Sketchup vs Chief


Scottisimo
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Thanks Dennis,

 

Actually I've never used CAD.  I've been a contractor for a long time, but this is my first attempt at designing.  When I saw what Chief could do, I just had to take a whack at it.  I'm slowly starting to get the hang of it. 

 

Scott

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Hi Scott , you could also consider Home Designer Pro , it's where Lew And I started 8-10 years ago , it's plenty capable for doing a lot of stuff Us Contractor's do and the Purchase Price ($495) is rebated against Chief's Cost when or if you Upgrade.

 

https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/products/home-designer-pro/

 

Lots of good help on Hometalk Forums too ( use same ID and PW)  although Pro Users will find help here on CT too.

 

https://hometalk.chiefarchitect.com/index.php?/forum/5-qa/

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Thanks Dennis,

 

Actually I've never used CAD.  I've been a contractor for a long time, but this is my first attempt at designing.  When I saw what Chief could do, I just had to take a whack at it.  I'm slowly starting to get the hang of it. 

 

Scott

 

Scott... Sorry for the Troll accusation... :) :) ..

 

When getting into any CAD program (and especially 3D) expect a learning curve... 6 months to be "productive".. whatever this means.  From your walls issue it sounds like you want to jump in and draw plans without slowly learning and expecting plans to "pop out".  VERY simple plans may pop out but little else. Ironically your lack of CAD experience will help you greatly in Chief. Go through the tutorials step by step completely first and read the reference manual.

 

FYI.. when you quote a post you can type your reply directly under it so you have one post rather than two..

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Hi Scott , you could also consider Home Designer Pro , it's where Lew And I started 8-10 years ago , it's plenty capable for doing a lot of stuff Us Contractor's do and the Purchase Price ($495) is rebated against Chief's Cost when or if you Upgrade.

 

https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/products/home-designer-pro/

 

Lots of good help on Hometalk Forums too ( use same ID and PW)  although Pro Users will find help here on CT too.

 

https://hometalk.chiefarchitect.com/index.php?/forum/5-qa/

 MICK

Hey, buddy, are you the invisible partner that Lew has talked about for many years, who Lew would send his roofs to?

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Scott... Sorry for the Troll accusation... :) :) ..

 

When getting into any CAD program (and especially 3D) expect a learning curve... 6 months to be "productive".. whatever this means.  From your walls issue it sounds like you want to jump in and draw plans without slowly learning and expecting plans to "pop out".  VERY simple plans may pop out but little else. Ironically your lack of CAD experience will help you greatly in Chief. Go through the tutorials step by step completely first and read the reference manual.

 

FYI.. when you quote a post you can type your reply directly under it so you have one post rather that two..

Thank you Rashid.  Learning, learning.....

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Hey, buddy, are you the invisible partner that Lew has talked about for many years, who Lew would send his roofs to?

Sorry, Drawzilla, I have lots of magical powers, but am neither the Troll nor the invisible partner.  Can't do everything at once, you know.

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Hi Scott , you could also consider Home Designer Pro , it's where Lew And I started 8-10 years ago , it's plenty capable for doing a lot of stuff Us Contractor's do and the Purchase Price ($495) is rebated against Chief's Cost when or if you Upgrade.

 

https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/products/home-designer-pro/

 

Lots of good help on Hometalk Forums too ( use same ID and PW)  although Pro Users will find help here on CT too.

 

https://hometalk.chiefarchitect.com/index.php?/forum/5-qa/

Thank you, Mick,  This sounds very intriguing.  I'm hoping that Pro would have a faster learning curve than Chief, and yet have most of the features I need as a dilittante contractor-turned-occasional-designer.  Would you mind answering a few questions?

 

1.  How is the learning curve compared to Chief?  Would I be able to get up and running faster than with Chief?  I am specifically trying to design a 2-story house that we plan to build in November.  It is a fairly simple plan.  My draftsman has already drawn the bulk of the architectural plans, but of course they are in 2D and he does not have 3D capability.  I would love to be able to visualize this house in 3D, show the 3D drawings to my client to aid in the remainder of the planning process, and have the obvious advantages of material take offs that Chief seems to do. 

2.  After viewing the overview video, it seems that Pro uses many of the same tools and procedures as Chief.  What does Chief have that Pro doesn't?  I know that question probably requires a  complicated answer, but perhaps you could give me a quick one?

3.  If I go ahead and learn Pro, is most of that learning transferable to Chief if I upgrade?  Or are they completely different technologies?

4.  Is it my imagination, or are the colors/presentations/etc. in Pro less realistic than those in Chief?

5.  If I design this house in Pro, will that design transfer to Chief if I decide to upgrade?

 

Whew!  Thanks in advance.  You people on this forum are Saints.

 

Scott

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Sorry, I should have said who I was asking--(kbird-Mick.) fixed it now.

 

 

Lew once told us the guy's name is Joe King.

 

I'm the only one that believes him.

 

It is not I , I have not had the pleasure of meeting Lew in person , but he used to help out on Hometalk when I 1st started with Pro , now I think of it maybe he had CA back then ? not Pro and was just helping out on HT as I do these days.  

 

Mick

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Home Designer Pro is a reduced feature version of Chief. Same commands, same file formats.

 

Learn Pro and you know Chief, just not all the additional capabilities that Chief offers.

 

PDF comparing Pro and Premier http://cloud.homedesignersoftware.com/1/pdf/sales/x7-feature-matrix-hdpro2015.pdf

 

There is a credit for the purchase price of Pro if you upgrade to Chief.

