DavidJPotter

Never disparage yourself. We are all ignorant until we are no longer so. What you know, you know, what you do not yet know you can find out. DJP

It is always the case when problems arise that it comes down to a setting or settings in dialog boxes that you did not know about. Such things take time to become aware of as there are a lot of settings in a lot of dialog boxes. DJP

A week end seminar is delivered in two days and covers a preset curriculum. It's speed is governed by the slowest classroom students speed. One on one tutoring and trouble-shooting is more effective for you. This is not merely my opinion but rather from teaching a lot of two-day seminars myself from 1999 - 2005. I can help you if you wish, your choice. DJP

You can turn off (Uncheck) "Auto Rebuild Walls and Ceilings" in "3D Preferences" at any time which will stop Chief from auto rebuilding walls and ceilings as well as attic walls but I DO NOT recommend you get into a habit of doing this as you will regret it later. I suggest you do as Eric recommended and "Just get used to how Chief is Programmed to work" and work with it as it is. That is what I do. DJP

Most engineers use AutoCAD. So when sharing my drawings with engineers I export the plan views and elevations as .dwg (AutoCAD native file format) from Chief after I find out what version of AutoCAD they use. I have been using this method for many years with success. Finding a licensed Engineer that also uses Chief may be a hard job to get done though I do know of a couple, just not in Florida. DJP

Part of my business is teaching and tutoring others in and with Chief Architect and Home Designer software. I am not certified in that I never bothered to pay for and take the certification test. I have taught classroom seminars in Texas, New Mexico and also in Idaho at the 2005 Users Meeting in Coer d 'Alene and have operated as a teacher-tutor since 1999. I do so via the internet using my "Go to Meeting" desktop sharing service. That way it does not matter where you are. I have helped other users from South Africa to Russia to lots of exotic places around Earth. It is fun, safe and easy to do. DJP

With such a geometrically complicated roof system, I use auto-build roofs and then simplify the roof lines manually. You should also consider doing that as well in this case. Auto Build roofs for me is usually just a starting point. I am smarter and more experienced that any software running on settings, you are too. DJP

If you live near Minnetonka, MN You might consider contacting Dan Baumann who either can help you or refer you to someone local who is also competent. You can certainly work with Charles Volz as above but if you must have some one physically one on one you might pursue talking to Dan. ChiefExperts.com, Inc.12304 Junction RoadMinnetonka, MN 55343 Email: dan@chiefexperts.com Office: 952-236-4427 DJP

I opened it in an AutoCAD viewer and the wall lines show perfectly but when imported into Chief the wall lines are invisible and not on an imported layer as far as I can see, weird, even when I made the background black in Chief, the wall lines appear to have not been imported at all. DJP

Chief is programmed/designed to operate from one's hard drive or in very specialized cases from a local network. Services like Dropbox, One Drive etc are in terms of Chief Architect and Home Designer Software should not actively be used to work on plans in real time. I use cloud services only for sharing and storing of inactive .plan and .layout files. To do otherwise is to invite unnecessary trouble and loss. You can easily verify this with Chief Architect Inc. Tech Support during their office hours. DJP

I can help you with your project. Please e mail or call me (see signature below) DJP

Do you own any Chief Premier software or Home Designer Software? What is your phone number? DJP

Nope. https://accounts.chiefarchitect.com/360/535464413230059 DJP

Do what Eric said: "use a railing symbol, not a wall". Or you can make a railing exactly 5' long that contains the correct baluster spacing from slabs, poly-line slabs, or soffits if you must have absolute precision. DJP

It appears that your "Drawing Sheet " and print software are properly set but the 2D CAD of your border and title block are too small (not upsized for a Arch D sheet). Also Check the scale of the drawing instance you sent to your layout using the "Scale" tool to verify that it is at the intended scale (1/4" = 1' Scale). you missed a Print Set Up setting that is causing the results to be off. Find your mistake by carefully reviewing your presettings and then try again. The print process is simple but totally unforgiving when you make mistakes. DJP

For back up I use Carbonite with my PC laptop and desktop. I also use Dropbox, ICloud and other free storage services mainly for the transferring and sharing of files with clients. I never actively use any adjunct services for "actively working on" .plan files as Chief is not properly programmed to work on remote files (you are better off only working on active files directly from your hard drive). Nothing but trouble ensues when some of my clients and students have tried to work active files from ICloud, dropbox and other such services. If you or others get different results I am happy for you, I know from others experiences that trying to do so is merely a source of unnecessary trouble and loss. DJP

I run legacy versions of Chief and Home Designer. For the oldest I dual boot into Windows XP x32, so I do not need it to also run in anything newer, OS wise. I have read other threads here about this subject and others run Chief 10 within Windows 7-10, the main "Must Have" are updated hardware dongle drivers from the dongle maker's website. I have not tried this myself but reports from other users were positive. There are much better 2D CAD programs, even free ones that have better 2D tools than Chief 10 (TurboCAD, IntelliCAD and others) that are designed to operate within Windows 10. You do as you see best. DJP

This is easily done but in terms of sharing with the client it gets a little more complicated. Do you own any Chief Architect or Home Designer software presently? How do you intend to share the 3D results with your client? Are you computer "savvy" meaning can you operate any Chief or Home Designer applications with certainty in order to share the 3D data with your client? What is your plan to implement this? DJP

I checked and Home Designer Pro is the only current Home Designer title that still has the ability to import .dxf files. Architectural used to have this ability several versions ago but they (Home Designer) has removed that ability in present versions. I can easily do this for you using Pro or Chief and then return the .plan file to you for you to develop a 3D model from the imported 2D file. I do not work for Chief Architect Inc so I do not know why they removed that specific ability but in fact they have done so. DJP

Converting a .dwg file to .dxf (which HD Architectural can import) is easy and quick to do. All I need is a copy of your existing .dwg file from your Architect. Impossible to do within Architectural, easy to do in Chief Architect Premier. Communicate to me if you like. DJP

Also there are clicks to help eliminate one's own ignorance of how the software works and there are command clicks that are originated with end user certainty. These two click categories are for different purposes. The study ones tend to reduce the overall number over Time. I think a better way to think of the subject of "Clicks" is explained above and are NOT the same things, their purposes are different. DJP

It is dependant on the DPI quality of the original PDF you are using. You might try converting the PDF page to an image format and then use that on your layout. Without knowing exactly what you used and how one can only guess. DJP

Read some of these articles on making "Tileable Textures": https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&rlz=1C1CHMO_enUS578US578&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=making+tileable+textures&* DJP

See : http://www.jintudesigns.com/ he is the best! DJP

I suppose if one did one's own printing using color pages would be an option but most of my clients work for a living and would not spend the money for Arch D or E sized color pages. The difference between black and white versus color at the print shop is astronomical per page, so this aesthetic argument is rather lost on me. My clients want things built and not enshrined or glorified. DJP