Can anyone compare Chief Architect with REVIT LT

[IRISH]

Irish--thanks for the specific info. That is very helpful and exactly what I was looking for. I am not sure what they mean by "families"--I assumed it meant objects. It sounds like they have lots of outside sources to import from. Autodesk has a free "homestyler" home design program that lets you design online and then import the "families" into Revit. I guess that RevitLT is so new there is confusion about what it can and can't do. I saw several different features charts online that were a bit different from each other--I think they may have made a few changes from the initial or just made corrections to the chart, maybe?

Families are like a smart block (symbol). A simple illustration would be if you wanted to insert a 2x6 into a detail and you also needed a 2x12. In autodesk products you insert 1 symbol, a box with an "x" in it, click on it and choose the size you want. There is no limit that I know of for that symbol. It could be anything you want from a 2x2 to an 8x14. Make the first use of it the 2x6, copy it to wherever you needed the 2x12, click it and simply change the size. These types of "smart" blocks are incredible time savers and the "families" can be anything you want. This is a very simple example and some of the families can get quite complicated which is why autodesk does not provide too many out of the box.

Yes, more and more companies are providing Revit families but I think there are even more companies providing sketchup symbols for free than Revit families. A "family" is only good for the version of Revit it was created in, or newer. With sketchup, well, all sorts of programs can import their symbols.

With all of this being said, and from what you describe your business and interests to be, in my opinion only, you would be far better served using CA than Revit LT. Its not even close.