and use the transform/replicate tool to lay them out in the pattern you want. Could even make custom poly solids for the cut off edge blocks if you wanted it to look perfect. Could always put them all into an architectural block when done so they won't get accidently moved.

See if either of these help: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00467/troubleshooting-missing-toolbars.html https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00654/restoring-the-size-position-of-the-side-windows.html

I just tried this and it worked fine for me. I placed a chair symbol into a plan, added a custom field and value, and then saved it to the library. When I placed it in new plan, it still had all of the info. Might have something to do with the object type. Might have something to do with editing it in the library instead of the plan. Might have something to do with the version of the program you are using. You could try posting the plan to see if someone else has the same problem.

Start here: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00766/creating-cad-details.html Or here: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/77/cad-basics.html Another thing that can help in cad details is to change the size of the snap grid and reference grid. If you are trying to draw something smaller than 1" but your grid snaps are set to 1", you can have troubles.

Your probably not actually using the layer set you want. Double check your reference display settings in your view that doesn't look right. If you can't figure it out, then post your plan.

You can set the maximum samples for the current camera view or in your defaults for new cameras. You should probably check both just to make sure they are less than 500. When I tried using the file export picture, it seems to always use the same setting as what's in my current camera and not what is in my defaults. I think it only uses the defaults for when you make new camera views. When you use the export picture, you can specify the resolution you want so you can make it "full screen" or whatever you want. The bigger you make it, the longer it will take to generate it though.