Help Database

Chief Architect 10.0 Update Notes

 Tuesday, December 06, 2005

Following are the update notes for Chief Architect Version 10.0. This list includes many program enhancements and also corrections for problems that were encountered after the release. While we endeavor to thoroughly test the program before each release, it is not possible to test every conceivable combination of actions. As these problems are identified, we resolve them with program updates.

10.01 Update

• Wall coverings can now be added to the exterior room of a structure on the Wall Covering tab of the Room Specification dialog. The specified wall covering will apply to all of the exterior walls defining the selected room. You can override this on a wall-by-wall basis on the Wall Covering tab of the Wall Specification dialog.
  


• Arrows can now be added to a text object from within the Text Specification dialog using the new Add an Arrow checkbox. The arrow will be added when the OK button is clicked to close the dialog. An arrow added in this manner will pick up the layer attributes of the current text object.
  


• Three new buttons have been added to the Select Library Object dialog when it is used to select a library material from any other dialog. The New Library, New Material, and Open Item buttons now display at the top of the dialog and provide convenient ways to manage library materials when selecting one for a particular object. These new tools are also available in the Select Library Object dialog by right-clicking on a library item to open its contextual menu.
  


• The minimum newel on center spacing for railings has been reduced from 12” to 1” to allow for a wider variety of railing designs.
  


• Layer names in the Layer Display Options dialog are now sorted using character capitalization, which allows greater control over organization.
  


• The Open Symbol edit toolbar button can now be used to open the fixture on the front of a cabinet for specification. The fixture on top can be selected using the tab key and opened using the Open Object edit toolbar button. If a cabinet only has one fixture, the Open Symbol toolbar button will open that fixture.
  


• In addition to curved trusses, curved framing members for curved roof sections are now available.
  


• The new Fill Window Building Only menu item works similarly to the Fill Window tool but ignores the terrain perimeter. You can add this new tool to any toolbar using the Customize Toolbar dialog.
  


• The Basic Search and Advanced Search tabs have been removed from the Plant Chooser dialog so that only plant information is used for searching for plants in the library.
  


• A variety of problems preventing the program from functioning as intended have been corrected.
  


• A variety of problems that resulted in 999 error messages have been resolved.
  


• A variety of problems that resulted in assertion failure messages have been resolved.
  


• A variety of problems that resulted in program crashes have been corrected.

• Two problems found in the 10.01 update that were not in the 10.0 version have been resolved. One had to do with Stairwell and Open Below room types and the other had to do with roof textures in raytrace views.
  

• The ability to insert and delete layout pages has been added to the Tools> Layout submenu. The new Insert Page and Delete Page tools can also be added to any toolbar using the Customize Toolbar dialog. These tools allow you to insert a layout page as long as there is nothing already on page 1000 or to delete a layout page as long as the page does not have anything on it.
  


• When editing text, holding the Ctrl key on your keyboard will disable the snap to natural width feature. Holding the Alt key will resize centered text about the center location rather than on one side.
  


• A line weight preview has been added to the Page Setup dialog. This will display a sample of lines in the approximate size they will be printed.
  


• The Build House child tool was added to the House Wizard tools which display in the Spaceplanner toolbar configuration. You can add this new button to any toolbar using the Customize Toolbar dialog.
  


• The behavior of tabs (columns) in text objects and schedules was modified to expand to fit the text in each column as needed.
  


• You can now select either Plan Materials or Library Materials for a wall layer material in the Wall Type Definition dialog. Two new buttons for this have been added. Clicking on the material preview will still bring up the Select Library Object dialog to select a library material.
  


• The Show Length and Show Angle options have been added back onto the Line Style tab of the Arc Specification dialog. These were inadvertently removed from Version 10.
  


• The ability to reflect roof planes using either the Reflect About Line or Transform/Replicate Object edit toolbar button has been added.
  


• Objects in vector camera views can now be displayed without lines between surfaces when certain conditions exist. The surfaces must have the same material and must also be adjacent and in the same plane.
  


• The Materials tab from the Dormer Specification dialog has been removed. Dormer materials can be changed through the Build Roof and Floor Defaults dialogs or by exploding the dormer and changing the materials of the individual objects.
  


