One Person Architectural Firm - Chief Architect ?


YellowJacket77
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Hello all,

 

Having used my first company check to purchase an Osbourne 1 computer (64k memory, (2) 71k floppy drives), I have been following digital architectural software for a while. Presently using Architrion 5.8 (Mac 9.2) for all production & design work, an upgrade is long overdue. My question is whether Chief Architect will be able to support my practice. Tending to have a "start from scratch" approach to design, I am not much interested in canned floor plans or details. Additionally, much of my practice is in historic preservation where the ability to delineate "one-off" solutions to individual structural/moisture penetration problems is required . The ability to import and modify manufacturers .pdf or .dwg details would save immense amounts of time now spent in duplicating complex sections & isometrics. 

 

I am contemplating purchase of the CA Lite to begin with with upgrade to Premier based on workload and an individual project needing the advanced features of the full program. If the Lite version can produce 2d construction documents w/ custom sectional details as well as isometric & perspective drawings which would not be "photo realistic"  I think I'm ready to proceed. Any comments from small/one person firms on this logic ?

 

John M. Foster - Architect - AIA

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John:

 

welcome

 

If you are doing detailed CD's Lite may not be the product for you

as it is intended for K&B and other Interior Designers who really don't care

what is going on behind the walls/floors etc

 

you get plenty of advice from users on this forum

but I would suggest calling CA's sales team and discussing your needs

 

CA does offer a "full credit" towards upgrade

so if you start with Lite and find it isn't meeting your needs you can upgrade to the full Premier

verify with CA's sales team how this works

 

Lew

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John, the difference in price between the Lite and the Premier products is about $700 from what I can gather. I just looked at the feature comparison, and for a professional contemplating using Chief as my base platform, I wouldn't waste my time with the Lite version. There are so many disabled features and efficiencies that I can't imagine trying to do serious professional work without them. OTOH, if you are billing hourly, maybe the slower CAD version will make you more money? ;)

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I agree that price difference between the lite and the premier versions is small when you compare the available options between these two. But before the pricing, you should first check the suitibality of Chief for your works.

I have small idea about the historic preservation projects in the States, but i'm sure that there must be very strict rules about preservation like most places in the world. My friends are working on the restoration of an ancient Greek site where some of the structures are older than 2000 years, and every small detail is critically important. I can't imagine using Chief for such a special task.

So before deciding, i think you should check if Chief can easily generate the details, and the construction sets you need. Pricing is the easier part.

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Hello John,

I can echo the comments of skipping lite and jumping right in to the full version. (You may have to upgrade the Osbourne 1) Like you I am an office of 1 architect and all my projects are unique, bespoke designs. (I also used Architrion, though it was 18 years ago...) I think you will be able to model unique historic conditions but you may need to rely on this forum to help with a crash course in the inner workings of the software.

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