Renerabbitt

Also wanted to touch on the comment about Revit in the education system. It’s hard for me to say this without sounding condescending, but honestly, that felt like a silly argument. There are some very clear reasons Revit is used in schools—starting with the fact that it’s built for commercial projects and supports BIM modeling, which is essential in commercial architecture. Then there’s the lobbying aspect. Autodesk offers free student licensing, has massive corporate funding, and invests heavily in preventing license piracy—not to mention the well-established curriculum and support infrastructure that schools can plug into easily. I know a few folks who work in sales at Autodesk, and I’ve had some fun shop-talk conversations with them. Comparing a company like Autodesk to something more like a mom-and-pop operation is kind of funny to me. But here’s a simple breakdown, courtesy of ChatGPT: 1. Industry Alignment & Career Pathways Revit is the standard in commercial architecture, large-scale projects, and firms working with BIM (Building Information Modeling). Architecture programs are structured to prepare students for licensure, internships, and firm placement, where Revit is required. Schools teach tools that mirror professional environments—that’s Revit for most students on the commercial path. 2. BIM & Collaboration Standards Revit isn't just drafting—it's BIM. That includes clash detection, data-rich modeling, multi-discipline coordination (MEP, structural, architectural). Chief Architect, while user-friendly and great for residential, doesn’t scale as cleanly into the BIM workflow needed for complex projects. Students are often taught to collaborate across disciplines, something Revit is built for. 3. Licensing, Outreach, and Corporate Strategy Autodesk (maker of Revit) has an aggressive academic licensing model—Revit is free for students and educators, making it easy for schools to adopt. There's a long history of software companies “seeding” education with free or discounted tools to build market loyalty. Autodesk has done this exceptionally well. Think of it like: Revit lobbied through access and alignment, not necessarily formal politics, but smart ecosystem control. 4. Chief Architect’s Niche Focus Chief Architect is optimized for custom home builders, remodelers, and interior designers—not complex commercial or institutional buildings. It’s more WYSIWYG, with quick visual output and easier for a solo practitioner. That’s perfect for the residential market, but less relevant in academic training. 5. Curriculum Compatibility Revit plugs neatly into design studio pedagogy: parametric modeling, massing, BIM integration, detailing, etc. Schools also lean toward tools that support theoretical and practical instruction—Revit handles both modeling and documentation in one tool.

The language you use in your response would have me believe that you are not looking at this with an open mind. I imagine any subsequent response from me will be brick walled, pun intended What is the difference? (I am totally open to hearing about it on all honesty, maybe I would like phasing if I still got to keep the benefits of a split model) Maybe share a video? If you are changing scope on a building element then you are opening/switching layer displays/phasing window/dbx/ etc. You are doing something to change that component. Saying that again, you are changing some designation that refers to a static building element (As-built architectural features are static, the wall exists, its not being moved) Without knowing what is unique about the phasing approach, it just seems like you are opening something to change that thing. What does it matter if its in a separate file. I either didn't stated it clearly enough or my comment was ignored but having a split file setup offers a very large set of benefits in that was can have automatic switching of all automatic annotations. Talk about limiting liability from the potential of user error. doesnt matter what the slope is, once a user understands how terrain is built in Chief its very easy. I didnt have schematics to reference your building, I was just eyeballing a very low res image back and forth from a second screen. This isn't some paid demonstration. I'm not sure what the fight is here, my model represents everything that might be represented without having any data. I also find it hard to believe that you could do the same in the same amount of time. I know Revit well enough to know that it would be a stretch for the most experience user. Give it a shot maybe. rebuild my model. Im not sure what you mean. I was very specific. Also I do not what you mean by hack, this software gives us the tools to build all type of models. Not sure what qualifies as a hack for you. For instance our cabinet tool has the following characteristics: Parametrically resizable box that can have parametrically clipped or rounded corners and multi-side angled or radius surfaces 2 additional Parametrically 6 direction resizable 4 sided surfaces, the countertop and toe kick, the former having the added ability of rounded corners 4 infinitely adjustable and split into over 100 objects and instanced based component inputs(cabinet doors for instance) where a cabinet door is any geometry you could make up and can have 3 different infinite stretch planes or stretch zones to parametrically resize in any direction Seemingly infinite extrusions (I've never tested) and an extrusion can be based on a singular CAD based profile, multiple CAD based profiles in a stack, or any geometry you designate as a molding (think of a bunch of floating heads that illuminate if that tickles you like it does me). These extrusions can have a vertical or horizontal offset and in the case of a mesh based profile we can set a separation distance. Also these extrusions can be set to be offset by the distance of whatever object is attached to the face of the cabinet 1 object of any mesh can be inserted into the top of the cabinet and parametrically resized. As many objects as can fit inside of the volume of this mass can be inserted and independently controlled and even have a rollout distance if the cabinet is set to have open doors or drawers As many objects as there are components in any given face can be placed on the back side of the face Any object can be placed as a pilaster/cabinet feet/hinges/hardware and can be parametrically resized and moved with offsets. There a ton more capabilities of this tool, and the reason I bothered to write it out is to illustrate that I don't see my knowledge of the capabilities and even the history of the tool's making as a hack..I see it as a tool, and it wasn't built by accident. There are many such tools in chief where capabilities are put in place to handle the broader scope of wildly different construction practices across the world. I equate it to knowing the difference between Kanban, Zettelkasten, Mind mapping, the Cornell note-taking system, the PARA method, etc. A software could utilize any of these systems and I would recognize them and be able to use them because I understand their core principles as they are rooted in their parent development. I don't agree, as you could see I was simply swiping the feature I wanted changed. I couldve changed all of those cabinets in just a few more swipes, not trying to go through a catalog. This is not comparable, and I am sure you are aware of that. I am a kitchen designer amongst other things, and I wouldn't ever want to go back to trying to find a cabinet I need in a catalog when I could build it in less than a second. Also lets not ignore that I changed that window with just a few clicks and could have built out the full fenestration with complex features in a few minutes more. Not to mention my schedule was already being produced for all of those cabinets and windows with a match system that was indexing and pricing as well as informing a note taking system that was building out global annotation calls on top of already being sent to a compiled PDF. All this to say, I have been dying for the day that a Revit user wanted to have a little friendly challenge. If you would like to we can get on a live-stream race to produce a complete design with condocs. Let me know if you are interested, it could be fun

