topic Re: Chief architect versus Archicad in Collaboration with other software

Chief architect versus Archicad

Anonymous — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 15:50:30 GMT

I'm a user of chief architect and I am looking for people that have switched over to archicad. What do they like and dislike

Re: Chief architect versus Archicad

Richard Morrison — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 16:16:44 GMT

There have already been some discussions on this topic. I'd start with a search.

Re: Chief architect versus Archicad

Anonymous — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 16:48:21 GMT

they are very old posts. i would like to find the latest discussions. chief has some issues that just irritate me.

Re: Chief architect versus Archicad

Richard Morrison — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 17:05:12 GMT

I use the latest versions of both programs. I can tell you that the irritations will go away with AC, but will be replaced with some frustrations that you can't model a house as quickly as you could in Chief. You might also get frustrated that you don't have the extensive residential library of objects in AC that you have in Chief. This may or may not be a problem for you.

I can tell you that drafting in AC is light years ahead of Chief. Why not download a trial version of AC and try for yourself?

Re: Chief architect versus Archicad

Anonymous — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 17:17:47 GMT

do you find it better to quickly model a house in chief architect and then draw it in archicad for the plans. I own a company called http://www.truebuilthome.com/
we have part of the plans done in chief but like i said,.... It irritates me when i go into the drafting end... and which one do you believe works better in the rendering end of things? I own maxwell render allready because i could not stand POVRAY

Re: Chief architect versus Archicad

Richard Morrison — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 17:22:33 GMT

I find it better to create the design in Chief, then export the plans as DWG files, and then quickly recreate the model in AC.

I would look seriously at Artlantis Studio for rendering.

(BTW, I checked out your website. You have the most expensive plans I've ever seen! )

Re: Chief architect versus Archicad

Anonymous — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 17:56:28 GMT

I have to maximize my profits in this down economy..... plus I personally sign each set as they leave.

Re: Chief architect versus Archicad

Anonymous — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 01:30:11 GMT

Hi Richard
Thanks for the insight regarding Chief and AC.

Dking
I looked at your web site.
I took it to be the cost to have the house built.
Did I misunderstand this?
Bier

Re: Chief architect versus Archicad

Richard Morrison — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 01:34:31 GMT

Bier wrote:
Dking
I looked at your web site.
I took it to be the cost to have the house built.
Did I misunderstand this?
Bier

I was just joking with him because it looked like the home price could be interpreted as the price of the plans. But I doubt his plans are going for $100K +, as good as they may be.

Re: Chief architect versus Archicad

Anonymous — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 01:46:48 GMT

ooppss
I missed the joke
Egg on my face..
Wasn't the first, won't be the last...
Bier
P.S.
oh well anther day of living,,,and another
day of learning.

Re: Chief architect versus Archicad

Anonymous — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 18:34:09 GMT

The last post here is back in 2008. Has anyone looked at Chief Architect lately? It's on my radar, thanks to a persistent client.

I looked briefly at the demo video, got half-way through their talking points, before realizing that most of what they do seems to be more efficient than AC. Isn't Chief Architect supposed to be a budget solution? Why is it they are outperforming (apparently) AC in terms of ease of use, interface (live dimenions when dragging a window into placement) etc.

One other clever thing I noticed - draw a roof, and it automatically places the ceiling. Simple, but brilliant stuff.

Re: Chief architect versus Archicad

Richard Morrison — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 18:58:29 GMT

There are many things that Chief does better than AC. The new X3 release is going to be even better.

If you're doing mostly single-family residential, you should be looking at Chief. However, there are some things that are easy in AC that Chief just doesn't have. e.g.:

Teamwork
Schedules are far more robust and flexible in AC.
You can adjust the origins of fills more easily in AC.
Direct PDF import in AC. (Can only do JPG/TIF/PNG/EMF, etc. in Chief)
AC has better favorites & magic wand. CAD tools are more sophisticated in AC.
AC library objects are more parametric. On the other hand, Chief has a far more extensive residential library collection.

Bottom line is that there are many things that each program would benefit from having from the other.

Re: Chief architect versus Archicad

Anonymous — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 19:02:46 GMT

Well, now that GS has aquired Zermatt, maybe they should pick up Chief, and roll VW, AC, and CA into one.

Speaking of walk-throughs.... how does Chief perform in 3D?

Re: Chief architect versus Archicad

Richard Morrison — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 19:20:50 GMT

LINZ wrote:
Well, now that GS has aquired Zermatt, maybe they should pick up Chief, and roll VW, AC, and CA into one.

Speaking of walk-throughs.... how does Chief perform in 3D?

I think you should download the free demo and try it out. They also have a free "client viewer" so that your clients can do their own 3D walkthroughs. No need to buy the equivalent of Zermatt.

Re: Chief architect versus Archicad

Anonymous — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 19:27:35 GMT

I'm not sure if Chief does this, but being able to lock walls, doors, window locations, etc. to each other when resizing structures would be such a huge help!

Thanks for your info so far. I think I will download the demo and play around on it. You mentioned an X3 release? What are the release schedules like for Chief? Is it coming out soon?

Re: Chief architect versus Archicad

Richard Morrison — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 19:34:07 GMT

No, there is no "lock" other than locking a layer. Resizing is more like stretching putty. Walls stay joined. You'll really need to try this.

Releases seem to be on a slightly longer than yearly average. I think annual was their original goal, like GS's, but they've been doing major rewrites that have slowed them down. X3 is in a public beta mode right now, so it will probably be "officially" released in a matter of weeks.

Re: Chief architect versus Archicad

Anonymous — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 15:50:56 GMT

Chief is for children . Archicad is for architects .

Re: Chief architect versus Archicad

Richard Morrison — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 16:17:01 GMT

archibaldo wrote:
Chief is for children . Archicad is for architects .

So, how long have you been using Chief, Dude?

Re: Chief architect versus Archicad

Anonymous — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 22:48:38 GMT

The release date for x3 was jul-08, and the 3d capabilities for chief are far superior than archicad, i used adt, ac and did the transition to chief about 2 years ago, like i said for single homes its perfect, easy wt tools and the new render engine supposed to be really good, we upgrading our machines tonight so in about a week i give you guys a feedback

Re: Chief architect versus Archicad

Anonymous — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 04:49:45 GMT

Great to hear! And considering you are working in Canada, the local experience doesn't hurt a bit! Looking forward to your thoughts.