Chief Architect User Stories

[supanchick]

My job is designing dental offices. I started using Chief Architect a number of years ago. Prior to using CA I used AutoCad for 14 years. I am proficient with AutoCad in both 2d and 3d. Within 1 week of using CA, with no official training, I was drawing 80% faster than with AutoCad! I buried my competition.....none comes close. I went to drawing for two of my co-workers to eight on a regular basis. My company is so impressed with the work I am able to do and with the increase in client acceptance, that the entire company, nation wide is planning to switch to CA this year. I went from doing 1-2 office designs in a week to an average of 8. Has Chief Architect made any impact on my life? Oh yeah! Thank you guys for having such a great product!

Mark Supanchick
Patterson Dental
Design Specialist
San Diego, California

[Justice]

When I was attending the South Australian Institute of Technology form 1984 -1986 Computers were very slow at (CAD) Computer Aided Design and we had a couple of CAD computers in the computer room with the black screens and bright green cross hairs. The main use of programs with builders were spread sheets that we used to cost out the materials.

The DOS system was used in timber truss design and we bought a computer to do our timber trusses after I had left SAIT. We employed the Bostich Truss Design system that allowed us to enter the outer pitching line dimensions and the other parameters for wind site conditions, roof pitch & spacing etc. On the old DOS Computer we had from about 1987 to 1989, If we encountered a difficult roof we would send that off to Bostich head office to do the truss layout design for us.

When I was drawing plans I did them by hand with the use of a drafting machine and table and this was quite a bit faster than using the old tee square and set square that we used at SAIT.

When I got a job at a home building company at the end of 1993 I kept encouraging them to invest in a computer system and software to draw plans and to do quantity take off. The boss being from the old school thought it was a waste of time and would not be fast enough.

When I left that Job in 1997 and decided to go out on my own as a building designer I decided that I would eventually get a computer system when I could afford one. I started looking into what CAD system I was going to use about that time 1989-1999 AutoCAD was being used for drawing plans and Microstation was used for engineering in Australia.

In 1999 I took a course in using AutoCAD lite and found it to be a pain and very slow so the class lecturer nicked named me "The Computer Virus" because I wanted things to be much faster and efficient than they were as we were often held up by viruses and boot times and many other problems in class. The lecturer was a strong advocate of Microstation and we understood that because it was 3d & worth $7000AUD and AutoCAD $4000AUD back then.

A Cousin of my father found out that I was looking into using software and he was a user of Chief Architect version 5 and his friend in Western Australia was our dealer back then and Version 6 was about to be released.

I was looking at drcAuto Smart Architect $1800AUD add on for AutoCAD Lite $2000AUD and Accurender add on $1200AUD about $5000AUD all up.
The man who sold me a computer did a live hook up with our cousin who did a demo of Chief 6 and I gave it a try and when I saw how it worked I was impressed as it had automatic 3d in it without the use of any add on programs, I was sold and it only cost me $1695AUD. The computer sales person was going to sell me what looked like 3d home architect of some sort for less than $80AUD but I just knew that would not do what I was looking for. I am now amazed at the amount of US people who got into Chief Architect thru using 3d home architect but that seems to be a good way to introduce people to the program and by giving them a decent rebate incentive to get Chief Architect.

Chief Architect a very good program for "The Computer Virus" guy who hates hold ups.

[mchroust]

I started my career using a self-built drafting board with a drafting arm. Anyone remembers those? When I got my first computer in 1989, I started thinking to do design work on a computer. Someone told me about Generic CADD. So I went out and bought a math coprocessor for my PC. My first drawing with Generic CADD was a 21-unit apartment house. After Generic CADD was bought out by folks from AutoCAD, I lost interest in it. I searched for another drafting software and came upon a Visual CADD. I used Visual CADD for few years and than it happened. Out of the blue I received a demonstration CD with Chief Architect v.6. I put it into my computer just to find out what is that all about. I was pretty satisfied with Visual CADD at that point. I think I was on v.3. Well, I put that CD in and I was blown away. I had to call my wife and show her what CA could do. She is normally very conservative as far as money goes, but as soon as she saw how much time I could save she decided for me to get the software. However, not all was perfect with version six, and I still supplemented my work with Visual CADD. Sometimes the lines would not close or were not showing so I spent actually more time working, because I would export from CA to Visual CADD and fix all the lines that needed to be fixed and actually prepared my final drawings in Visual CADD. This took about three years before I finally trusted the layout enough to start sending my plans into the layout. That is when I went cold turkey and stopped using Visual CADD and I never looked back. I purchased every upgrade to CA since v.6 and was never disappointed. The program is fun to work with and the technical support is top notch. I was showing the software to my friend who is a retired engineer. As his profession he worked for NASA writing software. You would expect person like that would have some criticism about CA, but after we designed a house in about 30 minutes and I showed him the 3D capabilities and the framing capabilities he was totally amazed. I think that is very good seal of approval. I can’t wait what will they come out in X5.

