A Great Way To Use Chief

For the people who do drawings for Architects, Designers and Contractors you might consider this. I have not done a project this way before. I drew the existing building and then went by the design build contractors office. He sat down beside me and we worked on the design. He wanted to show his customer several different scenarios. So we made several right there. I did not have to guess what he wanted. I do not have to make revisions all of the revisions are done. He can try different things right there and get it looking like he wants. It leaves no guesswork and he gets the project done. Everyone is happy.:)

By the way this contractor is a proficient Chief User.:)

Yeah, that would be cool.

So if there's more than one Chief user in Centralia next year the both of us can work together if we happen to be on the same project (LOL). :)

I have two builders who insist upon sitting next to me pointing and designing with me. Basically I'm a CAD monkey until we get it where they want it and when they tell me to finish it I will finish the cross sections, elevations and all structural plans without them but the design process these two are there the entire time. In my area there are so few people who do that it's rather novel.

Louis & Jay,

Why not just do the same thing with GoToMyPC? That's what I do for one contractor I do work for. I usually go out and do the site visit with him and take photos. He gives me a description of what he/the owners want and I do the basics with maybe some ideas as well. Then we meet via GoToMyPC and do reworks or adjustments. Beats arranging schedules.
I even give him control of the mouse so he can point with it or even draw some.

I will take the laptop along when having a meeting for an on-going design project and make changes as we talk. Most of these are not difficult but seeing the changes immediately helps the client see where something is going. I do not do any rendering type changes as most of these take too long depending on the CPU involved. It never hurts to have a rendered pic, maybe not perfect but at least a pretty colored picture ready before the meeting. Think out how you are saving your plans before you make any changes to what should be your "main" plan set. It gets to be a real mess when you mix up which plan sent something to layout.

For the last few versions Chief offered a mobile option which provided two licenses so you didn't have to fool with the stupid dongle. I always buy that two license setup! You know you won't have the dongle when you need it if you leave the office, and I feel it is a good value for this one man office! I sincerely hope ART continues this offering as I have used Chief since Version 3 or 4, anyway, a long time!

And still learning!!

Dennis,

I could do it with Gotomypc that has just not come up yet. I use Gotomypc for online training and helping people fix their plans.

One thing I did find is that when your sitting right next to the person, the dynamics are different than with Gotomypc. It is easier to pick up on the nuances of the meeting.

So how much time do you spend with your customer in these one-on-one meetings? I once spent 6 hrs. with a lady as we went room-by-room and tried every conceivable window and grid option for her house! I now prefer to email them the updated drawings and ask them to make a list of changes that I can work through on each phase of the project. I also limit the number of phases. I only meet with the customer once and on occasion I never meet them. Right now I’m working with a customer in Texas that has property on the Oregon coast that I may never meet.

EHH

With this particular contractor I spent 1 1/2 hours. If I can spend the time I will spend as much time as they want because I'm charging for every hour I'm drawing.

Yes, you would need to charge by the hour.

I work in front of my clients on a regular basis. I do all my Schematic Design this way.

I started working this way by hand, in a 4 hour session I call the House Call. I go to people's homes, we talk for about a half hour. For additions, I then measure only what pertains to the design (1/2 hour). We sketch a variety of design options for 2 hours, and the last hour is spent finalizing the chosen direction.

I just started trying this out using Chief and found that I need 5 hours to do what I did in 4 hours by hand. However, the final product is much more sophisticated and a better launching pad for Design Development.

It takes some guts and very good people skills, but it's a very affective way of making sure the design really floats their boat. Oh, and I get paid at the end of the session. Do the work, get paid, go home. It works.

Wendy

We work in front of clients all the time. What made this different is that I was working with the guy who was hired to do the design and he is a proficient chief user. So we were both working on the plan together to show the client.:)

Louis,

Yep, I get what you're saying. As a matter of fact, I was working on a marketing effort targeting other professionals. I was including doing Construction Drawings, Renderings, etc., but it had not occurred to me to include working side by side. I'm a little slow on the uptake sometimes, but it's a great suggestion. Thanks.

Wendy