Chief Vs Autocad

[RMorrison]

<snip>[*]Ease of cabinet and custom molding creation. This is important in the custom residential market I work in. For that matter, custom objects in general I found easier to create or import form Sketchup.
<snip>[*]When I change the floor elevation in Chief all the fixtures, cabinets, furniture, windows, etc.. move along with it. Not so with AC.
<snip>.

@Kevin: I don't disagree with most of what you've said, but a couple of corrections/clarifications. The Morph Tool was introduced in AC16, which has most of the power of Sketchup for creating custom objects. It would be hard to master this in an evaluation period, though. AC17 now ties wall heights to story heights, and moves everything if you change a level height. However, most objects were previously able to be adjusted relative to their level/story height, so this concern may have already been addressed.

@Ben: You've gotten some excellent viewpoints, but one thing to consider is the prior time investment and general familiarity. I suspect that a longtime pilot of a Piper Cub would be overwhelmed with the instrument panel of a 747, whereas someone who'd been flying a 747 for many years would think it was no big deal. One advantage that Chief has that hasn't really been mentioned in this thread is this forum itself. Questions here often get answered within hours-- sometimes within minutes. Of course, you also have to put up with incessant posts about golf, and sometimes snarkiness (and I'm not claiming to be blameless here), which the ArchiCAD-Talk forum doesn't have. In general, though, I think this forum is an invaluable asset that should be heavily counted in Chief's favor.