Thanks for letting me rant.

Martin Chroust-Masin
MCHM Design
McMinnville, Oregon USA
Chief 6.0-X4 (SSA) on iMac 27" with
Bootcamp and Win7 Ultimate x64

[ccrane]

I can't remember the year that I started with Chief Architect. I do remember that it was on a computer that I spec'd out to run this new CAD program that promised to cut out drawing a bunch of lines, AND not having to trim the ends at corners! That smokin' hot computer was a Compaq 386 with 256 on the video card, 4 megs of ram and a gig on the hard drive.

I was able to develop our construction company's field drawings on Chief for at least a decade. I remember the thrill of first being able to export my CA drawings to .dwg for engineering firms. But, what was really something was being able to bring them back into Chief. What an accomplishment, and with little clean up!

I felt a sense of accomplishment from participating in Beta testing for several revisions. I am not a programmer and don't play one on TV. If the CA team wanted to make a program that a simple person as myself could use, then I could surely provide them with feedback on the experience. THEY ACTUALLY LISTENED - to me, nonetheless!

I was in Florida where English is a second language. The 3D drawings that I produced were used as part of our Contract Documents. In actuality, the bigger value was for the contractor to point to a picture and say, "make it like this" to a non-English speaking tradesman. Those vector 3-D's were invaluable to the trades.

Our construction company had to close. I have moved to Alabama and become a Realtor. So, you may not think that I use CA anymore. I use it a lot!

How do I use it as a Realtor - and get paid a fee to do it?

I do Virtual Staging with CA. I do renderings (marked as conceptual designs) showing how an awkward, dull, empty room may look with furniture, blinds & artwork. Sometimes, I show a change in wall color or flooring, sometimes the addition of crown molding. Maybe, its a bath update that needs to be brought to life. These .jpgs are entered right into the area MLS. I also do this for my fellow Realtors. Of course, I have to have accurate dim's for fenestration, ceiling height & molding types.

Like many other CA Users, I have large physical limitations. With Chief Architect I can still get a charge out of what I do, and tickle the spirits of others. I am also confident that those behind the scenes of Chief Architect are STILL LISTENING to the Users! Life is good.

[marty]

Way back around 1995 I saw a demonstration of Archicad V1 and decided that was the way of the future and asked the price. I then found out the price - $8,000 for the software and $16,000 for a computer capable of running it. That made my pen and paper setup look like very good value but started me on the search for the same sort of thing at a price I could afford.

After a short stretch with Generic Cad I moved on to DataCad and the promise of 3D. After a year of so I got tired of telling my Clients that rendered 3D views were "just around the corner" and renewed my search which turned up Chief V4 which delivered the 3D presentation I was looking for. At that stage the CAD tools were very primative so I kept Datacad for Plot layouts, cross sections and details.

By about V6 Chief had developed sufficiently for me to abandon Datacad completely. I still remember that early presentation of Archicad and have continually said that when I get a big complex project that Chief cannot handle I will spend the money and move to Archicad. Despite having faced several complex multi storey apartment and commercial buildings I have yet to find a project that Chief could not handle.

One of the strengths of Chief as a program is the way they listen and communicate with their user base. We all still moan about the top items on our wish lists being neglected but the reality is you cant please everyone all of the time. Chief is now a mature product helping to keep me ahead of the competition and it will be interesting to see how it meets the new challenges that come with new technology. I can almost see myself working on a large touch screen mounted on a stand that allows it to be rotated to any angle and working on it as if an old drawing board - back to the future!

