The Knowledge Base is a vast collection of help and how-to articles for Chief Architect's software products. Browse articles by content category or by searching for a specific topic. See our glossary for common home design and construction terms. Be sure to explore the getting started resources for a variety of other support tools.
Cabinet doors and drawers can be set to display open in both floor plan and 3D camera views. Additionally, the amount that the door/drawer is open can also be controlled.
The Project Browser is a convenient way to access all of the views that are present in a plan or layout file.
3D Viewer Models can be viewed directly in a web browser, on a social media profile such as Facebook or Twitter, or be embedded directly into a website.
While most objects have one Defaults dialog that controls its initial properties and the layer it's drawn on, a variety of text-based objects have multiple Saved Defaults, allowing you to set them up for more than one requirement or task.
Saved Plan Views are preconfigured collections of the following settings, allowing you to quickly change them all at once as you create a variety of construction drawings: Default Set, Layer Set, Reference Display properties, and general plan view-specific settings.
Follow these instructions to resolve most Chief Architect software crashes on a Microsoft Windows operating system.
Use the instructions in this article to backup Chief Architect content in the event a computer malfunction occurs. Additionally, it's helpful to have this same content backed up so that it can be transferred to another computer.
Learn how to restore your Chief Architect program, and all of your User Content by following the instructions in this resource.
Here's how you can install Chief Architect on multiple computers, using only a single license, quickly and easily.
Click here to learn how to upgrade to the most current version of Chief Architect.
The minimum system requirements for Chief Architect are described here for all current and past versions.
Each object in the program is assigned to a layer, which can be thought of as a transparency sheet on which objects are drawn, and nearly all views in the program use multiple layers, like stacking transparency sheets together.
The User Catalog is a folder in the Library Browser that you can add objects to. This can be helpful if you use a specific library object frequently or if you have created a custom object that you would like to save for future use.
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.
Learn what your computer specifications are by accessing the DirectX Diagnostic tool on Windows or the 'About This Mac' section on macOS.
Specify which graphics card (GPU) is utilized by a Chief Architect program by accessing the Display settings on your Windows 10 or Windows 11 computer.
Review the features added in each new version of Chief Architect by reading these PDF files that detail the changes, and watching these online tutorial training videos.
Adding hyperlinks to text can easily be done in Chief Architect, though the process may differ depending on the tool and version you're using.
Access the Toolbar Customization dialog to customize toolbars and toolbar configurations to your liking to make working in the software more efficient.
If you are having trouble installing your Chief Architect or Home Designer software program, or are receiving an error message or program crash working in the program, submit your technical issue to Technical Support using the Technical Support Center. If you have a question on how to accomplish a particular task in the software, check out these other resources for Training help.