TeaTime

Ah. Mostly the same as above, Right-Click> Open With, but select "Other" instead of just choosing X12. You can set the default there. *Edit: see https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/how-to-manage-file-associations-in-macos/

Yeah it's absolutely File Association, there's no such thing as X12 "saving an X8" file, Windows just says ".plan files open with [program]", yours is set to X8 still. you can also just right-click the plan file and choose "Open With", select X12 and make sure its set to always open files of that type. Do the same for a Layout file.

There's a Button right on the Library Browser, too

Oooh. I don't think X12 had that.

Sure, it's the small triangle.

Glad you got it sorted - framing out the whole area like a small room like that would have been my next suggestion, it really is the best way to work with walls. Making them really thick causes all sorts of weird issues and more often than not just complicates the situation.

"best practice" depends on what you're after. Ponywall works fine so long a you don't need super precise framing -- remember that the wall thickness determines stud thickness, and 2x18 studs are uh... rare. X15 seems to allow this just fine, but it may be different in older versions. If you place a niche and then drag it down in a 3D view, it should jump to the lower walls surface once its fully "in" the lower wall. The other trick is that you're wanting a niche in both upper and lower walls, but as far as the program is concerned that's the same location on that wall. Probably the easiest method would be to place one in the upper wall, set it's height etc., then use the Copy/Paste > Paste Hold Position and drag the copy down to the lower wall. This is correct - these objects are setup to attach to walls - the back of a niche is--well, part of a niche. it's not seen as "wall". But if you place an outlet on the wall in Plan view, you can then open it and set it's height and Offset from wall - setting a Negative offset will push it into the wall, so if the niche is 3" deep -3" Offset will flush it to the niche's back surface.

I think this tends to happen more for common materials, things like, "color - white" etc., because you can find them in different catalogs. I think they're literally different versions of the same material. That's why I always check Plan Materials first, over adding from the Library.

Huh. Well I played with this longer than I should have. So, Find in Plan in the Materials List pointed me to the framing under the Stairs - so it's not the curved roof like you originally said, the issue is specifically curved walls under stairs. And it's not anything you did, it's very easily reproduceable on a new plan. The big problem is I'm not sure how to fix it. Changing the size on the Components panel doesn't update the Materials List, and when I updated the materials list to just say 2"x4", it just reverted on me when I made another change. So I'm not really sure on this one. Send it to Chief!

That's absolutely correct, Plan Materials are materials that are "in use". anywhere in the plan. Think of it like Layers. There are lots you can't delete, even if there's nothing on them - because some Default somewhere is set to use it. Check under Default Settings, Materials, then ... well, go through all your defaults, I suppose. Default materials is where it gets trickier, for sure.

lol I do prefer blue as a general color preference so I appreciate it. Joe's Materials List suggestion isn't a bad idea either, consider it, well, lists materials. It just means scrolling through a potentially big list instead of visually identifying it. Whatever works!

Unfortunately, no. There's no "Find in plan" sort of tool for materials - what I do if it's used and can't be purged and I have no idea where it is, is to Edit it, go to Texture, and under Material Color enable Blend with Texture and set it bright Red. Then scope around the plan. Floor Overviews are handy. Go find that bright red color, then use Material Painter in Plan scope to replace it with something you actually want. Since Plan scope replaces is everywhere it exists, you'll immediately be able to purge it.

The first thing to keep in mind is how the chief displays text in Plan view by default -- there's default text sizes that it uses to keep things legible, but that doesn't show what it actually is going to look like. Toggling Print Preview (right toolbar) will show the true text size, for line styles as well as dimensions, text, labels, etc. With Print Preview off, it makes it a guessing game, 'cause as you zoom out the text will remain the same size on the screen, becoming relatively larger in the view. Toggling it on will show the actual size as it'll be seen on the layout this is plan vs layout. Also note that the line styles on the layout are the same viewable size regardless of Layout Box Scale ^ If the sizes of the ones chief supplies in the Library are too big/small/whatever, you'll need to add the Line Style to your user library to fiddle with it.

