Quirky - that is what I am talking about

[rongobong]

This has been an extremely interesting thread to read - I got sucked into it and read through all 13 pages. I come from an architectural background - have a master of architecture degree, worked in architectural firms using AutoCAD, and then moved to another state and got into the design-build remodeling industry. It was there that I was introduced to Chief Architect. My former colleagues heard the name and the Native American jokes began. However, I saw the program for what it was at the time - a much better 3D tool than AutoCAD's Architectural Desktop was. That program was horrible. Chief was a different way of thinking, but it worked a lot more intuitively.
The biggest issue I have with Chief is the same problem that Johnny describes - the 2D drawings aren't beautiful. That sounds pretentious, but most people with an architectural background are on the same page. Line weights are used to convey importance, depth, and clarity in a drawing. When you are doing redlines in AutoCAD for 8 hours a day, you begin to think in lineweights as you draw. Each line you draw has meaning, creates order, and is intentionally a certain weight. It's what makes a 2D drawing become 3D when you look at it. I wish the auto-generated Chief 2D drawings could implement that theory. The guy I worked for asked me why I didn't want to use different colors on my plots - make the electrical lines red, the walls green, and the windows blue. I almost barfed - to use color to signify importance on an architectural construction drawing - the horror! A good architect can use shades of gray and line weights to make even the most complex drawing easily understood. I think Chief Architect misses the boat on this concept, and it's a reality that I have had to come to terms with because the benefits of CA outweigh these issues for me. And I just don't have enough time to edit the automatic elevations to create the line weights I desire. However, I don't desire them just because it makes the drawing more beautiful - it's because it would make the drawing communicate better.
I think when it comes to the "crisp" argument, I've noticed that a line drawn with Chief Architect has a bullnose on each end, not a square edge. With heavier line weights, it makes the drawings look cartoon-like, and less crisp in my opinion.
Overall, I love Chief Architect and it makes my life easier. Maybe someday the lineweight issue will be addressed, or maybe not. Who knows? I will still be using CA, without a doubt.
Lastly, I do not design with CA, or any other CAD program for that matter. Every CAD program has its limitations or rules when it comes to drawing. A pen and paper are not limited by rules like "you can't have a curved back on a cabinet" or "a countertop cannot pass through a doorway" or the many other limitations that require me to think of a polyline solid workaround to make the 3D model look right. Once I have a concept, I put it in Chief - and then I test the 5 different roof options to see what looks best. Once it's in Chief though, there is no other program that is more powerful and user-friendly in my opinion.
Just my two cents...

[sutcac]

I think when it comes to the "crisp" argument, I've noticed that a line drawn with Chief Architect has a bullnose on each end, not a square edge. With heavier line weights, it makes the drawings look cartoon-like, and less crisp in my opinion.

I have always wondered about this too, and this is the first time I think I have ever seen this mentioned on this forum. This is the kind of specifics that the folk at CA need to know about. It's the kind of thing you should send a bug report into the support team on.

As far as your couch, I have noticed this issue too and it seems very intermittent. I will sometimes see this happen even in flat walls that are native to Chief. Then if I close, re-open, and take the same view, they disappear, or not. So, there is some kind of intermittent bug I think in the 3D generation.

I still think you can go quite a long ways toward automating the line weight generation through layers and layer sets with just a little CAD overlay and Edit Layout cleanup. And this is limited to vector views and I agree should also transfer to the render views. Not perfect, but certainly worth the trade-off to me for speed and the ability to try different things in the design, rather than fuss with minutiae in the drawing.