DavidJPotter

The best authority is Chief Tech Support. I have a similar system but a more advanced video card and have had no problems at all. It is probably your video card needing an upgrade to match the specs required for Chief Premier. DJP

https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/category/270/import-export.html READ THESE HELP ARTICLES, PLEASE. DJP

When you create a round window using the default window, no lites are possible other than manually adding them. There are some round and oval windows with lights in your Library Browser but they are not editable, what you see is what you get, take a look, please. DJP

You should always start with the plan default settings for the project you are starting, all categories, always. DJP

Joe Carrick aka Yoda in the past uploaded a large library of image people and animals some time back. Do a search at Chief Talk to see if you can find that thread and download address, I bet it is still there to access. DJP

Some of the things in your shared plan file make sense and some do not. Since I do not know anything about your conversations with your client as to their desires, I cannot make but a couple of comments: 1. The top most deck cannot be drawn in the presence of roof planes, you can either remove the roof planes and have the deck supply water drainage or manually pull back the roof planes to allow a proper deck room to be created. 2. The front most spiral staircase has a roof over it-This is not feasible in that stairs must have some "head Clearance" in order to pass code. Currently the top of that spiral stair intersects a roof plane, not OK. 3. other that one and two above the model appears to merely need some clean up and adjusting but without knowing exactly, in detail what you promised the client, I can say no more with certainty. DJP

DJP

The reason it opens in "Basic" is because they programmed it to do so. Rather than "Q & A", I suggest you make this a suggestion, to change and upgrade the Render techniques. DJP

When doing a specific area, I usually create all the surrounding rooms that would be seen from the target room in my 3D renderings so they look realistic. If one is not doing a room addition where exterior elevations are required, I just concentrate of the target area. DJP

When you go to Tools - Cabinet Schedule and create an initial Cabinet Schedule, you open the dialog for that created schedule where you can limit the schedule to a specific floor or a specific room or rooms, take a careful look, please, it is there to see and use. DJP

When you create a deck like room over an non-deck room you MUST name it "Balcony" and not "Deck" and the roof over the covered entry needs to have its ceiling height lowered so the roof planes do not interfere with the balcony above. Decks and balcony's by default are programmed NOT to have a "ceiling" and as such you, in order to have a roof built automatically you would have to open the "Balcony's" room specification dialog - structure tab and check "ceiling and roof over this room" there so it then will build a roof over the balcony automatically, otherwise you will have to manually edit the roofs yourself. DJP

You import the data that is to be ON the sign as a "Custom Material". When properly imported it will be visible in your User Library area. You then open the "sign" object and apply the custom material set to "Stretch to fit" so it displays only once and not multiple times. If done properly it works every time in Chief or Home Designer. DJP

If you got an email "from me" that speaks of or says "Please see the below proposal from Chief Architect®. for your review." , it is BS. I did not send it to you. It got sent to me and others this morning. It is some type of email con or scam using my Hotmail account. I have since changed the pass word for that account. Please delete the email "from me" that speaks about a "Please see the below proposal from Chief Architect®. for your review." -delete immediately knowing that I did NOT send this email nor does it have ANYTHING to do with Chief Architect Inc. business. DJP

DJP

Also when laying out a floor plan a designer needs to be able to predict the 3D geometry of the roof over a floor plan. Especially new or armature designer often miss this important point that the geometry of the floor plan directly dictates the geometry of the resulting roof structures. When I start a new project the first thing I do is to set all project relevant "Default Settings" in all relevant categories for the project at hand. Then I create the floor plan with its windows and doors, then the roof system, then the foundation, next the terrain plane, then con docs and renderings as required. DJP

Not me. The only times I see this phenomena is when I am working on a new or some-time users plan file where they did not first set all relevant floor and ceiling heights Default Settings before creating the plan file. Resetting or changing Default Settings after the fact causes some plan file psychoses until it settles out after just persisting and making all the room dialog boxes comply. This has been true since I started with Version 4 back in 1994. DJP

Your invisible wall is the problem. Either as DB said above: remove the offending invisible wall or move the invisible wall outside of the edge of your cabinet run so it does not interfere with your cabinets display. If you can delete the invisible wall, then that is another alternative provided that action does not interfere with your cabinet wall elevations details. DJP

DJP

Set the "Finished Ceiling Height" to 10' in each shed roof covered area and on the Structure Tab you check "Flat Ceiling over this room" check box. When done each room you so mark will have a finished flat ceiling at the height you specify. DJP

You create a "new material" for each angle of the 45Degree siding if you want a left and right run of such a siding pattern (Adjust Material Definition tool per instance, you copy the original material and rename it, alter its angle etc). These video tutorials may also be of help: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=custom+materials+in+chief+architect DJP

Watch some of these videos or help articles on  the Chief Architect Website, please. DJP

Start over from scratch but try to learn from your mistakes and avoid repeating them. All of us had a hard time when we started to use this or any software, you are not unique in this. DJP

Open your "Display Options" dialog for Plan views and you will find the "Dimensions" layers named alphabetically there where you can display or not display or lock dimensions or any named layers in terms of display or not as you desire. DJP

This thread helped me advance my knowledge. At 75 years of age it is not too late to learn useful things. Thank you Eric! DJP

Mark, Cable railings are NOT supported (never have been) for stair objects. For specific railing types you have to turn off railings in the stair dialog and then manually draw such railings using the railing wall tool setting such manually drawn railings to "follow stairs". This has been so for many versions. DJP