If you do not find a specific custom font on a particular computer, you can install it.
Chief Architect can no longer find one or more plan files from which views have been sent. You may have moved or renamed the plan files(s) resulting in the broken link so that views sent from the plan can no longer be displayed in the layout.
A gap between floors is typically caused by modifying the Platform option in your Wall Type Definitions dialog so that it is on the exterior surface line of the wall type.
When creating a deck on an upper level with a room below, consider changing the Room Type to Balcony and changing the Room Name to Deck, rather than specifying the Room Type as Deck, which will affect the framing.
Only select the 'Extend Slope Downward' setting to extend the roof plane downward over a bumpout. The two connecting walls that create the bumpout must also be set to be 'Full Gable Walls'.
This error message will appear any time you attempt to print to a paper size larger than what your particular Home Designer version supports. Consider upgrading your version if you need to print to a large size.
If you have not created a layout, or opened an existing layout, then you will see this message display when you click the Send to Layout button.
In most circumstances, the Main Layer should be specified as the structural layer of the wall, particularly when the wall is a framed type.
Having trouble printing? Here are some things you can try before contacting Technical Support.
Contact Customer Service immediately with your proof of purchase and Product Key if you receive this error message.
Opening legacy files require a Chief Architect X8, Home Designer 2017, or an earlier version program that supports the .plan and .layout file extensions.
When trying to place an appliance or fixture an error comes up warning that the symbol was made to be placed in a cabinet.
Lengthening a staircase, or increasing the rise angle, are two potential solutions to make your stairs reach the next floor.
Some errors occur because Chief Architect or Home Designer encountered something unexpected. Follow these steps to get to send the correct information to Technical Support for further troubleshooting.
By definition, holes must be located entirely inside a single containing polyline shaped object.
If the registration wizard fails to locate the usb hardware lock device, check to ensure that the computer meets the software version's System Requirements. If the version is supported on the operating system, follow the instructions to download and install the appropriate driver for the device.
In this article, we will discuss the most common reasons for encountering slowness in Home Designer plans.
Finding the problematic room related to this message can be done by following the steps within this article.
You may recieve a message if you try to draw a framing member at a location other than inside of a structural component that it is meant to frame - for example, if you try to draw a Joist outside of a floor or ceiling platform.
If you cannot place an Automatic Dormer, see the detailed information in this article to correct the plan so that the requirements are met.
Follow the detailed instructions in this Knowledge Base article to correct exceptions, assertions, null pointer, and SEH error messages. If none of the instructions in the article resolve your specific issue, follow the steps to send the System Information, Message Log, and other relevant files to our Technical Support team for advanced troubleshooting.
If you receive this warning, an image file cannot be found. Follow the appropriate instructions in this article to resolve the warning.
You can click the Check Help Database button at the bottom left corner of any warning or error message to launch your Internet browser to our online Help Database.
This message displays when you do not have an up-to-date video card driver provided by the manufacturer, often described as an installed client driver.
If a CAD based object such as a slab, custom countertop, roof plane, or polyline solid is overlapping itself, then you may receive this message.
When a cross section/elevation view is created, Chief Architect/Home Designer generates lines to represent the edges of objects that the camera is passing through.
If you click in a location that does not allow the program to determine which wall of a room should be used to center the object, you will receive a message.
If a cross section/elevation view that has been sent to layout and you choose to delete it, the link between the layout and plan will be broken.
This warning message displays when a roof plane overhang is extending into a wall in your plan rather than butting against the wall's surface.
Having an area that is too small to accommodate a certain object will result in this message displaying when you try to place it. Move to another, empty area of the design to place the object, then hold down the Control (or Command key on a Mac) to allow for unrestricted movement of the symbol.
Receiving this message indicates that an illogical or undo-able roof configuration, likely based on a combination of roof pitches, ceiling heights, and/or roof directives in walls.
If there is a wall in your plan that contains a complex set of openings, or a large number of mulled openings in one wall, then this error may display.
If the perimeter of a CAD base object has been broken or is not completely enclosed, then you may receive the following message.
Automatically generated walls can be created when Attic Walls need to fill in a gable end, room divider invisible walls need to connect 'island' rooms, when 'Auto Rebuild Foundations' is turned on, or when a wall on the floor below a wall is marked as a Bearing Wall.
Home Designer has the ability to open Chief Architect Plans, but you may have limited functionality with making modifications.
Creating a 3D view of your Home Designer plan relies on your computer's video card. Problems with camera views can often be resolved by following these steps.