• A number of issues preventing the program from functioning as intended have been corrected.
  


• A variety of problems that resulted in 999 error messages have been resolved.
  


• A variety of problems that resulted in assertion failure messages have been resolved.
  


• A variety of problems that resulted in program crashes have been corrected.

• Several issues in the 10.02 update that were not in Version 10.01a have been resolved. One had to do with roof textures in raytrace views and another resulted in a program crash.

10.03 Update

IMPORTANT! - READ THESE NOTES BEFORE UPDATING

Layers have been modified to include a major change in the way we keep track of layers and layer sets. In the past, we made a copy of the layers whenever a user created camera views, wall details, CAD details, etc. Making changes to the layers in these views did not update the plan layers. This resulted in difficulty managing and understanding the way layers worked.

We no longer make copies of your layers when you create CAD details or camera views. Now when you modify a layer set in any view it will update the layer information that is stored in the plan. For instance, if you change a layer in a wall detail, it will now change that layer for everything in the plan.

Because this is a major change in functionality we are recommending that users not to go back to previous versions of Chief Architect Version 10 (10.02a and earlier) once you have saved your plans in Version 10.03. The program will not prevent you from going back to earlier versions and use the plan but your layer information for all views may be reset to a default state undoing any layer changes you may have made. Once a plan has been saved in V10.03, your CAD details and saved camera views may look different when you go back to a previous version.

Layouts are NOT included in this change. Layouts will continue to hold a copy of the layers that was made when the view was sent to it. Modifying the layers in a plan will still have no effect on the layers that are stored with the layout.

• A new checkbox, “Use wall framing material”, has been added to the wall tab of the Framing Dialog. When wall framing is built, if this option is selected, then the stud thickness and stud spacing will be set by the material used for the wall’s framing layer. This will allow a user to specify wall framing parameters on a wall-by-wall basis rather then globally for the whole plan. You can set the stud spacing and thickness for a material that has its type set to “framing” in the Define Material dialog.
  


• Modified wording in Pony Wall Defaults dialog and Wall Type tab of Wall Specification dialog to include the following text “Note: Modifies display of preview only” to clear up confusion about Show Upper Wall and Show Lower Wall radio buttons. To change display of pony walls in plan views, users should check the “Show Lower Ponywall in Plan View” checkbox on the Wall Defaults dialog.
  


• Added ability to send vector overviews to layouts using a specified scale instead of only at “Fit to Sheet”. This was a feature of previous versions of Chief Architect that was inadvertently turned off in Version 10.
  


• Added ability to specify a negative pitch for a roof plane. Acceptable values are now between –80 and +80 degrees.
  


• Improved selection handles for narrow cabinets and symbols so that now they can have a rotate handle.
  


• Improvements were made to the way curved walls and wall hatching are drawn to make them smoother and more accurate.
  


• Improvements were made to the way custom window and door muntins are drawn to prevent any display problems.
  


• A variety of improvements were made to the generation of the 3D geometry of cabinets. This should improve the display of cabinet doors, drawers, corner and special cabinet types.
  


• Modified the library search tool to improve the results of performing searches. Previously, search tool would look to see if library name or keyword was a substring of the search keyword in addition to seeing if the keyword was a substring of the name. We no longer do this. Now, if you type in the keyword “cabinets”, you will not find objects with the name “cabinet”. To find these objects in your search, you should use the keyword “cabinet” instead.
  


• Improved performance of the program when editing objects in plan views by not rebuilding 3D data if a 3D view is open but not visible.
  


• Improved placement of door hardware for garage doors.
  


• A number of problems that resulted in either a 999 error or Assertion Failure message were corrected.
  


• Fixed a variety of problems where the program did not function in the way it was designed to.

• Fixed several issues in the 10.03 update that were not in the 10.02a version. One had to do with keyboard shortcuts not working as they did previously and another had to do with the undo function closing your currently opened CAD detail window.

• A new Preference setting controls whether or not images and pictures display in color, regardless of whether color is turned on/off for a view that has pictures. This setting is found on the Appearance panel of the Preferences dialog.
  


