Chief architect is user friendly 3D software to designe any interior and it has great quality of the renderings image.

Not have mush least but isn't another program out there that can coordinate the nature of Chief architect.

My favorite program to use in school compared to Sketchup and AutoCAD.

The 3D option! After putting together your space, you can view a frame in 3D and see how your space would look down to the finishes!

Small selection of free catalogs. Not a huge variety of items to choose from right away, have to either pay or deal with the basic selections in the catalogs.

This software is most suitable for big projects and it is quite easy to use . It is quite easy to use too

Once in a while there are few problems with the font and printing option and it is kinda expensive too

I have been able to put ideas into the tool and quickly show that to those I am working with. The ability to manipulate the floor plan and surfaces quickly has been a great help.

I really like that this software is easy to use and pretty intuitive. It provides a very good set of tools for a diy homeowner looking to build as well as a pro bidding jobs and presenting to clients.

There seems to be a smaller set of hardware that this software will run with. I had issues with my video card that was able to run sketchup without a problem but gave errors in Chief Architect.

nenhum

Great for technical users who want at once have 3D view. Easy way to draw simply to very complex arch. details.

Not this time. Products from 2017/2018 stinks... Support is doing great job with this. Software is not following after new graph. cards drivers. No compatibility with windows 10 updates. Causing so many problems...after 10 years of using ChA products, I try something else. By, by Chief!

Great program that we update annually.

Very powerful program that we use for modeling l, space planning and design presentations.

It’s a little pricey but well worth it because clients love it.

This is a great program, even for users that are beginners (like myself). They have great tutorials and the program is very inexpensive.

There is not much bad to say about it, you do have to buy additional modules if you want to do more; however, overall this is a great piece of software. by Chief Architect on 06/09/2017 Thank you, Riccardo!

With Chief Architect, the system does most of the work for you so you can focus on the floorplan and even in the placement of objects in the rooms, the walkthrough view is also excellent for showing a client the finished project so there is buy-in for the proposed construction or remodel. Landscaping is also easy as the Cadastral can be transferred into the plan allowing for accuracy in placing building on lot

Found the software easy to understand and use especially with the 3d vies available which can be seen in split screen beside the floorplan, also with the detailed QS breakdown, estimating materials needs accurately is a cinch. The online tutorials and ideas will have you designing in no time

With all software there is a bit of a learning curve especially with the rapid changes in versions which add substantial changes to the software in terms of materials and objects that can be utilised.

I recommend Chief Architect to all of my peers who own their firms as well. The technical support is beyond anything you could get from AutoCAD or SketchUp and the price makes it a much better product than Revit.

I use Chief Architect daily to draw designs for my clients and contractors. It's very easy to use and customize to specific clients or projects. I'm able to quickly and easily provide plans views, elevation views, and camera views in order to express an idea or check feasibility. I can present materials lists to my contractors, budgets to my clients, and keep track of how much time I'm spending on a project. If I ever have a question on how to do something, I can contact easily and get an answer quickly. I also sign in to the webinar trainings because there is always something new to learn or a faster, better way to do a task.

I wish more manufacturers participated and provided models for the software. I find myself using only CA available vendors on my projects when I need to act quickly. The rendering portion of the software could be more developed.

Easy design tool with many options

Very easy to draw plan views with given tools

Some time there will be visual graphic issues when moving floor by floor and horizontal curve walling is bit hard to generate

Amazing interface. Increasingly easy to use.

Easy to navigate. Easy to connect with.

Some features have a tendency to be slow.

Small construction business values Chief Architect everyday. Great software for everyday simple easy to use.

Ease of use builder friendly

You have to train by Chief Architect on 24/02/2017 Thank you Ray!

After researching over a year. I know I made the right choice. Chief Architect just keeps getting better and better. 3D is great. by Chief Architect on 16/02/2016 Thanks Edgar!

This software allowed me to obtain skill in its use through it's "grow up" scale, starting from early home versions working up to the top line business version. It allows the creation of a rendering fairly easily, at a reasonable if not top-notch quality, which provides quite a bit of bang for the buck.

I like that the system is automated enough to allow you to design and render the building without having to worry about every little detail of how to draw every little line or manually setting every light and texture for rendering, but flexible enough to allow a wide variety of building styles.

It's not the industry standard, so unless you are the company owner or principal architect, don't expect to enter the job market as a proficient Chief user. This stuff is mostly used by one and two man shops who can't afford to hire. Most hiring is temporary and/or freelance, and that market is quite competitive.

I get the benefit of being able to generate a working drawing in short time compared to any other Cadd software as well as creating 3d visuals to aide in comprehension of design

Ease of learning and teaching, Fast plan creation, 3d rendering capabilities, Blocks, Symbols, All of it

Should be the industry standard above AutoCad, Priced a little on the high side, Materials takeoff is inaccurate and Import export

I have tried a lot of other design programs but keep coming back to Chief , I have found it to be the best overall. by Chief Architect on 22/08/2016 Thanks Fred! We're so glad to be a part of your design process.

I love the ease of changing cabinets, to be fully customizable & the quality of the overall rendering.

It’s hard to figure out how to get the lighting so it doesn’t reflect orbs on the drawing.

The speed of generating a 3D building for a client to see can be very quick, but the learning curve and the inherent limitations just made it not worth the effort.

