Home Design Concept to Reality Workflow

[GregB]

I think you might benefit from my learning experience looking for a similar product. Like you, I am working on a major remodel of my own house and/or possibly designing a new house. I work in construction and have been using CAD for almost 30 years. I was an AutoCAD dealer in the 1980s.

What are the building standards and what type of construction will you be using for your home? This may be very different than the standards in North America and it may be important that the software is adaptable to this construction. Are there building codes involved?

What computer and operating system are you using?

I think what you want is something that will let you play with your ideas and then see how it would look. I assume you also want to be able to make changes easily and try that out.

I can tell you that Home Designer lets you do that pretty well. IF you need more, they give you full credit on that toward Chief Architect. That is my original plan. Home Designer Pro seems exactly like Chief X4 with less functions available. I can open my HDP drawings directly in Chief. The professionals that said they would take your ideas and start over make sense, particularly if you have extensive requirements for codes, permits, etc. East Africa must have changed a lot recently if that is true.

I have tried Softplan 2012, playing with the demo for 50 hours or so. I can see where a residential builder might prefer that to Chief but the ability to move things around and play with different ideas seems more difficult than Chief.

Unless you have played with ideas on paper a bunch, you are likely in the early idea stage and even a lower end product from Chief like Home Designer Architectural (around $200) might get you started. Chances are you are going to start over several times anyway.

Do you need to print drawings? I am used to printing good sized drawings and only being able to print 18x24" with HDP is a problem for me.

[lbuttery]

Do you need to print drawings? I am used to printing good sized drawings and only being able to print 18x24" with HDP is a problem for me.

Greg:

just create the drawings at 1/8" scale for 18 x 24
then enlarge 200% at the print shop for 1/4" scale on 36 x 48

or create 1/8" for 12 x 18 (prints nicely on a 13 x 19 printer)
then enlarge 200% at the print shop for 1/4" scale on 24 x 36

Lew

[dshall]

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I have tried Softplan 2012, playing with the demo for 50 hours or so. I can see where a residential builder might prefer that to Chief but the ability to move things around and play with different ideas seems more difficult than Chief.

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Interesting, this statement says volumes, thanks Greg. You are not specific in you reasons for stating this.... but if you have time to eleborate it would be nice to know..... thanks again for your input......

[sicamore]

What computer and operating system are you using?

I think what you want is something that will let you play with your ideas and then see how it would look. I assume you also want to be able to make changes easily and try that out.

The professionals that said they would take your ideas and start over make sense, particularly if you have extensive requirements for codes, permits, etc. East Africa must have changed a lot recently if that is true..

Spot on GregB - yes, I fully expect my plans will just be guidelines and are really for me to flesh out what I want from the requirements list I have built. I fully expect then a professional will rebuild it from the ground up to follow correct architectural practices and building codes. The house will either be in SE Asia or the Carib. This part of the world has next to no building codes, which is actually in my opinion for home building a great thing!

Thanks to all for the great replies. I think I will go with Home Designer Architectural (win7) for the moment and upgrade if need be if I need more.

Is there any reason why I couldn't give the file to someone that has HD Pro who can then send it to Chief X4 to export as a 3ds / 3d dxf file for me to render in a professional render package? That would be really my only requirement for Chief.

On the thought of Sketchup - yes, I reasonably conversant in this package (I have pro 7) but it is seems a lot less architecturally focused and flexible than Chiefs packages.

I especially like this software for the fact that the community was so quickly supportive of my questions. That speaks volumes!

Shaun

[lbuttery]

Shaun:

no need to use HD PRO first

Chief premier can open AHD plans directly

the chiefer can even set the edit flag so that if they make changes to the plan you will be able to open/edit the plan they send back
(with some minor limits)

Lew

[sicamore]

Thanks Lew - I was looking at the comparison Matrix that said Architecural had only basic editing capabilities within X4. Probably getting myself confused ;-)

[lbuttery]

could be .....

my understanding is that most of the HD products can read and edit a Chief plan (with the edit flag set) up to the limits of their features

IOW - if the chiefer adds a feature that isn't supported by the HD product, it can be viewed but not edited

but I believe that going to PRO first probably won't offer any additional benefit


probably best to discuss with CA's customer service

Lew

[sicamore]

Thanks Lee, I have bought HDa. Looking forward to exploring and designing. You've been very helpful.

Shaun