• Roof framing has been modified so that instead of using a default birdsmouth width, the program now uses the width of the top plate to determine the width of the birdsmouth. This change will only take effect if the roof framing is rebuilt in a plan that is opened in 10.04 and later.
  


• The performance of the Auto Rebuild Roofs option has been improved. Automatically-built roofs update to reflect wall editing and other plan changes as these changes are made. Auto Rebuild Roofs can be turned on in the Build Roof dialog.
  


• PolyFaceMeshes can now be imported when importing DXF/DWG files as 2D CAD objects through the Import CAD Wizard. Any PolyFaceMeshes found in the file will be imported as CAD lines or polylines.
  


• The Material Painter tool can now paint new materials on window treatments.
  


• Pocket doors can now be created using the default door style instead of the slab door style.
  


• A problem with the position of the ceiling break line in floor plan view has been corrected.
  


• Text and other CAD-based objects assigned to the Default CAD Layer remain on that layer when copied.
  


• Several problems related to attic walls and wall details have been corrected.
  


• Several issues related to the Project Browser and wall or CAD details have been fixed. In particular, some problems with deleting objects from the Project Browser were corrected.
  


• Windows metafiles (emf, wmf) can now be exported from vector overviews.
  


• A problem involving incorrect layer information when a plan was opened from a layout page has been corrected.
  


• Layer sets deleted from cross section views or CAD details are now permanently deleted.
  


• The behavior of crown molding in rooms with sloped ceilings has been improved.
  


• An incorrect error message for missing files when opening layout files has been addressed.
  


• The behavior of the Roof Cuts Wall at Bottom wall specification has been improved.
  


• Automatic Dormers have been improved to avoid problems in generation and updating.
  


• A problem that prevented skylight shafts from correctly generating in certain situations has been corrected.
  


• Windows and doors placed in unusually thick wall types can be selected more easily.
  


• The Fixture Schedule has been expanded to include appliances previously not included.
  


• A problem preventing the display of side backsplashes on cabinets in certain locations has been fixed.
  


• Several problems that resulted in Automatic Roof Returns generating incorrectly have been corrected.
  


• A number of program shortcut keys that were not working correctly have been repaired.
  


• Cabinet doors and drawers have been improved to build correctly on special cabinets.
  


• User-defined layers are no longer turned off in framing overviews.
  


• A problem with callouts incorrectly displaying in plan footprints has been fixed.
  


• The display of glass in doors in render views has been improved.
  


• The accuracy of angle snaps has been improved so that objects drawn using the snaps are at the precise angles specified.
  


• Legacy plans opened in Version 10 more closely match previous versions and work better with the new tools.
  


• Various object display issues in floor plan, 3D or layout views have been addressed.
  


• A variety of problems that resulted in either a 999 error or Assertion Failure message has been resolved
  


• A number of other problems where the program did not function in the way it was designed have been corrected.

• Several issues in the 10.04 update that were not in the 10.03a version have been resolved, including problems with copying objects between floors or layout pages, electrical schedules, and tab stops in text objects.

• Improved the prompt to save cross section camera views so that the message will only appear if a user has drawn any CAD objects while in the cross section view.
  


• Added a new feature to calculate line weight scales automatically and independent of current page size or scale. A new check box is available in the Page Setup dialog to turn this feature on. The line weight scale is adjusted up and down based on the scale such that the relative weight of lines remains constant. For example if you look at layered walls and how the line weights change as you change the scale you can see the effect. Additionally, dashed lines also scale up and down the same way in the "Automatic" mode.
  


• Added a new feature to better control line weights when sending views to layout pages. A new check box will appear on the Send to Layout dialog box called “Use Layout Line Scaling”. This option is also available in the layout scale dialog since it is a per layout view option.
  


• Added a new preference setting to control the minimum line weight displayed on the screen. New setting is called “Min Display Weight” and will appear on the Appearance page of the Preferences dialog. This setting is ignored when printing or when print preview mode is on.
  


• Several improvements were made to make reversing plans behave better with regards to saved cross section cameras, wall framing, text with arrows, and other areas.
  


