DavidJPotter

I recently upgraded my service, very happy! DJP

Your answsers are on page 834 and 835 in the Reference Manual (partially attached here) DJP custom materials.pdf

For roofs, I make the sheathing the same material as the roof surface to termanatedly hangle Z fighting relative to roofs, that change is made in the roof plane specification dialog - Materials Tab per roof plane. DJP

You can "Shift-Select" or group select objects after the fact and then make changes to those group-selected objects. There are several methods of group selecting objects that are described in the Reference Manual and Video Tutorials, take a look. The best method is to set all defaults before drawing the first wall but that has to be learned to be fully appreciated by new users. DJP

I found the video to be interesting. I never expect technology to be "perfect" or "infallable", that notion is silly but anyone can see that it is easier to use a Disto type device over a measuring tape and one that directly inputs to an app like Room Planner would be time saving no matter the results. I am also sure that additional mobile devices will be empowered over time. A start is a start and progress is progress as well as skepticism towards it. DJP

You can take any material and change its properties to "reflective" instead of its default settings, you can also adjust how transparent and other properties to get just the look you need and want. DJP

In terms of different line styles, what you could do is to place different stair objects on custom layers and those custom layers could then have differing line styles and colors. Also if you will remove the "Fill" that is present in stair objects by default then with no fill these would then be transparent when stacked floor to floor. One must enclose stairwells with walls, invisible or otherwise so that the ceiling of the basement stairwell can be programmed with "no ceiling above this room" on its structure tab and stairwells on other floors should be named "open below" which then allows the stair objects to be visible, floor to floor. These are not perfect solutions but are workable. DJP

You set that increment unit in "General Plan Defaults" and I change it based upon what I am bumping or moving at the moment, sometimes I set it to 1/16" and sometimes to 12" or more. I doubt that there could be a single setting that would work for "all" possible instances. DJP

You can cut out terrain using a "terrain hole" and whether or not you alter the surrounding terrain is a personal preference. The more realistic look is always more work and care to produce. DJP

Those are auto-generated invisible walls, the program by default connects "Island Rooms" to exterior walls with auto-generated invisible walls. This is necessary due to the programming and function of Chief so that rooms placed inside other "rooms" will still appear properly in camera views. Why this is so, you would have to have a Chief Architect Inc Programmer-software Architect explain but it has always been so from the beginning of the software. If you do not want to see them the "Walls, Invisible" layer can simply be turned off while in Plan View. Deleting them would cause unwanted results in terms of camera views. There is a setting in Edit - Preferences that controls whether this automatic function is on or off but it is better to leave it "on". Part of learning this software is learning why it does certain things automatically, what its limitations are and what its common tendancies are, just stay with it. DJP

Plan view is by default "Vector" in nature, whereas camera views have the choices of various render techniques. This sort of question comes up from time to time but I suggest that you make it a "suggestion" for future versions in terms of flashier, more Artistic, floor plans. It is merely not the current or past focus of this software (pretty floor plans). DJP

I am here in Austin, Tommy Blair lives in Houston but either of us can and will help you if you wish it. DJP

It is a matter of editing the "x-y-z" settings of the 2D block or just try regenerating the 2D block. this is done by way of the "Edit Symbol" dialog for each symbol. Actually now that I think of it, windows may not have such a dialog like other symbols and if that is true then you would have to make the repair in the same program you used to create the window symbol object, correcting the 2D block part of the window object. The above is suppositional from my point of view because I have never needed to make a custom window object. DJP

It hardly matters whether or not this method might or might not be confusing, it is required here. I am not saying it is good or bad, it is merely how you operate if you must have a remodeling permit. The as built plan is separate (a different plan file) from the remodeling plan, so no, it is not confusing except for perhaps the dim witted and there is a "Wall Legend' for each page so no, it is not confusing but is the law here abouts. DJP

The City of Austin Texas requires (this year) an as-built plan with demo walls showing a black fill and existing walls have no or white fill. The the remodeling plan new walls are to be black filled and existing walls with white or no fill. I mention this only because it is required and other conventions are rejected for permit. I used to use a similar method as you display but I now feel like the "Austin" method is more clear and is what I currently do, especially since they will accept nothing else. I just make two different filled custom interior wall types for this purpose and use two plan files, one as-built and one or more version plan files for submittals. DJP

No, not never, not no how (sorry you are). It may be a video card issue, I suppose (just guessing). Update your software drivers and see if that helps at all. Push comes to shove you might consider rotating your images in an image editor first before importing them as a work-round. I have not seen that as a problem since version 8-9. DJP

Raymond, that might be nice but it is not designed to automatically work that way and should go into the "Suggestions" area and not "Q & A", I answered his question relative to what "is" as opposed to "what might be nice". DJP

If the porch (or whatever you named it with) has "Ceilng over this room" checked in the Room Specification Dialog box - Structure Tab then the attic walls should automatically appear but if you have no ceiling checked then no attic walls would automatically appear and would have to be manually drawn on the floor above the porch-deck or whatever you named it. If you use the name "Deck" it will by default have no ceiling as part of the default programming attached to the attributes of a "Deck" room. it is up to you to control and guide the software to a desired result and often times you just have to learn how to do that as you go from the reference manual and other sources. DJP

I am not sure what you mean by "updated and organized" in that templates by default should be kept in one's "Template folder" usually found in "My Documents/Chief Architect X6 Data/Templates. If you do that how could them become "disorganized"? To update a template you must open it, update it and then save it making sure it is saved to your "Templates" folder. I suppose one could figure out more complicated methods than the above but that is merely a tribute to the flexibility of Chief Premier. DJP

You could temporarily set "Floor Finish" to "Opening, No Material" to get that view. DJP

Create a slab or poly-line solid to represent the flue extention and use an existing symbol for the grill. DJP

I commonly use a filled-CAD box for that purpose, works for me. DJP

I commonly use a filled-CAD box for that purpose, works for me. DJP

I commonly use a filled-CAD box for that purpose, works for me. DJP

I commonly use a filled-CAD box for that purpose, works for me. DJP