Not sure if that's a default Toolbar button -- if you don't have it up there, go to 3D, Materials, Plan Materials.

Ah, yeah that too - good point, Glenn. I find it's best to just ignore those buttons, the default choice is usually best.

Okay Oprah, calm down Star rating would be nice - though it entirely depends on if the forum even supports such a thing. That aside, people don't like change, so it likely won't. Oh well!

It can get somewhat involved, depending on how deep you wanna go. It makes sense if you need 'em often to have a saved plan view saved in your template - this is the first thing covered in this vid: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/10258/ceilings-vault-shed-trey-a-reflected-plan.html

Naturally!! lol

It also may depend on how you're selecting the walls - it's not obvious but if you just select a wall and see all the normal edit handles, you'll be good = Yes! but if you shift+click or drag a marquee selection around a wall so you only have the Move/Rotate handle, it will break away from connected walls. = NO!

Can't say that I've ever seen that - I do know that framing will often only build to a thickness it's physically allowed to, regardless of it's specification. Like, if you put a 12" roof beam inside a 9' thick roof, it'll only generate what it can. But, wall stud thickness .. I think we'll need to see the plan.

Label Layer typically controls label color, but it doesn't always. Open your 3D Solid and be sure its Label Layer is set to the layer your label color was specified on.

Probably not - but interior walls create rooms and room definitions control roof generation. So long as your rooms are set right, I wouldn't expect the roof to do anything different. It's tough to give a clear answer without looking at the plan - and without knowing what you want the roof to look like (I mean, obviously not ^^^that^^^!) What I'd probably suggest though is to (Save it first!) go through and delete walls until it goes back to how you had it when it was building correctly in order to determine which wall/room area is making it change. That'll at least give an idea of the cause for your effect.

My favorite is seeing a new post in Q&A and seeing it siting there with 0 replies and a downvote. Who downvotes someone for asking a question?! So rude. Just remember, internet forums are like "Who's Line Is It Anyway?"; the rules are made up and the points don't matter.

Yeah, that's the issue - these comments are in conflict in regards to how Chief sets and uses focal point. Using a standard mouse I would say a combination of 3D Center Camera on Point and Mouse Dolly Camera would (I think) do what you're asking: as you glide forward, the focal point/distance is locked and moves with the camera. While using the mouse wheel to Zoom locks only the focal point, changing the Distance. ex: if you set F-Stop to 1 and Focal Distance very low like 48", then use Center on Point on an object, using Mouse Dolly, you'll see the in-focus zone glide over the object, staying the same distance relative to the camera, however using the mouse wheel to zoom, the object will remain in focus a you zoom in and out. So, using a standard mouse your first comment is false--or, just not explicitly true. But I'm not exactly sure how the 3D Mouse treats movement - I would think it would be more akin to Dolly movement, but I've not ever played with them for any amount of time to be sure. Either way! Because the focal point/depth is likely to change as you navigate around, 3D Center on Point specifically is probably still your best bet, at least to set your Focal Point & Depth. Rotating the camera (mouse-Tilt) at that point, everything at that distance will be in that focal range. So, it's not IDEAL for what I think you're probably aiming for, but having watched your videos and seeing how you move around I would say to set that as a hotkey/wheel command and just use it to set focal distance. Make grand camera movements to set the scene, set the focal depth, then make slight adjustments to move the camera as needed to frame the shot you're looking for.

Well. Thats perplexing. I don't know that the tool palettes gear ever does nothing at all. But, yeah it looks to me like this is the tool palette window and it's not feeling well. I dont think this is accurate actually - the Child Tool Palette mode relies on this side window, so if it's closed and you select a tool it'll reopen automatically, but if you're already in Drop Down mode, that side window is optional. I don't think it closes on it's own. I'd go to Preferences, Reset Options, Reset Side Windows. That'll put the tool palette back to it's default location and you can just close it if you don't want it.