katalyst777

Excellent! I think more people are going to be upgrading to Windows 10 in the near future, so it's good to know that this can happen.

According to this Knowledge Base article, the View> Toolbars setting that solver suggested would only apply to Pro. 

https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/support/article/KB-00113/restoring-missing-toolbars.html

Check out some of the other steps from the article though, as they should apply to your version.

http://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-03008/message-attempt-to-write-a-read-only-database.html

 

If you have recently upgraded your Microsoft operating system, the most common reason for receiving this error is that there was an issue migrating the directory permissions forward correctly.

If this is the case, to correct the issue please see Microsoft knowledge base article #2623670; scroll down to the Resolution section for Issue 3 entitled "I cannot open a file or folder after I upgrade to a new version of Windows."

Note: The resolution steps for Windows 8 also apply to Windows 10, although the Microsoft article had not yet been updated as of the creation of the Chief Architect article.

https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/support/article/KB-00888/importing-3d-symbols.html

Nope.

If you're just doing one project, Kbird's suggestion is perfect.

If you're going to be doing multiple projects, it's good to be aware that the Chief Architect X7 version of the software has multi-page layouts as well as advanced layer capabilities that makes this process much easier.

You have to be in the "Vector View" rendering technique to send a scaled view to the layout.

KB-00073: What Operating Systems Does Home Designer Run on?
 

Only the current Home Designer 2016 programs look like they are supported on Windows 10. 

Historically, people have been able to try running on newer versions of Windows than their programs were supported under, but ran in to issues (especially with camera display due to video card drivers) the more updates that Microsoft released for the new version.

If you don't have a compelling reason to upgrade to Windows 10, it would probably be worth waiting and save up for the next sale on Home Designer upgrades.

You can also use Edit> Reset to Defaults to quickly set all of the Floor and Ceiling Height values for all floors back to their defaults.

https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/support/article/KB-02020/importing-and-using-a-custom-bathtub-symbol.html

Are you using the current version?  It doesn't look as though anything other than the 2016 programs will be supported under Windows 10, although older versions might work okay.

You don't need to "import" sample plans.  They are .plan file so you should be able to just open them, so long as they aren't still in a compressed folder, as solver pointed out.

Have you gone through this Knowledge Base article?

https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/support/article/KB-02940/troubleshooting-chief-architect-software-errors-on-a-mac.html

https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/support/article/KB-00417/

https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/support/article/KB-00552/

There are three layers for rooms:

 

• Rooms, Standard Area is measured from center of interior walls to either the outside surface of exterior walls or exterior wall framing, depending on the 'Living Area to' setting in the Floor Defaults dialog. It is rounded to the nearest square foot or mm and does not include the area within bay, box and bow windows.
   
• Rooms, Interior Area is measured from the inner surfaces of all the room's walls. It is rounded to the nearest square foot or mm and includes the area within bay, box and bow windows.
   
• Rooms, Interior Dimensions is also measured from the inner surfaces of the room walls. It is rounded to the nearest inch or mm and does not include the area within bay, box and bow windows.

KB-02969: Changing Wall Heights

See this Knowledge Base article.

https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/support/article/KB-00182/

• If there's already a dimension (like Auto Exterior dimensions), then a separate temporary dimension won't display. 

None of the Home Designer programs allow you to edit how Temporary Dimensions locate walls and other objects like the Chief Premier version does.

You can use the Interior Dimension tool (if your version has it) to manually drawn dimensions, or if it doesn't, use the Manual Dimension tool and relocate the dimension ends after the dimension has been placed.

For future reference, just compressing the DXF file so it has the .zip file extension would be easier to understand than adding a random different file extension.

That being said, I was able to import the DXF in to Pro 2016 without a problem when it was saved to my Desktop.  Took probably less than a second. 

Maybe it is in a format that the older Pro 10 didn't support?  I'm not sure when that version was released, but maybe see if you can use a free DXF converter to save it to an older AutoCAD compatibility that probably would've worked with Pro 10.

Update: According to this Knowledge Base article, Pro 10 was released in 2010.

I don't still have any of my older versions installed to double check, but you should just be able to move the walls to resize the structure, and then rebuild the roof and framing.

If you create a room, instead of using a roof plane, the plants shouldn't need to have their height value adjusted.

Hi - what do you mean here - sorry, 'applied to something like a closed box shape' ? The lattice objects in my HDPro 16 either squeeze everything to a new size or retain and aspect ratio - which just miniaturises or expands the look and scale of the lattice - from my use anyway. Thanks

Sounds like you're still using the lattice symbol objects, not the materials from the bonus catalog applied to resized shapes like a "Closed" box or a Wedge.

If you don't want to follow the whole article to manually create a fireplace, in the Library Browser, expand out the Core catalog, then go under "Architectural" and "Fireplaces," or you can also see about finding one in the 3D Warehouse like Kbird suggests.

manually drawing a spline with an arrow (which prevents the software from properly labeling 3-way switches, etc).

There's a Three Way switch in the Library Browser that you could place manually.

In addition to what's already been suggested, there's also bonus catalog called "Wire and Lattice Material" which has a selection of lattice materials.

http://3dlibrary.chiefarchitect.com/index.php?r=site/detail/961

These work great applied to something like a Closed box shape from the Library Browser reshaped under a deck, which is much quicker/easier than trying to use a fence or lattice symbols, IMHO.