New Kitchen & Bath Designer learning Chief - SSA or Chiefexperts.com?

[simplylaurasue]

Hello group, I am almost a certified Kitchen and Bath Designer (NKBA). I just bought a brand new computer to run Chief and am ready to get started! What would you recommend for me to get started besides all the free YouTube videos, etc. I see that there are some learning videos in Chief but you have to be a member of SSA to access them which is $395.00. From what I can see there are not a lot of videos so besides accessing the page of those, what are the other benefits of being a SSA member? I also see that there are a lot of webinars on the Chief website but by the time I purchase the SSA membership and pay for the webinars it will be getting very pricey. I am also considering buying the Chiefexperts.com for $597 as that seems to very extensive and good value for the money. Does anyone have any experience with learning from the videos on either sites? Any other suggestions?

I have absolutely no Autocad experience. My hope is to self teach myself to the intermediate level and then go to Las Vegas in February to take the two day intermediate course taught by Chief itself.

Thank you in advance for your input.

Laura

[RMorrison]

There are probably many dozens, if not hundreds, of instructional videos available once you have SSA. Access to the bonus libraries, is also a big plus with SSA. However, if you just bought Chief, you should have gotten one year of SSA automatically with it.

[dshall]

Pay the 395 for SSA an then watch the thousands of YOUTUBE VIDEOS, THE CHIEF TUTOR VIDEOS, and the FREE VIDEOS that you can find via doing a VIDEOS BY DSH here on CHIEFTALK. That should keep you busy for a while.

[Dermot Dempsey]

Assuming that you recently purchased Chief Architect Premier, Interiors, or Lite directly from Chief Architect, then you probably already have SSA. All new purchases come with one year of SSA by default.

SSA will give you full access to all of the official training videos, access to all of the available libraries (including the cabinet libraries), free tech support if you have any problems, and a free upgrade to X6 when it is released next February.

You can contact our customer service department to see if you already have it or how to purchase it if you don't.

[Joe Carrick]

Laura,

I'm guessing that you didn't purchase the full version of Chief Architect Premier since you're CKBD/NKBA. You probably got a stripped down version such as Interiors or ????

If so, you might want to target your training to the functionality of that version. Most of us on this Forum are using the full Chief Architect Premier version.

IAE, as Dermot said, you might already have the SSA.

[MarkMc]

As noted if you already bought it you have SSA. I'm on CA since x3 and still learning. The one day intro class is useful other wise this forum, Scott's videos and the online ones from Chief ( sometimes easier to search) is all I need.
My take is stay on SSA and get premier not interiors.

[kenoeightspot]

I bought the "Chief expert" training and videos and found it well worth the money, step by step instructions that are well organized.

[David J. Potter]

Dan Baughmann's teaching services were priceless to me when I first started (version 4). As a new user I would strongly recommend SSA as a basic necessity and if you can also afford a membership with Chief Experts you should be "home free" in terms of self-support.
I and others have created speciffic You Tube tutorials that are geared to address specific questions and matters of interest, The SSA videos introduce the tools, our videos cover specific questions that have arised while persons learn the many aspects of Chief Architect's uses.

DJP

[simplylaurasue]

Thank you to everyone who responded! Looks like I need to invest in both SSA and Chief Experts

Laura

[keithhe]

With all due respect to David and any others that may have found Chief Experts to be of some value, I have had a very different experience. Having watched one of Dan's free webinars, I decided to support the website and signed up. I choose the three installment deal where over three months they charge 1/3 the cost each month. The first payment was deducted immediately and I had the opportunity to watch perhaps 3 videos. They were OK, but dated as they were in much earlier versions of CA. I did pick up a tip here and there though. A month later I went to view another video and was locked out. I sent countless emails to Chief Experts and Dan without ever a reply, to this date. I feel ripped off and angry about it, but frankly I was too busy at the time to pursue it any further.

My advice: Don't waste your money. They are many, many free videos out there to include Chief Tutor with a lot of Scott's videos which have been of far more value to me.

Just my 2 cents.....

[scottharris]

Laura,

We have a couple of sample plans and videos specific for Kitchens/Baths. You might watch the videos for the 'Sandstone Beam Bath' & 'Zero Sum Kitchen'. You can find these on our samples page.

Also, if you are planning to take your CKD Exam, we have a specific assistance video to help, see chiefarchitect.com/NKBA/

[Maple]

I am a CKD and taught myself with the help of the training videos, a couple of webinars and a stubborn commitment to getting good at the program. I also had no previous CAD experience but have always been fairly computer savvy which does help quite a bit.

It took me a good 3 months to get up to speed and I'm stilling learning new tricks almost 2 years later. I can produce really good plans, construction documents and excellent renderings now as well as make design revisions on the fly in front of clients, which is immensely helpful. The only things I sometimes get 'stuck' on now are when I am presented with a complex roofline, since I don't have to deal with those very often they can sometimes be time-consuming as I puzzle them out on my own. But then I will have the methodology in my tool belt for the next time that situation arises.

Reading between the lines it sounds like you haven't actually purchased the program yet. When you buy your first version you should be getting the SSA along with it, so do take full advantage of it. As someone mentioned above there are many dozens of training videos available (I suspect you are not 'seeing' them because you haven't actually bought the program) and if you get really stuck on something you can buy some one-on-one tutoring directly from CA as well.

Just a piece of advice - as you consider which version to buy, bear in mind what kind of work you ordinarily do. I started out with the Interiors version but quickly upgraded to the full Premier version because of all the remodeling that my firm does - Interiors just didn't have the full functionality that I needed but it may be fine if all you do are simpler interior bath and kitchen projects.

Good luck!