Chief Architect Help Database - Article Number:  837

Message: Overly complex wall surfaces being produced.

The information in this article applies to:
  • Chief Architect X5
  • Chief Architect X4
  • Chief Architect X3
  • Chief Architect X2
QUESTION

I get a message that says:

 "Overly complex wall surfaces being produced.  One or more walls may have a large amount of openings or complex mulled units.  Try simplifying the openings in the wall or using the wall break tool."

ANSWER

There is a wall in your plan that contains a lot of openings, a complex set of openings, or there is a large number of mulled openings in one wall.

In order to resolve this issue, you must first locate the wall in question. Some things to look for when attempting to locate the problem wall are:

  • A really long wall that has a lot of openings in it. Openings include doors, windows and masonry fireplaces.

  • A wall with a large number of complex openings such has non-rectangular windows.

  • A wall that has multiple mulled openings it.

Depending on the situation, once you have located the wall there are a couple different thing you can do to resolve this issue:

  1. If you have a wall that has multiple mulled openings it:

    • Select each mulled unit and click the Open Object edit button.

    • On the Options tab of the Mulled Window Specification dialog, check the box beside Single wall hole and click OK.


  2. In all cases, a solution that will work is to use the Break Wall tool to break the single wall up into more than 1 wall. This will result in less surfaces being created on 1 wall.

    • Select Build> Wall> Break Wall from the menu, then click along the problem wall to place a break at that location.

    • You will not be able to place a break in a location where an opening already exists, so place the break on either side of an opening in the wall. The point where an interior wall intersects the problem wall is sometimes a good place to position a break.

Last updated on: Feb 07, 2013

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