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The reason why this dialog appears is because Chief Architect can no longer find a plan file from which views have been sent to this layout file.  The result of this broken link is that views sent from the plan can no longer be displayed in the layout.

There are two approaches to resolving the problem of a lost layout link.  The first addresses the problem in the short term, allowing you to relink the files and see all views in layout.  The second approach helps you avoid this problem in the future.

To relink layout views

1. Open the layout file in which you are encountering the Layout Files dialog described above.  If a warning message displays, indicating that a file cannot be opened, click OK.
   
   
   
2. In the Layout Files dialog, click on a file in the Files NOT FOUND in layout field, then click the Browse button to the right of that field.
   
   
   
   
   
3. In the Browse for Missing File dialog:
   
   
   • Browse to the location of the missing plan file, then click on it to select it.
     
     
   • Click the Open button to return to the Layout Files dialog.
     
     
     
4. Repeat this process for each of the files listed in the Files NOT FOUND in layout list.
   
   
   
5. If relinking the files does not resolve the problem, select File> Save As  with the layout file open and carefully read the file name. 
   
   
   • If you see a period (.) in the file name, such as the period between file and name in this file's name:  file.name.plan, delete it and click the Save button.
     
     
   • Repeat steps 1-4, above.

To protect layout links

When working with layout files, it's helpful to remember that views sent to layout are not actually relocated into that file.  Rather, layout views can be thought of as "windows" that look back onto the original view in the plan file.

One benefit of this arrangement is that if you make changes to the plan file, the changes will appear immediately in many types of layout views (floor plan view, for example). In order to do this, though, the program must be able to locate the original plan file that the views were sent from.  If this file is moved or deleted, the link to the layout will be broken and the views that were sent to layout will disappear. 

The following are some recommendations for maintaining links between plan and layout files.

Save your plan and layout files in the same folder

If you store your plan files in "My Documents", for example, you also need to store your layout files there.  

• It's often helpful to create separate folders for each Chief Architect project. 
   
   
   
  
  
• If you import an image into either the plan or the layout, it is a good idea to save a copy of that file into the same project directory, as well.  
   
   
   
  

Avoid long file names

When naming the layout files, do not use any punctuation:  No spaces, periods, dashes - no characters of any kind other than letters and numbers. 

Good file management usually involves organizing your files into different folders; however, try to keep the path to your project directory as short as possible.

• For example - if we create a layout file, name it "Test" and save it to the desktop in a folder called "Directory" - our path will be pretty short:  
  
  C:WindowsDesktopDirectoryTest 
  
  
• In contrast, if we save the Test file into a folder named Test, which we place inside another folder called File Management Example, and locate all of this in My Documents, the pathname will be considerably longer:   
  
  C:Documents and SettingsMy DocumentsFile Management ExampleTestTest
  
  
  

     To avoid both long pathnames and broken file links, it is extremely important that you never save your work inside the Archive folders.

  
  
  

Avoid moving either the plan or the layout file

If one of these files must be moved, it is best to move them both together, along with any support files such as images. 

If you need to move files from one computer to another, use the Backup Entire Plan function. To learn more, see Help Database Article 987: Using the Backup Entire Plan tool.