• Several improvements were made to make advanced deck framing build more accurately in a variety of situations.
  


• A problem where curved deck railings did not intersect properly with walls has been corrected.
  


• Several improvements were made to the Time Tracker tool to make sure that recorded times were more accurate.
  


• Changed the behavior of the Print dialog so that the default print option will be “Entire Sheet” when printing while in Print Preview mode and “Current Screen” otherwise.
  


• Improved the behavior of dormers and roofs when selected and copied to make sure copy behaves correctly. Additional changes were made to dormers and skylights which should work better in general.
  


• Improved the automatic roof generation tools to handle several special cases that were not handled well previously. Automatic roofs should, in general, behave better in most cases.
  


• Improved texture mapping for symbol based objects to make stretch-to-fit textures work better with symbols that have been created using the OBJ file import tools.
  


• Improved copy/paste tools to take advantage of new CAD snap tools.
  


• Improved the behavior of lights in render views so that shadows will be cast when a user has turned on the 8 or more lights in a single room. Previously, the program would not cast shadows in this situation unless the user manually changed the intensity for the lights.
  


• Modified the behavior of the program with regards to editing the corner or vertex of a polyline. Polyline corners will now edit with a “sticky” angle snap that makes it easier to extend a line segment and remain on the original line angle. This new behavior will always be enabled regardless of your other snap settings
  


• Improved the behavior of text fonts when opening legacy plans that contain CAD blocks that have text objects using custom text fonts. Also, changed program to use the legacy font preference when setting up new text default font. Both of these changes should make bringing legacy plans into version 10 better.
  


• Improved the generation of ceiling and roof framing to be more accurate. Ceiling joists should now be cut off when they intersect roof planes.
  


• Improved the behavior of the program regarding selecting multiple layout borders and some other object types.
  


• Added the ability to use the control key to move CAD splines in any direction.
  


• Modified the behavior of the View to CAD tool so that page setup information is retained.
  


• Improved drawing speed of picture boxes in plans and layouts.
  


• Improved the way import and export of CAD objects to and from DXF/DWG files. Specifically regarding line weights, hatch patterns, and the ability to import spline entities as polyline objects. This change also affects the View 2 CAD tool.
  


• Made several improvements to the generation of automatic frieze boards.
  


• Added the ability to use the Make Parallel/Make Perpendicular tool with dimension lines. This works very much like the make parallel/perpendicular tool does for CAD lines. The only difference is that you cannot affect the point about which the dimension line is rotated as you can with lines.
  


• Improved the way the Resize picture box tool worked to allow scaling in both horizontal and vertical directions.
  


• Allow CAD objects to snap to CAD block center points and allow CAD blocks to snap to other objects using their center points.
  


• Fixed a variety of problems that resulted in a program crash, a 999 Error message, or an Assertion Failure message.
  


• Fixed a variety of other problems where the program did not function in the way it was designed.

10.06 Update

• Added a new feature to allow import of hatch entities from DWG files. Currently, we import the boundaries of a hatch pattern and create a set of filled polylines. The filled polylines are blocked together so that there is one block for each hatch entity. We do not yet import fill patterns; all hatch entities come in filled solid black. A checkbox called “Import Hatch Entities” was added to the 'Select File' page of the Import Drawing Wizard. This setting is saved as a preference so that the last setting is always used.
  
  
• Made several other improvements to the drawing import process.
  
  
• Modified the behavior of the Import Wall Definitions tool to give a choose to replace existing wall definitions with imported walls with the same name.
  
  
• Made several improvements when using the CAD Detail from View.
  
  
• The default layer used for railings in the Convert CAD to Walls tool has been changed so that railings will not be generated when a separate railing layer was not specifed.
  
  
• Several improvements were made to the automatic roof building tools in particular when using the Auto Rebuild Roof option in the Build Roof dialog.
  
  
• Some legacy plans were being marked as changed, causing a prompt to save, when no changes had been made. 
  
  
• Window materials are now correctly transferred when copying a window from one plan into a new one.
  
  
• Blocked and resized callouts will now maintain their correct size when exploded.
  