for context, this took 35 minutes, I'm sure that you could imagine that we could get this perfect to your model in under an hour more

Someone tagged me so here we go, I'll try and catch up. I have experience in Revit and meeting with an architectural group that uses Revit. For context, their time stamps typically double or triple mine for the same building and accompanying condocs. I am based in the SF Bay Area, Many of your requests for phasing are just handled in a different way, as you might assume given it is a different software. Some of the things you have said in this thread make it apparent that you are not as familiar with chief as some of our advanced users which is why Michael said what he said. If you were familiar with our reference tools then phasing becomes an unnecessary and detrimental approach as we can build automated annotations that are dependent on the files being separate from one another but referenced to each other. Ultimately this benefits us in efficiency and limiting of liability by taking annotations that are driven by the building model. To answer this: two models, as-built handles existing and demo, though with the exception of just a few projects I have handled nation wide, a demo plan can usually serve as an as-built The second model is proposed. I don't see any benefit in having these two files rolled into one. As-builts are typically static save for some new scoping in proposed which takes a few clicks to automate in demo. You would be switching some view, we are just switching a tab...is their a difference? The difference for Chief is that I can switch my automatic annotation tool based on the file name being "as-built" where all of my annotations drive my standards for as-built callouts such as window TBR vs (E) window No Work. Yes, using reference displays and if you want to get complex with it, just switching the views active default set. Yes quite easily, though I am an advanced user. I show making tiered garden beds on a cross sloping lot in under 5 minutes in one of my videos Yes, make an exterior room polyline and concentrically resize it in a polar direction by about 7' and use that polyline as a fence to trim topo. takes under a minute. We cannot get cut fill though, would love it if we could, though I have a method for that as well I saw somewhere else that you had to build your cabinets out but now you have an inventory of cabinets. I would mention that you might want to take a look at our style palette tool and toolbar linking: 250328 (3).mp4

Which leads me to, we should be able to add +2 to "No Change"

Sorry It was late. I meant to raise the height of the cabinet itself when you have different height cabinets

What's your method?

It's a cabinet so you can open it up and see all of the parameters of it, and I did not see that Rob was in X15. i built this in X16 and is part of a whole system that I would not redo in X15 you should

I do this same thing.. Truth be told I only use automatic framing for display purposes in cross section, otherwise all framing annotations are macro driven based on a master setup. You can Also do this for floor joists etc if you out in mid bearing splits etc. Room oip can be used for live and dead loads as well Wish we had tributary nvps

A present Robs Shower

here you go 6 Ft Round Bed.calibz

Custom Split Dovetail drawer and hidden pop out drawer trick for some advanced symbol modification with cabinets.

Pocket Cabinet Doors In Chief Architect X16

Using #meshyai to generate an architects desk and then bringing it into #substancepainter to add one of my own plansets onto the #UVMapping of the desk for importing it into #chiefarchitect

Trick for grabbing screenshots in an image search, then really hastily masking them out and placing them in a shot to help #aiimage generation understand the prompt. I'm using #kreaai and #photoshop to manipulate these #3drenderings from #chiefarchitect

Mixed Materials started in Chief Architect X16 where we can make a material partially transparent glass as well as opaque. I'm using #substancepainter to create a material map for the transparent portion of these bottles that were generated from a prompt using #meshy

Hey all, I've been slacking on posting these. New Membership YouTube Videos For Material Generation Workflows. I think this is the fastest method I've used for adding art to my catalogs using Generative Ai in #realtimeAi Using #kreaai and #ChiefArchitect

250306 (6).mp4 250306 (6).mp4

If that arrow is supposed to indicate a slider then Joe and JK are correct. Otherwise if you're just looking for lites:

Here you go that'll be $500

Ever have a light turn off in your rendering even though the toolbar says its on and you have it on in the Adjust Lights Dialog. What the heck? Well #chiefarchitect people, this is such a common problem that users run into that I figured I'd give you some solutions and explain it a bit further. See this #youtubevideo on my channel that I made as short and attention span friendly as possible.

You have to place it just to the right or to the bottom of your other Tool in that specific Toolbar when dragging the Place Library Object Tool. Don't place it too far away from the previous tool or it will create a new Toolbar

If you go to export your entire library it will build a missing file lookup and in the export process repair your missing textures, but Alternatively you can also place the files in your textures directory inside of your chief data file. What Scott suggests creates new materials but that also does the work of putting your textures in your data file but only if you had the option set in preferences to copy externally referenced files. Keep in mind your texture files would need to be named the same as the original file otherwise you will have to replace these files one by one

Creating a pattern generator for things such as creating tile materials using photoshop and generic purlin noise maps and masks https://youtu.be/7fg_GwW_lX8

Taking a fuzzy and skewed photo to generate a great material