Further 3D Home to Chief Conversion

[Dermot Dempsey]

The DXF export from 3D Home Architect is very limited compared to what is available in Chief. You only have a fraction of the control that you have in Chief regarding what gets exported and how it is exported. In 3DHA, you can only control what objects are being displayed and the colors (only 16) that they are displayed in. When you export a DXF file you basically get what you see on the screen. When you export DXF from Chief, you have control over the colors (true colors), line weights, line styles, as well as much better control over what gets exported by setting up alternate "layer sets". One other feature available in Chief is the ability to specify the AutoCAD version you wish the DXF file to be compatible with. Also, if you are using the Full Version of Chief you can export the data as a DWG format file instead which has some further advantages.

One of the biggest differences between Chief and 3DHA is that in Chief you can enhance your drawings with CAD objects such as lines, arcs, arrows, etc. all of which can be exported as well and none of these tools are available in 3DHA.

To get a further understanding of the tools available in Chief, I would recommend that you get the Demo Version so you can explore it for yourself. Unfortunately, you won't be able to compare the DXF exports because this is one of the several key features which is not available in the Demo. If this is something that is critical to you, I would recommend taking advantage of our 90 day return policy. You could then obtain the full working version of the program to compare directly.