DavidJPotter

You are under no duress to pay the SSA fee unless you consider it a positive exchange and that decision is completely yours to make. If the current version serves you then perhaps the upgrade is not for you. Older versions continue to function within the hardware and software environments they were designed to function ( I still have version 7 running when I require its services). My business is about serving those who use Chief Architect and Home Designer software so I have lots of it in many versions available to run on my PC. Part of my business is to stay current so the SSA is a vital fundimental for me. Not everyone is the same. DJP

I just finished some ray traces for a remodeling project here in Austin, I allowed each exterior render to run about 20 passes each (about five minutes with all light sources turned off except for the Sun). My PC also works harder during Ray Traces (makes more noise) but do not worry about the hardware, you bought it to serve you and it will until it wares out or is replaced. Your comfort and speed while working is more important than the comfort of your hardware. DJP

Troll again, that setting is in Preferences-Edit - Show Start and End Indicators. DJP

Do a Search for threads-posts by Scott Hall, Architect in San Diego. He switched to Mac as soon as the software was available for that OS and makes a lot of posts and videos to share here. DJP

Here is my humble attempt to plum the mysteries of this window: http://youtu.be/iBS2uqo-3ZM DJP

Are you needing this for a 2D detail (if so just draw it in 2D using existing 2D tools) If you require this to be fully 3D (why you would need it fully 3D, I cannot imagine) then it is a bit more work to do, manually adjusting the stem walls and framing. I do that in 2D on orders from an Engineer all the time. I have never been required to do such a detail in 3D or isometrically but that would just be a few more steps to do. DJP

What you would want to do is to learn how to draw custom Molding Profiles and then learn how to assign them to window sills and lintels along with custom material assignments. That is how that is best done but it is based upon learning a process to lead to a wanted effect. DJP

I would say "yes" but only for creating Custom Muntins. That is completely manual but at least you can then exactly control, shape and location of them. DJP

Home Designer .plan files can be edited back and forth between X5 and 2014 titles only if when opened in X5, the file is inabled to do so in "Plan Defaults- Allow Editing in Home Designer Titles" by placing a check-mark by that atttribute. Once that is done then yes but until it is done in X5 such plans can only be viewed but not edited. After so marking the file in X5 you can thereafter share the plan file back and forth between X5 and 2014 Home Designer titles. X6 and HD 2015 tiltes, X5 and 2014 titles, X4 and 2012 titles and etc on back is what works DJP

Yes, same file format (.plan) BUT! Once opened and saved in Chief Architect X5, it cannot be opened in any Home Designer or Chief Architect Premier title after X5 HD 2014. Older files can be upgraded to newer ones but NOT backwards. DJP

While ON the layout, only the "Edit Layout" tool allows for editing (removing, adding and editing) CAD lines autogenerated by 3D (Architectural) objects in the view. 2D CAD Lines and text you may have added to the elevation or cross section view using 2D CAD tools would have to be edited or changed with the view open in the plan file from the layout and then allowed to be closed so those changes could then be "updated" to the layout. I hope this makes the way it is programmed to function more clear, it is often easier to show another than to explain just using language. DJP

There are at least two basic ways to handel unwanted holes in terrain: 1. Turn off the setting in Terrain Specification dialog "Hide Terrain Intersected by Building" or 2. Using a slab, poly-line solid, soffit or other object type to plug the hole setting its material to "Grass" or indicated material DJP

That type of unwanted anomaly are bad or poor wall connections. Redo the connections until they appear right in both plan and camera views (you connect and disconnect and then reconnect such junctions over and over until they snap together properly). The main thing to apply is the intention that they behave and persist until you get good behavior. DJP

I suppose this sort of thing is a rite of passage or so it seems to me. The day that you fully realize and understand that only you and nothing or no one else is responsible for outcomes. The other realization is that "Gone" is GONE in some cases. I had such a episode back in 1999 and since then I have taken steps to make sure that I never loose a flipping thing: I manually save (F3 or CTRL-S) while I work so I never have to then depend upon automatic-mechanical devices to "save" or back up my work. When a plan starts to show evidence of "stress" I immediately save it as a new name as insurance against just this sort of thing occuring. Additional hard drives are cheap, my time is not. This has happened to me once or twice in twenty two years of use of Chief Architect Inc software but once is too often. I also use a software program that backs up my stuff to another hard drive automatically. I have a Carbonite account as a further back up. How long it takes you to personally take steps to protect your data is the wild variable. Join the Club. DJP

