The information in this article applies to:
I keep encountering errors, lockups, or the program closes unexpectedly when I run Chief Architect on my Mac computer. What might be the cause?
There are a number of different reasons why Chief Architect may be encountering errors or suddenly exiting, including the Mac not meeting the System Requirements for running the software, needing to have updated drivers (particularly for the video card), or a third party application may be conflicting with the software's operation.
Before continuing, please access our Known Incompatibilities page to learn more about the software and hardware incompatibilities with Chief Architect software.
Since there are a number of possible causes for the undesirable software behavior, some basic troubleshooting is required in order to identify the reason for a particular issue.
Please follow all of the recommendations in this article in order, from most to least common, until the issue has been corrected. When followed, the steps below resolve almost all known issues with Chief Architect software programs crashing on a Mac.
Step 1 - Verify System Requirements
Step 2 - Download Program Updates
Step 3 - Basic Initial Troubleshooting
Step 4 - Restart in Safe Mode
Step 5 - Modify Accessibility Settings
Step 6 - Repair a Storage Device
Step 7 - Create a New User Account
Step 8 - Advanced Troubleshooting
First, it is extremely important to make certain that your computer meets the minimum system requirements for running the software. The minimum and recommended system requirements for running the software can be found on the website at the appropriate link for your program below.
Please note that running in an emulator, or virtual machine environment, such as Hyper-V, VMWare, Parallels, or VirtualBox is not supported.
System requirements for previous versions of Chief Architect can be found in the Related Articles section below.
If your Mac does not meet the minimum system requirements for your version, then you should consider installing on an alternate system that does meet, or exceed, the requirements.
If your computer meets the System Requirements for running the software, then the next step is to make sure you are using the most current program version of your Chief Architect software program.
In Chief Architect and Home Designer software programs, you can verify whether you have the latest program update by selecting Help> Download Program Updates from the program menu.
You can also access the Program Updates page on the website at the appropriate link below for your version.
If your Mac computer meets or exceeds the System Requirements, and you are running the most recent update available for your software, then all of these additional basic troubleshooting steps bulleted below should be tested.
After testing the basic troubleshooting steps above, if you are still experiencing issues with the operation of your Chief Architect software program on a Mac, then you should try restarting the system in Safe Mode by following the instructions in this Apple article: https://support.apple.com/en-us/116946
Once you have completed the instructions, launch Chief Architect and test to see whether the issue still occurs.
If starting up your Mac in Safe Mode resolves the behavior, and if it continues to fail when restarting the Mac normally, then there is likely a conflict with a third party application running on your system.
The most common conflicts that we have recorded have to do with software that modifies the Accessibility settings of the Mac.
To troubleshoot if this is the case, first Save your work then close out of the Chief Architect software if you have it open.
Select the Apple 
menu, access System Settings, select the Privacy & Security category, then click on the Accessibility subcategory.
In prior macOS versions, navigate to Apple> System Preferences> Security & Privacy, then select the Privacy tab on the next window that appears. Scroll down to the Accessibility section on the left and select it.
If any applications in this list are allowed to control your computer, disable them.
To attempt to fix issues relating to error messages and program crashes, you may consider running a repair on the storage device inside your Mac. For information on this process, please see this Apple article: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/disk-utility/dskutl1040/mac
After repairing a storage device, please complete the following steps:
If none of the above steps have resolved the issues on your Mac, then you should create a brand new Administrator User Account, log in using that Account, and attempt to use the software using the new account to test whether or not you continue to experience problems with regards to running the program.
For information on creating a new user account, please see this Apple article: https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/set-up-other-users-mtusr001/mac
Finally, if you continue to experience problems with the software closing unexpectedly on your Mac computer after going through all of these steps, please contact our Technical Support department directly, and include all of the following files listed below.
Please make sure you have already completed all of the earlier troubleshooting steps listed in this article before following the steps below, as these files will not be helpful unless all of the preliminarily steps have already been completed.
~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/
tool to create a folder with a copy of the file in which the error occurs, along with all referenced files.