New software contemplation....

I am a longtime user ( 13 years) of ArchiCAD in Australia - and I am looking at switching to Chief Architect for many reasons - more particularly for the estimating and quantities focus.
Is it known if the templates or management of this aspect of the software is fully editable, and is it based on local building industry/construction methods (USA)

Can the basis for the calc's be switched to say any local (Australian) methods a user may require and as needed?
Further - are there any Chief users that have switched from ArchiCAD.

I would be interested to know if Chief is truly comparable to ArchiCAD.
It appear to be not dissimilar on the outside.

Thank you all.

Contact Chief Architect, I am sure they can answer all your questions. You may also get some good feedback from Glenn W. and other CA users from down under.

I think the guy going by the username of Justice (http://www.chieftalk.com/member.php?18297-Justice) uses Archicad as well as Chief. Fresh out of TAFE and learning revit I started a job where Chief was used and apart from a few little nuances the changover wasnt overly difficult, this forum is your best bet for information and or advice.

Depends on the types of projects you are doing, I'm starting to delve into bigger projects and Chief is handling them quite well and I use it for everything from concept through to Construction plans and marketing renderings, though going from some other users experience Archicad as a little more adept in CAD detailing

Most of the items are pretty flexible and adaptable to Australian methods, havent really explored the bill of quantities side of things however.

If you do a search on "Archicad" you will find a number of posts regarding comparisons. Whether you should switch depends on a number of factors, including type of work you do (both building type and stylistically), size of project team (including engineers), type of documents you intend to produce, etc. I can tell you that Chief can do residential material lists much quicker and more intuitively than ArchiCAD.

Id encourage you to do your homework on this and download a trial version of Chief. If your focus is standard residential homes I haven't found anything as good as Chief. If you also do interior design, its unbelievably good in that area. Weakness is schedules and reporting (like BIM). EXCEPT materials lists - it actually does that fairly well in my opinion.