Hi all. I’m a new member here. Getting ready to build my 3rd home for myself & family. I do a lot of the work myself, including framing, electrical, plumbing, tile, hardwood, trim, paint, etc. I mention that part to imply that i have a fair, working, practical knowledge of how a home goes together. This time, i’m thinking of purchasing Chief Architect’s “Home Design Professional” software for about $500. It supposedly can create 18″ x 24″ architectural C prints, layered for foundation, framing, electrical, etc. This would seem to satisfy the bank, the appraiser, codes, as well as enable me to communicate with subs regarding bids, etc.
My question here to the forum is: can any of you give me feedback regarding the Professional level of Chief Architect’s Home Design? Is it more intuitive that the old 4000 version of Punch’s Architectual software? I did several searches in the FineHomebuilding.com data base for past reviews of home design software, but only came up with 1 thread from 2006. Punch may be a decent program, but my memory from trying an old copy from a friend back in 2003 (with no tutorials or help), was that the Punch software was robust but not very intuitive. Seemed to me like a person would need 12 to 24 months of attendance at the “Punch University” to kick out a working set of drawings. This Chief Architect product appears to be quite a bit more intuitive; thereby, hopefully, shortening the learning curve. Any thoughts are appreciated.
Replies
CA has a pretty steep learning curve. I had Home Architect and Punch before I bought CA. I thought I would have an easy time with it. WRong!
It is a very powerful program. With power comes options and features...thus, the learning curve. It will do a nice set of drawings though!
I've got two licensed copies of CA XI. I'll sell one at a pretty nice discount. Email me at jim @ donanthonyroofing dot com if you are interested.
Cheif is ok. The tutorials that come with it are very helpful. I'm an AutoCad user, so I'm partial, but I can't imagine cranking out a set of working drawings with cheif without some type of training. With AutoCad, you can do anything you want, and pretty much anyway you want to do it. With Cheif, you have to figure out how to make the software do what you want it to do.
This is the first time I have ever heard CA described as difficult as that. Certainly as the programs have gotten more powerful, they get to where more time learning is needed, but ...I am not familiar with Chief that much anymore ( tho of course this guy is asking about Chief's younger brother and not CA)
But I know that Softplan is certainly easy to learn for the basicDraw > Wall
click, click, click.How hard is that?
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Yes Piffin, the version of CA software that i'm referring to, is not the full blown $2500+ version of Chief Architect, but their simpler version called "Home Designer Professional" and it retails for $495. I'm thinking it's kind of a middle road between the upper end programs and the idiot versions of 3D home design programs down in the $49 range that we see all over the place. I'm not in the building business, just a used-to-be-carpenter who wants to build 2 more homes before i retire. I'm thinking this version of their software would be just about right for a couple of small projects, and an easy learn.jimAKAblue, i sent you an e-mail. hope i didn't end up in your spam folder :-)
Edited 9/29/2009 3:24 am ET by pavoni
Edited 9/29/2009 3:28 am ET by pavoni
If you end up buying it keep us posted on how it is. I'm particurally interested in the learning curve aspect.
Years ago a special version of CA was sold as 3D Home Arch. That ended with version 3 or 4 and they have swithed bases.Currently the home version is being sold as Better Homes and Garden Home Designer.This has a comparision of the features of the Pro and lesser versions.http://www.homedesignersoftware.com/products/matrix.html?view=1And this lists the CA products. They have a full and lite version.And a comparison. http://www.chiefarchitect.com/pdf/Full-Interiors-Lite-Compare.pdfA couple of years ago they listed the pro version in there and also offered a full cost trade in to the high end versions. But I don't see that.You can get a rough idea of how they compare by looking at the two comparision charts.They also offer a free trail of the full version. Don't know if they do of the Pro or not..
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Drawing the walls is easy. It's drawing sections, dimensioning, construction details etc..., that takes alot of learning.
Hmmm....with Softplan, those are even easier than drawing walls.Where you get into depth on it is something like multilevel floorplans and different wall heights, complex stairs and roofs.
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