Incorrect suare footage showing

[LarryBC]

I'm using a very old edition of Chief Architect (X1 from 2007).  After starting to suspect some dimension problems, I drew a plan 100' x 50' containing no interior dividing walls.  Outer walls are 1' thick.  Since wall dimensions are defaulted to surfaces, I expected Living Area to show as 5000 sq. ft.  However, it shows 5163 sq. ft.  Don't know whether there's a setting I may have somehow overlooked, there's a bug in the program or it just aged out of reliability.

 

Thanks for your ideas for a possible solution.

[JiAngelo]

Any chance you are measuring room area to surface materials vs wall face? 

51' 1" x 101' 1" = 5163sf.

6.5" of exterior materials like brick/stone and an air gap? 

 

[raltd9245]

39 minutes ago, JiAngelo said:

Any chance you are measuring room area to surface materials vs wall face? 

51' 1" x 101' 1" = 5163sf.

6.5" of exterior materials like brick/stone and an air gap? 

 

I'm old school I do it by hand and draw rectangles.

[TeaTime]

In my experience the program is never (rarely?) wrong in these calculations, it's just sometimes unclear what is being calculated, or how.

I have no idea if X1 had this but I assume it did, but a Living Area polyline will show you exactly what's being calculated.

 

They have an article on this: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00424/understanding-how-the-square-footage-or-living-area-is-calculated.html

[LarryBC]

Thanks, TeaTime.  That article answered my question.  Measurements are from the main layer of external walls rather than the surface.  In the old version I have, there's no way to change the setting to the actual inner surfaces as shown in the article.  If I draw the same 100' x 50' outline using interior walls instead of exterior, the area correctly displays as 5000 sq. ft.

 

Thanks to JiAngelo as well.