Christina_Girerd Posted November 21, 2017 Share Posted November 21, 2017 Version 9.5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ComputerMaster86 Posted November 21, 2017 Share Posted November 21, 2017 Chief Architect X7 in October of 2015. With my drafting background, I should have invested in CA sooner around the time of X1 or X2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RodCole Posted November 21, 2017 Share Posted November 21, 2017 Ridge_Runner, Easy CAD was my first CAD program too. I ended up using AutoCAD 12 and Chief because FastCADs 3D modeling tools could not do the things I could do with AutoCAD Solids. I now use TurboCAD Pro Platinum for my more complicated solid modeling work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christina_Girerd Posted November 21, 2017 Share Posted November 21, 2017 Interesting seeing the "history" of people's CAD usage. Here's my little trip down the memory lane of CAD programs I used before Chief. My first CAD course was AutoCAD 2.0 in 1984, which I took as a summer course at a local junior college because Cal Poly, where I was getting my architecture degree, didn't even offer CAD yet. I quickly discovered that I loved CAD! I loved being able to have a straight line be a straight line. I loved not having to use sliding straight edges, rulers and triangles or worry about smudges. I loved being able to decide how thick a line should be and knowing that a line 7'-4 1/2" long would be scaled correctly. I loved not having to use ink on mylar or having to use electric erasers for "boo-boos." I saved up money and got a 512K MacIntosh so I could use MacPaint to help me do drawings in school. (There were only two programs then - MacWrite and MacPaint.) I'd print out 8x11 sheets on my dot-matrix printer and tape them into big drawing sheets and go to the Copy Center store to make a large print. About my 4th year at Cal Poly, the makers of "PowerDraw" (I think that was the one) started recruiting some of us architecture students to beta test it's CAD software on the MacIntosh computer. Around that time we also got MacDraw and MacDraft, and then MiniCad. I think I used all of them at one time or another. When I graduated, I got a job at a company that used McDonnell-Douglas CAD software that was the same as used to design the Space shuttles. It was run by a very expensive mainframe computer and after several weeks of training, we got to go in the freezing cold darkened room with a couple stations to do our work. The company had drafters on those stations 24 hours a day because it was so expensive. I got the 5am to 1pm shift. After about a year or two, those of us that had used Mac computers tried to convince the bosses to shift to individual computers. We finally convinced them to switch to Vectorworks, and thankfully didn't have to do round-the-clock work shifts anymore! I used that program for many years. I eventually started my own business and had a church project that was very complicated to do, and at that time it took 15-20 hours to get a single final raytrace image. I saw an ad for Chief Architect in a magazine while working on that project and decided to try the trial version. I was able to do things so much easier and more intuitively, I was amazed. I ordered Chief 9.5 that very week and haven't looked back since! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kMoquin Posted November 21, 2017 Share Posted November 21, 2017 Well, if we are going in to CAD history, here's my CV: ACAD 11 (Community College) ArrisCAD MiniCAD Form Z Architrion PowerCAD ACAD 13 (only for about 8 months) DataCAD Vectorworks Archicad Chief Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ridge_Runner Posted November 21, 2017 Share Posted November 21, 2017 8 hours ago, kMoquin said: ACAD 13 (only for about 8 months) ACAD 13 - now that was a version that should have never been released! They should have skipped it and just waited on ver. 14. No wonder you only used it "about 8 months." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dshall Posted November 22, 2017 Share Posted November 22, 2017 4 hours ago, Ridge_Runner said: ACAD 13 - now that was a version that should have never been released! They should have skipped it and just waited on ver. 14. No wonder you only used it "about 8 months." Nuts, I thought 13 was the first good one..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommy1 Posted November 22, 2017 Share Posted November 22, 2017 Started with 3-D Home Architect, then upgraded to Version 8 (base). There was a "base" version then. I think the "base" version got removed after 9.5 came out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ridge_Runner Posted November 22, 2017 Share Posted November 22, 2017 15 hours ago, dshall said: Nuts, I thought 13 was the first good one..... It was so buggy, to me, I hated to open it. Ver. 12 was at least more stable, as was ver. 14. 14 was what 13 should have been. Long time ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raltd9245 Posted November 22, 2017 Share Posted November 22, 2017 On 11/18/2017 at 10:01 AM, raltd9245 said: version 4, trained by the late Steve blake, ART trainer I also moved over from Home Architect.Befor that I started using VCAD in 1983. Much better product thanj AutoCad back then. It was menu driven much easier to use. The never went to 3D therefore the move to Chief. although I still draw some details in VCAD, much faster, then DXF and inport to Chief. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RL-inc Posted November 23, 2017 Share Posted November 23, 2017 X9 for me. First design software and computer. Spent the previous part of my career in the field running framing crews and contracting jobs. The marriage of the 2 along with the help of this forum have evolved into a great business. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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