Yes, they should be. You can import his layer sets and wall definition files if he shares them with you by exporting them for you to then import but they should be resident in the plan file he shared with you (take a look and see). The difference is that such data should be part of the plan file shared but if you want that data available for future plans then you should consider exporting and then importing such data and makeing a template plan for that person's work or amending your profile plan at your choice. DJP

"Stud-height" is controlled by way of the "Ceiling Height" setting of each room specification dialog - Structure Tab - Ceilng Height input value. It appears to me (us) that you have it set unusually low for just that room with the unwanted low roof planes. The software just reacts to settings per unit of time, so find the offending setting or settings and then all will be well. The software just does what it is told to do or in a lot of cases what one fails to tell or set and thus you get unwanted results. Straighten out your settings and it will deliver the expected results, always. DJP

How to achieve various specific outcomes using programs other than Pro or Chief one carefully studies the data found in the "Build Roof" Dialog - "Roof Styles" tab where how to set up for each roof style is explained. Generally speaking, all Chief Architect Inc software does what it does based upon either factory default settings or those settings that the end user sets to guide the software to wanted results. When you know where those settings are, what they are for and what they then do, you have the software mastered where it then becomes a tool, to do otherwise (guessing, trial and error or being "intuitive") just takes too long when all the answers are already resident in the Help Files, Reference Manual and in help videos. It just costs some of yout time and attention followed by practice of what was studied. DJP

I assume you have-use Chief Premier. Chief has manual editing tools for roof planes. You would select the offending roof plane then using the "Break Line" tool you edit the edge of the roof plane that is intruding into your room so that its edges are moved outside of the room's wall. It takes some practice to get this smoothly done but it is a skill you need to develop and use. Here is a related You Tube video where I display some manual roof editing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgJ_gq4-qQA DJP

Your image shows that you have turned on "Boxed Eaves" but that is just an attribute of the eaves of roof planes. If you also waht your porch roof to be at the same level as the apparent roof soffit-eaves then you must set the "Ceilng Height" of the porch to match that apparent eave height because they are controlled by two different settings (one in the build roof or roof plane dialogs and the other in the Room Specification Dialog of the porch. DJP

If you used a back-clipped cross section or elevation camera you might have moved the saved camera icon for that view beyond the back-clip plane, thus making anything beyond that back-clip point invisible. It could be layers turned off for that camera view type (check and see). It will be one or the other I think. DJP

On second thought I would agree that a ceiling plane would, overall work best. The last time I used a poly-line solid, I did not auto-frame the plan (that was unnecessary for that one). My answer was geared for a quick 3D solution or just for construction documents without framing. DJP

Reading the Reference Manual is something I do on a regular basis (when all else fails in terms of guesses, trial and error), I first read the reference manual, cover to cover back in version 6 but since, I just read sections of it when I get stymied from time to time. There is too much to know and not all of it is required on a daily basis. Advising others to read the Reference Manual is the most commonly given advice that is consistantly not taken by most people. You would think that ignorance is somehow a modern virtue the way people cling to stupidity these days, I am glad that you and some others take the time and show personal responsibility over and above what is "normal" these days. DJP

Phyllis, Once you send those cross section views to layout they are editable, line by line using the "Edit Layout" tool, I mean that is what that tool is for - for editing and cleaning up Chief's 3-D errors and extra or missing lines. If you wanted to 3D model a sloped ceiling, I would add a poly-line solid to emulate the sloped ceiling in camera views. It is all a matter of appearances and aparancies as opposed to actualities in our racket. DJP

CAD Details are dynamically connected to the layout view where they were sent. any changes to that exact instance of the detail will update (it has to be the original instance and not a copy for this to be true). No, each elevation would need to be manually opened and then closed to update them, one at a time. Render views would need to be edited or redone per instance. That is why it is often called "work". DJP

If you mean "Rotate the entire plan" (building) I do not recommend doing that at all ever. If you mean 'rotate the camera viewpoint" then I do not understand your question. Frankly I do not use the spherical backdrop "feature", never have anyway. But if you get unwanted results that is evidence enough that your procdure or actions are falty. I commonly use site-digital photographs for backdrops and they are only good for the vector they were taken in per render view. I tried the spherical backdrop when it was first added several versions ago and found it unimpressive and so never bothered with it again thereafter. DJP