  
• Corrected a problem with the default layer specified for an interior door.
  
  
• Speed up the terrain generation for cases where a terrain model had multiple retaining walls.
  
  
• The Plant Chooser will now find a plant even if the hardiness zone was not set properly.
  
  
• Under certain conditions text arrow tails did not hold thier positions. This has been corrected.
  
  
• Corrected an issue with the Fill Window tool not giving desired results under some conditions on layout pages.
  
  
• Corrected a problem where the program would not accept a font change in the elevation point specification dialog box.
  
  
• Corrected a problem having to do with schedule callout sizes related to window labels when the callout was specified as a triangle shape.
  
  
• Resolved a variety of problems for very specific cases that resulted in either a program crash, a 999 Error message, or an Assertion Failure message.
  
  
• Resolved a variety of other problems where the program did not function the way it was designed.

• CAD details opened from layout pages were not holding thier size in 10.06. This has been resolved. 
  
  
• Resolved a few other minor issues with the 10.06 update that were not in 10.05a.
  

10.07 Update notes

• Terrain features are now included in the materials list.  If a terrain feature's material is a volume material (volume, concrete, earth), the quantity should be the product of its 2D polyline area and its height. Otherwise,  the 3D perimeter or 3D surface area are used to compute quantities.  When computing a materials list from a polyline or an area, if any part of the terrain feature is included in the polyline or area, the quantity will be computed for the entire terrain feature, not just the contained portion. When using "Calculate from Room", Materials for a terrain feature won't be computed unless the center of the terrain feature is inside the room. If the center is inside the room, the quantity will reflect the whole terrain feature, not just the portion in the room.  The exception to this is when "Hide Terrain Intersected by Building" is toggled on in the Terrain Specification dialog. In this case, only the portion of the terrain feature lying outside the room will be reported.
  
  
• Improved working with metric plan 3D cross section views and layouts.
  
  
• Improved redraw speed for automatically sized text.
  
  
• Corrected the snapping behavior of Trusses and how they are formed in regards to meshing with notch in roof.
  
  
• Fix for being able to select inactive cameras on hidden layers.
  
  
• Architectural blocks can now be placed against a wall, the bounding box boundaries have been corrected.
  
  
• Improved the conversion of dimension lines during a DWG import/export
  
  
• Nvidia video card refresh issues corrected.
  
  
• Improved the placement and creation of Frieze moldings.
  
  
• Curved arrows will now use correct defaults.
  
  
• Improved sprinkler tools.
  
  
• Improve unit of measure conversions in the material list.
  
  
• Resolved a variety of problems for very specific cases that resulted in either a program crash, a 999 error message, or an Assertion Failure message.

10.07a Update Notes

• The date and version number were changed to align the product with our internal build. No other changes were made since the last update

10.08 Update Notes

• Living Area label no longer duplicates when a plan is closed and re-opened under certain conditions.
  
  
• Schedules and text box borders resize correctly when text is changed. 
  
• Changed the way we determine white or black fill information when color is turned off. Now the fill color is white if the color is nearer white and black if the color is nearer to black. 
  
• Cabinet doors and architectural blocks retain symbol information when using Undo and Redo while editing in a render view. 
  
• Transparency color information is no longer used to calculate the average color of an item in a vector view.
  
  
• When a symbol name contains a ‘~’, this character is filtered out when exporting to DWG/DXF file format. This allows older versions of AutoCAD to work correctly.
  
  
• Library items with very similar CAD details now show the correct CAD detail when placed in a plan.
  
  
• Resolved a variety of problems for very specific cases that resulted in either a program crash, a 999 error message, or an Assertion Failure message.
  

10.08a Update Notes

• Added a new linestlye to the materials.dat file to allow a smaller dashed line. This will show up at the end of the line styles dialog.  (Chief Full Version Only)
  
  
• Resolved an issue with DXF export where a leading space in the ' Default CAD Layer' name caused an error importing to some versions of AutoCAD
  
  
• Resolved an issue created in the 10.08 update where hatch patterns did not always print as black when color was turned off. If the hatch color was light the hatch pattern would not print.