[Charlie Williams]

I have back up floppies from 1996 - I think I started before that with version 2 - I remember when it was a huge deal when V4 came out, I think it was the first that could do roofs. I started out using CA for floor plans, plot it out on a pen plotter and we would do the elevations on paper. Seems like V8 was a big one, too.
I am glad I started early as the early versions were pretty simple compared to the current versions and I have been able to learn the new features as it evolves. I probably still only use 80% of the capabilities and am always learning new tricks. We used so many tricks with the early versions to get what we were after - the forums were critical back then.
I do room additions on fairly old homes - 1920s., mostly, and the clients love the 3D - they always have and it gives me a huge edge in the business.
Good product and I have never tired of it in 16 plus years.
Charlie

Charles Williams Design, Inc
Louisville, KY 40204

[yusuf]

i am a civil engineer by profesion but i was highly intersted in architectural works so i was doing both architectural and stractural plans by using an inclined table using graph paper then by overlapping it with tracing paper to trace it using rapido graph and that was the way i was producing working drawings blue print. The i needed to be faster and i had to train my self computer aided drafting because that time i was working in the municipality as chief engineer and my time was limited to attend classes in addis abeba,capital city of ethiopia, for ur information in our our country archi cad is is used for 3d and well known so i went to addis to purchase auto cad, archi cad and any other software related if any. It was to 2006 the softwere gallery in addis gave me those cds then i asked them if there is any other drafting software then he said i have also this one even though no body have purchased it before three cds marched chief architect 9 full version it was full of dust. The went back home installed both ac and ca.suddenly the animation tour of ca attracted me when i saw ideal things i was alwys asking my self if it existed and i proceeded evaluating it in my own way ac is well known every body tells me how it works but ca no one knows.so frnds were louphing at me say u r crazy spending ur time for no thing like the extra ordinary books u use to read in campus. when i try to make them c it and evaluate it with me the question they were asking me was whom did u c using it my did not satsfy any one but i kept practicing again and again. I left municipality since i was entersted in such works. The design office of works and urban developement was the place i ha done a lot of projects using ca 10.04 full version and then x2. u can say i am living with software and after five years my frnds realized my choise was really woderfull and accepted that i spent my time of studdy with a living,woderfull user friendly software now i am giving a lot of proffesionas in our locality free tutorial and consultation since i love ca. Now i have private home design build company that i have almost controlled the residetial buildings in jijiga and expanding my works and branches to the neighbouring towns and countries in eastern africa so ca changed my life and gave confiddence in doing a lot of works residence moderate commertial and office buildings with in a short time, here in our country we use hcb and re enforced concrete structures so by customizing the defoult seting i produce a very beutifull working drawings including structural design formerly i used staadpro and auto cad for stractural drawings but know ca even for structural detailing in one layout of ca with architectural plans so thanks c a will be soon purchasing the legal x4. i used x2 crack so far sorry i couldnt get access to it but i had to survive! But know i am cap able of purchasing the legal one even though i would have been happy if ca company has given me one as a prize for being the user in the jungle! Kkkkkk...its just a joke but sereousely i am the only person from ethiopia in the user forum. thnks ca my favorite
u can/c some of my posts in page 148 of time to show ur goodies since i have no website to refer

[ArtR]

Like most of you its really difficult to remember the exact year I found Chief ..... It was V.1.0 disk that was given to me and I went crazy ...... As a designer who had a lot of builder clients that reducing ten S.F. was important ...... when I closed up my first drawings walls and the Living area appeared and I moved a wall and it changed the S.F. ......I was in love ..... I could fine tune a plan to the exact request ......

I started my design business on my own when I was 23 years old ..... had about 30 people and did hand drawn plans .... I was a computer nut .... Radio Shack .... a first IBM PC ....... found Autocad v.1 was a early dealer ......

I had computers in my conference room to make it look like we were technical but all my guys in the back were afraid of computers ..... I hired some young guys who could run a computer but they couldn't put a plan together ...... but we looked good ...... :-) Fun Days .... Got into Sigma Cad Software ... it did 3D .... would set a drawing to render at 3am in the afternoon and it would finish mmmmm by 10am the next morning ..... we had to build an angled card board box around the monitor to take photo's of the rendering ....but we looked good ........ :-)

It got better we started producing about 30% in cad ..... tried a bunch of programs that were coming out ..... we were busy but the investments in computers and cad and people wasn't paying off .... my pencil guys were fast ...... but we looked good ...... :-)

As the firm got larger I got tired of becoming a manager and missed being a designer ... my son Colin was born ..... he was autistic.... marriage fell apart ... lost everything ..... shut my office down ..... started homeschooling my son as a single dad ... all of a sudden I had no staff ..... no one to run errands ...... no one too produce technical drawing ..... opps ..... soooooo I got out the old T square ... nope not good ... broke out Autocad ...... it hurt my head ...... and boom ..... A friend gave me a Chief Disk ......

