Switching over...

[Canuck]

I'm about to switch from Revit and AutoCAD to CA. This after many years of designing with a software I know well. Any advice on transitioning to this new software from those that have done it? Places to start in the training process, ect? I'd be lying if I didn't say I'm a little nervous about this.

[dshall]

Congratulations, I think with a little hard work and perserverance, you will be pleased with your results. Somebody once said that CA is deceptively easy to use, and he is correct. It will take some serious study to fully understand the program and to take full advantages of the program.

My suggestions would be to, monitor this site (you will probably learn something new everyday), watch all of the CA videos that are free to SSA members and to watch the videos at ChiefTutor.com. It will take some study everyday, a few hours every morning should work. But I believe you will find that you will be reimbursed in spades.

[spencerdesign]

Revit is a robust application. But my opinion is that Chief is faster. I started with Chief but I have and use an older version of Revit.

[moak]

My advice is to start out using it with its "out of the box" setup before trying to customize or incorporate aspects of your former workflow.

[RMorrison]

Best advice is to be prepared for an initial period where you will curse Chief for being (apparently) so much slower than Revit/AutoCAD, and be thinking that you could do all of this so much faster with your old tools, and why did you ever make the switch in the first place. You need to get past a certain point, and then you will find your speed picking up quickly. The transition can definitely be painful.

[perryh]

Your world will change like you have never seen. Take the red pill.

[rcole]

Great to have you on board.

Here is a really strange model that I did in a few hours using Chief and TurboCAD Pro Platinum. This is an as built to aid the engineer and a work in progress, not my design.

The point I am trying to make is that Chief is quite capable of doing many things very well. It also can import other 3D geometry from programs like AC as symbols to add to it's capabilities.

I am finding some interesting uses of the new features in X5. There is a learning curve as others have mentioned, but so far as I am concerned the water is fine.

To be honest there are things that I feel need to be fixed in regards to Chief, but overall it is an impressive piece of work.

Edit: The trusses, if they can be called a truss, were made from solids in TC and are pretty much exact replicas of the original items, even the lookouts are cut in. I will post another pic to show this.

[IRISH]

I'm about to switch from Revit and AutoCAD to CA. This after many years of designing with a software I know well. Any advice on transitioning to this new software from those that have done it? Places to start in the training process, ect? I'd be lying if I didn't say I'm a little nervous about this.

I'd be nervous too! What kind of work do you primarily do? Why the switch?

[Canuck]

My wife and I do residential design. We are licensed to up to 3 stories and 6500 sf. This covers about 80% of the market here on Vancouver Island Canada.

As to why. Revit is good software but it really hasn' the rendering capacity that Chief Architect has. I wasn't impressed with Revit's capacity for kitchen design either. It just seemed to me that I needed something that was more suited to the smaller residential design market.

I know there is a learning curve and I'm prepared for it. I have carved out 2 hours a day just for learning the new software. I suspect I will curse, but that's normal for me....I was in the military for 23 years so I come with a colourful language capability. I never fault software, it's always the user.

The new laptop arrives tomorrow or Thursday, and we should be downloading the X5 the following day. Come Monday I'll begin watching and learning...and asking you folks all sorts of dumb questions! ;-)

[dshall]

My wife and I do residential design. We are licensed to up to 3 stories and 6500 sf. This covers about 80% of the market here on Vancouver Island Canada.

As to why. Revit is good software but it really hasn' the rendering capacity that Chief Architect has. I wasn't impressed with Revit's capacity for kitchen design either. It just seemed to me that I needed something that was more suited to the smaller residential design market.

I know there is a learning curve and I'm prepared for it. I have carved out 2 hours a day just for learning the new software. I suspect I will curse, but that's normal for me....I was in the military for 23 years so I come with a colourful language capability. I never fault software, it's always the user.

The new laptop arrives tomorrow or Thursday, and we should be downloading the X5 the following day. Come Monday I'll begin watching and learning...and asking you folks all sorts of dumb questions! ;-)

The dumber the better. Having a very colorful language repertoire in the beginning is very helpful. I believe you have the right attitude and I predict you and your wife will be very successful.

[function9]

Canuck, I'm in a similar situation, altho I'm not leaving Revit just picking up CA and looking forward to it. I'm in the same boat re: Residential work
If you need a dedicated CAD app for anything I would recommend TurboCAD LTE v4.. its basically ACAD and can be configured the same ie.alias commands, workspaces etc, best of all it costs $150

http://www.turbocad.com/TurboCAD/Tur...6/Default.aspx

[Doug Maddox]

Canuck

I recently changed from AutoCAD (started at version 2.5 back in the 80's) and came to CA. Best way I found was to do a project - imagined or real - and go to manual, Chief Talk, and videos as I needed to. Been here a year or so and am absolutely sold on the software. Rendering qualities are excellent particularly in version X5 and I can now do an entire home design ready to rock and roll in half the time I spent on AutoCAD - client's dalliance aside.

Enjoy and welcome.

73, Doug

[gawdzira]

Since you are focused on residential, in about 4-6 months you will adore Chief. It is easy to use and has a depth that most folks barely touch. I know I don't use it to it's potential. I tend to find a work flow to get something done and I am so far behind on the next project that I don't have time to train and study another methodology.

My first month on Chief I had a major project to turn out. I bought 5 hours of one on one training from Chief which I used in the first 6 or 7 days one hour at a time. This gave me enough work time to develop questions. There are also users on this forum who do individual tutoring. I highly recommend this route as it will keep you from banging your head into a wall.

Also, don't be shy about throwing out any question on the forum. I do use the search function a lot but it is not a great search engine or I don't know how to filter very well. Read the info at the top of the general questions about how to post a plan file so that you can get the best help possible. The more explicit you can be by posting the plan and picture/sketches of what you are trying to achieve will get you the best (and fastest) response.

[Canuck]

@ Function 9: I'm not leaving Revit as I do work for local architects on the commerical side and they use Revit. I also have AutoCAD 2010 that I'll continue to use for the same reason, plus many of my current customers come back and have me tweak the plan for the next projects they build.

My attitude is, be open to new ideas and don't think just because one software isn't working for you in one application that it can't work in another.

Fed Ex called. Delivery of the new laptop is tomorrow. I missed them this morning while I was deliving some plans....Darn it!

[WendyWelton]

I have two major pieces of advice.

1 - Don't feel like you have to switch absolutely everything at once. When we made the switch, we kept our detail in acad for a good long while. We had a big library. They were done. You really can print some sheets from one program and some sheets from another.

Parable - a router is a great tool, but you wouldn't build the whole house with it.

2 - Be prepared to just work with Chief the way Chief wants to work, and not necessarily look for your familiar tools. As someone else mentioned earlier, some things will feel slower, but your work will in fact take less time. My calculations were that I could skunk ADT by about 3 to 1. Forget about speed typing two letter commands. We don't do that in Chief because we actually don't have to do 5 things a second. We do fewer things and spend that extra time on design thinking.