New To Chief As Kitchen Designer

[susansdesigns]

Hi all,  I am a kitchen designer  thinking about purchasing CA interiors and was curious if any kitchen designers could comment or share their experiences with Chief Architect Interiors.  Thanks so much!  Susan Durling

 

[Alaskan_Son]

I would personally recommend that you seriously consider just going straight to Premier.  I think its money well spent.  We do mostly kitchen and bathroom remodel projects and I love using Chief for kitchens.

 

I would however note that we use local custom cabinet shops almost exclusively so our ordering process may be different than yours.  I know there are quite a few Chief users who use standard cabinet manufacturers though and they still prefer Chief over the alternatives.  I think some still use 20/20 (or similar) as a supplemental program, but it seems that its becoming at least a little less necessary.

[TheKitchenAbode]

Would go with Premier. I also do interior cabinetry but it is suprising how many times I need the Premier feature set to get the interiors correct and at times the exterior when say for example there is a deck or patio off of the kitchen. For the extra money it's well worth the investment. Also, if you need user support the forum for Premier is invaluable.

 

Graham

[lbuttery]

Graham:

 

Chieftalk should be useable by an Interiors user

 

it is just a subset of Chief Premier

 

we don't get that many Interiors users asking questions

 

because I think most see the wisdom of having Premier

 

Lew

[TheKitchenAbode]

Lew - My mistake on the forum, was thinking about the Home Designer package. Thanks for pointing that out.

 

Graham

[HumbleChief]

You will almost always hear the same advice with any software program, "If you can afford it, buy the more capable package." To me, it helps to know why.

 

Will you be doing anything other than kitchen design? Will you do any structural work i.e. removing/modifying large wall sections? Will you be adding floor space for your new kitchens? Will you need to develop exterior elevations? Will you be interfacing with any other Chief user(s) perhaps one that will provide you with as-builts as you create your design?

 

If the answer is yes to any of the above (there are more) then Chief Premier will not only be a better choice but the only choice for some of the functions listed above. If not then Interiors should be fine.

 

It might also be wise to purchase interiors until you need Premier then upgrade if the cost is reasonable or try Interiors for 30 days, if it works for you, you're good. If not buy Premier.

 

Also contact MarkMc in post #3 of linked thread - he is really good with Chief and understands kitchen design.

 

https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/index.php?/topic/8490-compressing-text/#entry74766

[MarkMc]

Feel free to take me up on Larry's offer;). My answer is if you possibly can get Premier.

Thanks for the kind words Larry.

[OldCKD]

I've been using Chief primarily for kitchen (and bath) design for ~4 years now.
Wouldn't use anything else, love it.

 

Having said that, I did start out with Interiors and quickly moved up to Premier.  I sometimes design additions to put my new kitchens in

 

While I sometimes struggle with parts of the program I don't use often (complex roofs, etc) it's a very valuable part of my business and an awesome selling tool.  But I'll reiterate what everyone else says - go for the full monty, you won't be sorry.