I can't remember exactly ... this was before the internet .... (well I was playing with Netscape and bulletin boards) ....... I think I called Chief and got the latest version disk sent (maybe v2) .... it had improved a lot ...... but as old users know it was weak in cad ..... strong in floor plans ..... I did my designs in Chief and subcontracted the technical drawing out ........ worked as a one man shop like that for 5 years .... gobbling up the latest version of Chief and marveling over each improvement ..... Chief would frustrate me ... but I learned to make it dance with a work around and it got the job done ......

... and it got better and better .... I questioned the move to so much 3D stuff ahead of strong cad .... but both improved .... the early releases crashed a lot and cost me time ..... but it was offset in other ways .... and around update 3 or 4 it got better ...... (I love the beta testing .... it is so much more stable these last years on release)

That's my story in a very abbreviated form .... I did open another office ... trained everyone I hired on Chief ..... had I think 11 or 12 licenses at one time .... as the 3D got better we looked great ...... :-) Thanks Chief ..... as I tell my client .... my software thinks its a house ..... and it will help me create your home and see it on the computer before its built ...... builders love it .... we sit and experiment with materials and colors ..... and options .... custom client love it as I sit them in their breakfast room and look out at the pool ........ its fun watching them light up in amazement at what it looks like I can do ........... well .... what Chief lets me do ........... I do love the shadow boards ..... its still improving ...... we look so good ..... :-)

[Justice]

Art the greatest job you did was with your autistic son and alone at that, very very well done. We too have an autistic son but thankfully its only slight and his problem is more with ADHD. You are a champion as you know many marriages break up for those reasons.

All the best mate.

[ArtR]

Thank you Justice ..... My son is in the high functioning category.... as you know its a very wide spectrum of diagnosis .. like all of us each person is unique ...... my son is now 24 ... he is my personal assistant ...... his memory is awesome ... he reminds me all day of what I need to get done ..... He has taught me more about life than any other experience ....... I'm back to a one man shop ... not because of the economy but because I missed the work at home time and sharing the days with my sons ........ Have a great one Justice .... :-)

[Justice]

Art our son is nearly 8 and your comments give us hope as he likes building models with lego and train tracks and is good reader so we hope he will turn out well. The goverment here has helped us with early intervention as well and it all helps. I work from home as well.

All the best.

[m3design]

Art & Justice

Good luck to both you guys. You are doing a great job.

My wife and I are foster parents to underprivileged children. We've had kids over the years that makes you wonder how the parent/s have coped and still raise their children to be good kids.

On the other hand, i was an Honorary Probation Officer for the Children's Court of Victoria and had cases where you had kids who, due to their home life were never going to make it. Their parents just didn't care what happened to them.

Every moment I have with my 5 grand-kids I treasure. As I have just been diagnosed with a tumor, I make sure family comes first.

Sorry for getting off topic.

[ArtR]

Thanks Len .... my best thoughts with your tumor .... I think were exactly on topic ... ;-) We were asked here to share our stories and how using Chief impacted our business ... which is part of our life ...... I sit here this morning switching back and forth between 7 different jobs .... cutting pasting .... updating ..... switching to email.... answering a question ... making a quick revision to a plan .... and bam updating the elevations and sections ..... sending then out an updated PDF ......it took a large staff of many in the past to even come close to what I have done already this morning..... I understand all that is more than just Chief ..... but the level of output in my design work is phenomenal..... I have an interview with a new client tomorrow ... visiting their job site in a bit .... I will have a 3D generated site plan ... on a severely sloped lot ..... just imported the engineers plan in Chief ..... set the grade points ... put walls around the build able foot print ..... created a basement ... sent images to a layout and I'm ready to impress them with just a few hours prep ...... we are a Coastal City with mostly flat sites ... a sloped lot confuses people here ... thanks to Chief's ease of use I can show them visual possibilities upfront ...... in this forum I will admit many times I get stuff done in Chief so fast I sit on it before I send it out .... anyone else ..... :-)

[m3design]

Thanks Art

Unlike you, I have always been a 'one man band'.

But remembering back to the good old days of DOS and drawing in 2D only, with Chief there is no comparison. Apart from the speed factor, what you can show a perspective client will nearly always get you the job. As all my work comes through referrals, it certainly makes it a lot easier.

Regards

Len

[Justice]

Thank's Len,
I really wish you and your family well in batteling this serious health problem. Your right some things are more important than just business.
You are another champion to keep working and going on despite your illness.
Keep fighting it and give yourself the rest you need as well.