ChiefArchitect

Highlighting our 2016 Design Contest Winners.

Meet Jenna! She won our Design Contest – Kitchen Design in October. Here are a few more of her designs.

"I am a Senior Designer at Dream House Dream Kitchens in Madison, WI. I am originally from a smaller town a couple hours north and have been interested in design since high school. I was hired at Dream House right after college at UW-Madison (Go Badgers!) and have been working here ever since. I love being able to work closely with each individual client on their personal space. They are all working on such cool projects. Chief Architect has been a big part of our success at Dream House. It is a great tool for clients to be able to visualize their space before their project starts."

Dream House by Dream Kitchens
dream-kitchens.com
608-344-1916

Meet Scott! He won our Design Contest – Remodel/Addition Design in September. Here are a few more of his designs. Read Scott’s Story:

I started designing and drafting 15 years ago in a small design build company while taking night classes in Architectural. SMT Residential Design, LLC. was formed over 12 years ago and our creativity and uncompromising standards have made this firm one of the most respected design firms in the industry. We are located in North Carolina and offer services to clients nationwide.

I have been using Chief Architect for over 15 years starting with version 10 and have upgraded ever since. I chose Chief Architect over other programs because it seemed very user friendly and that I could accomplish everything I needed within one program (construction drawings, renderings, material list, and so much more). If it wasn’t for bringing Chief Architect into my design and drafting practices I could not have been able to design homes across the USA and parts of the globe and offer the service that I do today.

Connect with Scott through his website: www.smt-design.com

Featured Customer - Michael Leach. He won our Design Contest – Outdoor Living Spaces in June. Here are a few of his great designs, but check out his website for more: www.mtldesigns.net. Keep reading to learn more about Michael!

I’m Michael Leach, of MTLdesigns, LLC. I started my company “officially” the winter of 2015.

I have designed a few houses in the past, using AutoCAD, but I had a full time “day” job, family to raise, etc. and I just never got going with this passion. I have always loved architecture; all my vacations for the last 25 plus years have always included checking out the local buildings and houses. My career path kept me in the design world, but not designing houses. I got into 3D modeling on pharmaceutical and chemical plants, which then led me into a lead designer position for the new class of aircraft carriers. The CVN78 and 79 in Newport News VA, all using BIM software (Catia).

I moved to Missouri in 2013, and last year an acquaintance asked me if I would design his “downsized” ranch, and being a 3D BIM guy, I researched software which led me to Chief. I like Revit, but am not designing skyscrapers, so I really didn’t need to pay such a crazy high price to design houses. I chose CA, because it was easy to use. Yeah there is a huge learning curve, but I grasped the tools pretty quickly with my experiences (and I am still learning). A lot of people can look at a 2D drawing and most of it looks like a foreign language. They can see the label “LIVING ROOM”, but really need to focus to see the walls, doors, etc. They don’t have that spatial concept. When I show them camera views, it’s like reality hitting them. Especially in the kitchens. It has caused changes, but to me that’s a good thing. I want to give the homeowner what they dreamed of. I also chose CA because of the rent to own option. So I purchased, designed the ranch, and been using CA ever since.

I then decided to push my company and make it legit. I got the bigger desktop, the LLC licensing, all the legal tax stuff, website, etc. This is what I love to do. The hardest thing is getting the name out there, especially when others in area have been in residential design for 20 plus years and are known. The goal is to do this full time, for the rest of my working life.  Do what you love to do, and it won’t seem like a job.

Michael Leach
MTLdesigns, LLC
www.mtldesigns.net
Republic, MO. 65738
(417) 719-5195

Featured Customer - Bryan Ramírez

Meet Bryan! He won our Design Contest – Residential Design in May and is primarily using Chief Architect for his hobby. Keep reading to learn more about Bryan!

My name is Bryan and I'm from Costa Rica. I used to make 2D plans in a Graphics Vector Software, but I was unable to preview my plans in 3D so I started searching for 3D Software. I read many good comments online about Chief Architect so I decided to go for it.

I started using Chief Architect Home Designer 2014 as soon as it came out back in 2013. It was my very first time using 3D software of this kind, so I went to the online reference manual provided with the software and it was really easy to learn.

After months of gaining experience with Designer 2014, I realized I needed more features so I went to Chief Architect X7. Now I'm trying to learn more and more and look forward to updating it to X8.

I'm not a professional architect, most of the time I use the software as a hobby and I will recommended it to anyone. It’s a great software and you will learn to use it very quickly.

This year Chief Architect was happy to participate in Fine Homebuilding’s Annual HOUSES Awards by contributing Floor Overview renderings for each of the winning homes.

The renderings feature the Water Color with Line Drawing rendering technique that can be applied to any 3D or Elevation view created in Chief Architect.

Learn more about the featured homes and view the galleries to see more here:
www.finehomebuilding.com/houseawards

Featured Customer - Marie-Ève Raymond

Meet Marie-Ève! She won our Design Contest – Kitchen Design in February and has been using Chief Architect for 5 years! Keep reading to learn more about Marie-Ève and Designer d'intérieur Marie-Eve Raymond!

Marie-Ève Raymond
Designer d'intérieur Marie-Eve Raymond
1-514-575-4567
www.designerinterieur.com

Originally from Quebec City, I moved to Montreal, a city full of culture and trends, where I studied dance, fine arts and interior design. After my studies, I worked for different companies gaining experience to finally create my own design company in 2002 called Marie-Ève Raymond designer d'intérieur. My company mainly focuses on residential interior design, house renovations and some new builds and is specialized in kitchen and bath overalls. We take an old house and redesign it in part or in whole for the customer.

It has been already 5 years I am using the Chief Architect software. Actually, the reason why I chose this software was the flexibility, easy-to-learn advanced functions and the support. Chief Architect allows the customer to fully experience the design project before it evens starts through the realistic visual renderings. I really like the fact it is possible to draw technical drawing with the 3D with the same software. A must have software for interior designers!