 

I'm going to suggest watching the videos available on YouTube instead of reading the manual. Just watch, see what can be done, and how they do it.

 

The basics are easy. Don't worry about the details at first. Draw 4 walls, build a foundation, add a second floor, view in 3D. Change a wall to Full Gable and watch the roof rebuild. Add a door and some windows. Just use the defaults at first. Get comfortable with how the program works, then make changes and see what happens.

 

You can have your plan view and Perspective Full Overview on screen side by side watching your changes in plan view immediately reflected in the camera view.

 

Other resources

 

http://www.chiefexperts.com/

 

http://www.chieftutor.com/

 

http://www.chiefapprentice.com/index.html

 

Sample plans from Chief

 

http://www.chiefarchitect.com/products/samples.html

 

Scott , for what you are talking about doing at the moment, Pro would work just Fine I believe , It's the same reasons I got it originally, since your Draughtsman is doing all the Detailing and ConDocs etc, Pro would work well for you since want the 3d Visualisation,  which Pro can do , only difference is Pro does not do Ray Tracing (photo realistic "almost") it only does Standard Rendering but if you really needed that for a Client there are a number of people here who offer Ray Tracing as one of their Services , they would just use a copy of the Plan you made in Pro.

 

I think Eric (another Pro User) covered it pretty well above , the free videos on YouTube and Scott's (dshall) videos on Chieftutor are great , some of the Other guys have YT channels too, like Larry (HumbleChief), and you usually pick up another tip or two along the way as well , so are they worth watching as you have time.

 

You only gain going from Pro to Chief and anything learnt is the same in Chief .....it's ALL the other Tools, and ConDocs  ,symbol making, etc in Chief that takes time to learn and there are Production/Time savers in Chief which if you made your living drawing you may want but at least at this point Pro would be a great place to start, then move on up if you find what you need. It might even work for your Draughtsman , since I am sure you are not his only Client who wants 3D Images.

 

The ML in both Pro and CA is VERY Basic in that it only models EXACTLY what is in the 3d Model , as a Remodelling GC , I was disappointed in the ML and found I didn't trust it and had to do 1/2 "by hand" anyway, so I pretty much don't try to learn it's quirks any longer , though I was told that they are hoping to improve it over the course of the next 2-3 versions of CA by Scott Harris. (CA Insider) .

 

M.  

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If you ask me, I say skip Pro and go straight to the full version. If you plan on using this program, and there is probably not a better alternative program yet, get the full blown version with four on the floor, the full blown edelbrock carb, the glass packs, the shackles and the dice hanging from the mirror.

I'm not sure what all that stuff does to increase performance, but a lot of people spent a lot of money installing that stuff.

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Scott , for what you are talking about doing at the moment, Pro would work just Fine I believe , It's the same reasons I got it originally, since your Draughtsman is doing all the Detailing and ConDocs etc, Pro would work well for you since want the 3d Visualisation,  which Pro can do , only difference is Pro does not do Ray Tracing (photo realistic "almost") it only does Standard Rendering but if you really needed that for a Client there are a number of people here who offer Ray Tracing as one of their Services , they would just use a copy of the Plan you made in Pro.

 

I think Eric (another Pro User) covered it pretty well above , the free videos on YouTube and Scott's (dshall) videos on Chieftutor are great , some of the Other guys have YT channels too, like Larry (HumbleChief), and you usually pick up another tip or two along the way as well , so are they worth watching as you have time.

 

You only gain going from Pro to Chief and anything learnt is the same in Chief .....it's ALL the other Tools, and ConDocs  ,symbol making, etc in Chief that takes time to learn and there are Production/Time savers in Chief which if you made your living drawing you may want but at least at this point Pro would be a great place to start, then move on up if you find what you need. It might even work for your Draughtsman , since I am sure you are not his only Client who wants 3D Images.

 

The ML in both Pro and CA is VERY Basic in that it only models EXACTLY what is in the 3d Model , as a Remodelling GC , I was disappointed in the ML and found I didn't trust it and had to do 1/2 "by hand" anyway, so I pretty much don't try to learn it's quirks any longer , though I was told that they are hoping to improve it over the course of the next 2-3 versions of CA by Scott Harris. (CA Insider) .

 

M.  

Mick, You have been incredibly helpful.  This is a whole new world for me, and absolutely fascinating.  I am overwhelmed with the generosity of people on this forum, like yourself.  Scott

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Of course if you need the Tax writeoff :)   go the whole hog :)  ...I agree with Scott , but you may find Pro is enough and that you don't need all the extras of CA if you don't ever plan to take the drawing out of your Draughtman's hands entirely. There is really no harm in getting Pro (same 30 day return policy) and using it , if you find it falls short of what you need , you can upgrade immediately, or 2 years from now but just a word of Warning, if you buy Pro, you will always Want CA Full  :)   I can vouch for that...... I love using it , even though it can get frustrating at times for those of us without 15 yrs behind the "wheel" with it.  

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I don't think Scottismo is planning on printing condocs but even now i send to 11x17 at 1/2 scale as my own printer can do them , if i need full size i simply print that PDF at 200%, same trick has always worked for Pro too.

 

A number of people including a few Architects who use Pro have been Trying to get CA to relent on the One page Layout , it is it's major downfall , and let at least 5 pages, but once again for Scottismo, not an issue at this point. With only one layout page per plan it means doing a save as of the plan for every view otherwise... a major issue in Cali . and here where condocs can easily go 15-20 pages.

 

M.

 

Can you turn off spell correction on this forum? Its a pita.

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