One of these messages will display whenever the program tries to save a file to a particular location but isn't able to. Please see the steps in the article to learn how to resolve the message.
The Material Painter is an excellent way to make modifications to the materials applied to most objects but shouldn't be used on Pony Wall wall types.
The weight of a line refers to its thickness on the printed page and is described in absolute terms as a fraction of a unit, often 1/100th of a millimeter or 1/1000 of an inch. In Chief Architect and Home Designer Pro, line weights are assigned to objects, patterns, and layers using whole numbers that correspond to the numerator of this fraction. You can specify the Line Weight Scale by defining the denominator and the unit used in this fraction in the Drawing Sheet Setup dialog. If the Line Weight Scale in the plan is different than the layout, and you attempt to send a view from that plan to that layout, you may receive the error mentioned at the top of this article.
If the missing file is a custom backdrop, image, picture or texture, you have several choices to resolve this issue in the short term including helping the program to locate the missing file on your computer, replace the missing file with a new file, or remove the reference to the missing file from the plan or layout in question.
This Information message will display if you try to use the Wall Elevation tool to create an exterior view of your model. If you believe you are trying to create a view inside of the room, make sure the room is completely enclosed and selectable.
This message displays when a plan file is opened, and its electrical defaults extremely old discontinued objects that are not present in the library of the current program version. Please contact Technical Support for troubleshooting immediately if you receive an error that the default template cannot be found and this error message is one of the results.
This message displays when the file you are attempted to open is corrupt. Do not continue working in this file. Instead, locate your last good backup of the file, or access the software's automatically generated Archives to find a recent copy of the plan.
Always make sure to exit out of a program completely before attempting to send or compress/zip a file.
This Warning message will display if you try to import and the file is not a type that can be imported either into the active view or into the program in general.
This Information message will display when a stair section is connected to a landing along an edge that is not the same width as the stairs or requires a break point.
This error message indicates that there may be another process using the file you are attempting to open, or that you don't have proper access to save or open the file.
The Auto Stairwell tool creates an opening in the floor platform above the selected stairs. If the program cannot find a floor platform above the stairs, this message will display.
When you attempt to place a fixture or appliance into a cabinet that already contains a fixture/appliance, this message will display. Choose to keep the existing fixture/appliance or replace it with the new one.
If a roof baseline has a length of zero, you may receive this error message.
This message indicates that the file you are trying to open is corrupted and can no longer be used. You need to revert to a backup file. If you do not have an independent backup, search the program's automatically generated Archives.
This warning message will display if you type characters into a field where they have no meaning such as typing letters into a field that requires numbers.
Changing the file extension of your plan or working over a network are just a few of the reasons why you may receive this message.
This message will display when the program finds a wall that appears to have been drawn with the exterior layer facing inward and the interior layer facing out.
This message displays when you send a view to layout at a scale that will make it either taller than the layout drawing sheet's height or wider than its width.
Creating objects on Floor A (the attic floor) can cause this message to display.
This message will display if the file you are trying to import cannot be read by the program due to corruption, formatting or if something in the file itself is unrecognized.
You may receive this message if you have an outdated video driver or an unsupported video card.
This warning indicates that you have changed the Main Layer for a wall type that exists in your plan, and that walls will be moved to accommodate the change.
As the message implies, either the e-mail address, or password that you're entering is incorrect. Verify spelling, case and if necessary, reset your password.
The likely reason for receiving this message is that cookies have been disabled in your web browser itself or by your security software. If the issue is with your browser, see the appropriate website below for your web browser.
In floor plan view, delete all of the missing symbols and then replace them with a new ones from the current version's Library Browser.
This error is generally caused by an outdated video card that does not accurately use render shading. Please check the System Requirements for your version.
If you type a character into a dimensions string that is not in one of the three types of allowed characters, this Warning message will display.
This message appears when the Custom Toolbar file could not be opened. The problem can be resolved by creating or importing a new custom toolbar configuration.
Placing an object on a layer that is currently not displayed in the current view will generate this message.
There are several ways to move piers and pads; however, they must always be positioned under a wall. A pier or pad can only be moved away from the wall it is placed beneath if it is moved to another wall.
Plans started in an older version of the software can be opened and modified in the new version. However, plans created in newer titles are unable to be opened with older versions of Chief Architect and Home Designer software.
If a newer version of the software is available, you may receive this message upon launching the Home Designer.
This message displays to inform you that although the Room Label Specification dialog is a type of Text dialog, the text of the room label cannot be modified here.
