Chief Architect

[Anonymous]

This topic began here:

http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?p=73297#73297


Rashid Garuba wrote:
As an ex Archicad user ("x" primarily due to lack of ANY automation), I can tell you Chief Architect probably goes down this automation route more than any out there, for better or worse... Automatic footings, dormers, house wizard.. etc...


Let me apologize in advance for going a little off topic here, but I'm really interested in Rashid's experience with Chief Architect relative to ArchiCAD.

Rashid,
How long ago did you make the switch to chief Architect? Hmmm, I wonder if I need to look at it again? It seems to have many features I wish ArchiCAD had for residential work...I've been waiting and hoping for Graphisoft to add this level of specificity to their tools... I'm not sure I'll ever see it because its too "Residential" specific.

How effective have you found the automatic wall, floor and roof framing tools? Are they as automatic as they are promoted. I'm not sure how the floor and ceiling framing tools could be smart enough to determine their direction. ..and how about the trusses? Does it make Hip and Jack trusses?

How about the cost estimation functions. It seems like they at least have a basic residential database. Are the reports user friendly and are they easy to maintian/edit?

I like the detailed "builder specific" prompts in the various tool interfaces. Probably a little too detailed for typical architectural work but very much welcome for building professionals and/or contractors.

Looking forward to any comments you may have.

Thanks,
Dan K

[TomWaltz]

I'd be curious to know how well something more demanding like Revit would run in Parallels.

[Anonymous]

Chief , Archicad, and Revit have long wishlists.. What would be nice to know is the average age of the wishes, representing the response of each vendor. What's the difference between Parrallel's and Bootcamp?? As I said I am 2 years from getting new computers... May give Apple a look out of curiosity at that time.

[__archiben]

Rashid wrote:
What's the difference between Parrallel's and Bootcamp?? As I said I am 2 years from getting new computers... May give Apple a look out of curiosity at that time.

'parallels' is a mac application that boots another operating system inside of itself. as such it's slightly slower than booting that system as the primary operating system: it has to translate the commands issued by windows (for example) into a format that the mac system can use, deal with and send back to windows through the same process. it allows you to run mac OSX and windows XP in parallel - switching between the two without shutting the machine down.

'boot camp' isn't really an application as such - it's a method of setting up a mac with a windows disk partition and writing a set of hardware drivers specific to your machine that can be used by windows to run the hardware you're using. boot camp allows you to boot windows on your mac just as you would on PC hardware. boot camp requires you to shut down your machine and restart in order to boot into the other system.

that being said, in two years time apple may have perfected the art of 'rosetta' and 'spaces' into a happy union that will allow us to run win XP in a different 'space' to our mac OS . . . ? now that's what i'm waiting for!

~/archiben

[archislave]

One can download the Bootcamp software free from Apple.com. Some say an Intel Mac boots and runs windows better than many pc's.

Parallels can be downloaded as a trial from:
http://www.parallels.com/en/products/desktop/

I also requires the Windows OS of your choice to then be installed through the Parallels wizzard. Windows can be run in a floating or maximized window on OSX where one has the full windows desktop with taskbar and running programs. One can also minimize the entire Windows OS (window) to the dock just like any app in OSX.

It does not have to translate very much since it is running on Intel. Speeds are almost native. I'll try to get it going next week and try a major app like Revit on it.

[Anonymous]

Ok I get it... I do wonder if Windows running on a Mac behaves just like windows.. warts included.. At least hardware related crashes should be less.

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone,

i'm new round here. I already checked in the forum for a comparison between the two programs but couldn’t find all the answers to my questions. I see this post is really interesting so i''l ask you some help.

I work in a promoter, recently I begun designing our villas with 3D Home Broderbund.

But as you can understand this program is very limited and only for home users and i’m searching for alternative. I came to the conclusion that I have to choose between archicad and chief architect.

-What I’m looking for is a software to produce renderings and 3D Images for advertisement purposes, to make advertisement in the magazines, in the internet and so on. I draw mediterranean houses, ibizas style houses and i never draw wood houses in north american syle.
I don’t do all the project process, constructions, drawings because this is done by our architect, I just take his project with exact dimensioning and do the high quality 3D Image.

-Another use of the software will be, for ex if I see beautiful villa I can take a hint and create a similar villa in my own software. Draw ideas and see how they look.

But of course I need high quality renderings and sometimes I have to draw complex villas with curved walls, parabolic walls (for example I couldn’t draw with 3D home Broderbund a curved wall with progressive height. It means a curved wall that begins at 0 height and ends at 2600 cm height.

-And, due to the fact that I’m already used to use 3D home Broderbund and Chief it’s his big brother I’d need to ask you how does archicad works with textures and landscape and plants.

For ex: if I have to choose the finishing of a wall I simply have to apply a texture (brick, paint etc) by simply choosing the wall and applying a texture or is it more complex?
Does the program come with a good texture library and good gdl library?
How does the landscaping process works (hills trees etc)?

Could someone help me in the final choice?

Thank you very much for any suggestions.

Roberto

[Rakela Raul]

http://www.idecad.com/

check the price !!!