This message will display when the program detects multiple materials with the same name in Chief Architect X9, Home Designer Pro 2018, and prior versions.
Resize the cabinet you want to place the appliance in so that it is large enough to fit, then place the fixture.
If you attempt to place a symbol into a plan as an independent object, when it was meant to go into a cabinet, this message will display.
Library catalogs are available for download from our 3D Library website. There are catalogs available for multiple program titles and versions, but you should only install catalogs designed for your version.
Whenever a new plan file or layout file is opened, all of its default settings are drawn from a template file. If you have modified your templates, migrated them from a prior program version, or receive an error message when attempting to create a new plan or layout, you may need to reset your template files.
This warning dialog displays when you're using a Windows 8, running Chief Architect as an Administrator, and Google Chrome (or an old version of Mozilla Firefox) is set as your default web browser.
Cross Section/Elevation, Backclipped Cross Section, and Wall Elevation views sent to layout are semi-dynamic; you can choose to update the layout or not.
Select Library> Install Core Content to restart the core catalog download if it has been interrupted or failed. If the process continually fails, check your network proxy or firewall settings.
When uninstalling your Chief Architect product you may encounter an error due to an issue with file permissions on your system.
Many web pages use JavaScript to provide additional functionality to the reader when viewing web pages.
Use the instructions in this article to obtain the software's Message Log and send it to the Technical Support team using the Technical Support Center.
The most common reason for this message to display is caused by a structure in which floor and ceiling heights in some part of the plan are such that the program cannot create roof planes over that area and have them join properly to the roof planes in the rest of the plan. This condition may also be accompanied by walls that have had the Pitch incorrectly set, or are wrongly specified as Full Gable, High Shed/Gable, Knee Walls, or Extend Slope Downward.
The resource you requested will be opened in your default web browser. If you would like to access the resource when disconnected from the internet , you can use your browser's 'Save As' functionality to save a copy of the resource
If you lock a layer and then attempt to draw a new object on that layer, a message box will ask you to unlock the layer.
The detailed instructions in this article resolve most issues with Chief Architect software crashing on a computer that uses the Mac operating system.
Learn how to send a dump file from Microsoft Windows to Technical Support to troubleshoot this error.
This warning message can display in Windows when your Chief Architect software program is closed, but still running in the computer's background, such as if it was not closed correctly. Even if you don't visually see the Chief Architect program on screen or in your Windows taskbar, your operating system still shows it is running in order for you to receive this warning.
If you are receiving a warning on the program's launch regarding being unable to write files, it means that you do not have permissions that the program needs.
Follow these instructions to resolve most Chief Architect software crashes on a Microsoft Windows operating system.
This article explains how to resolve permissions issues when receiving the error: 'Critical error writing preferences.'
This warning will display if Fault Tolerant Heap is enabled for a Chief Architect or Home Designer program.
Follow these steps to create a new Data folder to circumvent unexpected behavior caused by having the Documents folder stored on iCloud Drive.
You may receive one of these messages if your structure or an object that you're placing is far from the origin point. Follow the instructions in this resource to resolve this.
If you're receiving several error messages when opening or closing a Chief Architect/Home Designer program, a System Setting/Preference may be blocking the program from accessing all of the required files to function optimally. Please follow the instructions in this resource to resolve the issue.
Follow these steps to move your Data folder to circumvent unexpected behavior caused by having the Documents folder stored on OneDrive.
This error message may occur if your system is having trouble detecting your ATI/AMD graphics card. Download or reinstall your ATI/AMD graphics driver to resolve the issue.
Persistent icons that follow your cursor, or mouse pointer, may indicate an uncommon setting is enabled or disabled, an edit behavior other than the Default is selected, the structure or the terrain in the plan needs to be rebuilt, or an object, such as a wall, is not connecting properly or is at an irregular angle.
There are some settings within Chief Architect software that, when enabled, will result in degraded performance. Technical Support might have you enable these settings for a short period of time to retrieve data related to troubleshooting specific problems. Once the necessary data is retrieved, Technical Support will have you disable them once again.
Use the instructions in this article to obtain the software's Rendering Log and send it to the Technical Support team using the Technical Support Center.
Chief Architect software checks the status of your computer’s the graphics card on launch and warns you if it detects problems that will affect its ability to run. If you encounter this message, your computer’s graphics card or chipset will not be able to generate 3D views – including 3D previews in dialogs and the library browser.
You may be directed to this resource if you click the Check KB button in a message, information, or error box while using an unsupported Chief Architect product.