As long as you want to do something already "canned" in the software, it's got some really sweet features. The immediate 3D renderings are outstanding!

There's very little about the program that is intuitive to the way CAD has been traditionally taught. And if you need to make an exception to what it "thinks is normal", OMG what a flippin' nightmare! IF you can get it to at all do what you want.

I purchased an updated version chief architect X6. I have used previous versions for years on a PC and was assured it would run great on a Mac. I downloaded the software to my Mac which was running the minimum system requirements (Mavericks) listed on the chief architect website. I had issues with this software working from the start, i.e. when I would open or try to edit a dialog box it would open a new window behind all previous open windows. Since this computer was a few years old I mistakenly thought it was an issue with my computer. I purchased a new Mac to run the software and ran into the same issues as before. I put up with these problems for more than a year before I contacted chief architect looking for a fix for their software. I was informed by a chief architect tech that this was a known issue that their software developers were aware of and had fixed in later versions and that the only solution to this issue was to upgrade the software. After being transferred to a sales associate I was informed that I would have to pay over money to chief architect to get a version of the software that would work. I told him that I have already purchased software from chief architect and that they need to fix the issue with the version I have or they should stand behind their product and upgrade it for free. I made a complaint with the senior supervisor/manager who informed me that since they could not re-create the issue in house and that I am now currently using an updated Mac with the (Sierra) operating system they would not stand behind there software. Under system requirements for X6 it lists that you need a minimum operating system of (Mountain Lion / Mavericks) nowhere does it say if you have a newer operating system that their software will not work. I would like to see chief architect stand behind the product I've spent thousands of dollars on. So far this has been one of the worst customer experiences I've ever had and I definitely feel I have been ripped off by chief architect.

This tool is perfectly designed to help the architects of today . An easy and convenient tool with a a affordable pricing.

This software is easy to use and the render quality is superb. It definitely helps me sell a design.

This software is perfect for kitchen and bath remodel designs.

Some things are complicated, such as putting a cut out in the wall or getting a good camera angle in a small space.

It has different view creations (view points) and easy dimensioning

It is hard to create curved sections (like curved roofs) (horizontal wall curves)

Chief architect provide more versatile tools to visualize building plans

Needs to improve rendering facility with realistic manner

Chief Architect is a very powerful tool for creating plans and layouts for buildings. It is very easy to pickup and there is a number of official tutorials both on their website and YouTube that cover virtually everything the program has to offer. You can make as much or as little as you need in this program.

Some automatically generated walls and roofs come in incorrectly and can be very difficult to edit and manipulate. Often times there are work-arounds that suffice, but it can be overly cumbersome to edit.

Very useful for my property management business

I'm a small business of property management and short-rental, I use the Home Suite version for my projects when preparing new properties. It's a very complete and versatile product. It helps to redesign the space you have in several version and choose the best of it.

It's not a very user friendly tool and for the version I use, I think the catalog could be better.

i have had to crash lot of residential design proposal, chief architect have being productive, giving me a good presentable 3D model, within a short time was amazing, I really don't have to put in some details, it generate them graphically automatically.i have recommended this app. to a friend to avoid delay of presentation.

The trial version is very helpful especially for novice in the industry who would like to learn, creating my residential designs and models are very much faster with Chief architect, the rendering are good for quick business but might not be the best but very presentable.and files in chief architect not too heavy for my system memory, it works pretty fast.

creating and modifying complex geometries with chief architect not feasible, if feasible modify is difficult, even the roof generated might not be my taste, editing roof is difficult,shell structures, complex space frame and trusses are not easy with this application, while generating the your simple residential design I just have to go with the generated roof forms, it just not flexible enough for me, but i prefer it when i need a quick simple residential design model done, i will not recommend chief architect for a detailed 2D Drawing,or working drawing it is best for 3D modeling of simple forms of residential buildings. by Chief Architect on 08/07/2019 Thank you for the comments. Roof design is one of the more complex areas of the software. Here are some resources on manually editing roofs in Chief Architect that you may find helpful.Playlist of roof design videos:

Increased sales from a great presentation.

We've been wowing our customers for years thanks to Chief Architect. We love how they keep improving the software every year.

They RayTrace rendering takes a bit to get a crisp rendering. Might need to upgrade the speed on my computer though.

to research better Cons: extremely Limited, non intuitive, Bought this based on a review site as an upgrade from two previous programs and to say the least it was a misleading experience and NON REFUNDABLE by Chief Architect on 19/04/2018 Thank you for your feedback. We're sorry to hear about your experience. The software comes with a 30-day money back guarantee. Please give us a call at 208-292-3400 if we can assist you in any way.



extremely Limited, non intuitive, Bought this based on a review site as an upgrade from two previous programs and to say the least it was a misleading experience and NON REFUNDABLE by Chief Architect on 19/04/2018 Thank you for your feedback. We're sorry to hear about your experience. The software comes with a 30-day money back guarantee. Please give us a call at 208-292-3400 if we can assist you in any way.

Once you learn how to use it, you can “build” anything and decorate it,

The learning curve is steep to begin with, but stick it out. It is an amazing tool to help your clients see your vision.

In the X11 version, views glitch when I zoom in and out, window labels display 2 (") inches measurement symbols when the " use default formatting" box is checked, material regions work on occasion, curved roofs are very finicky. There are other issues as well but the list is too long for this comment box.

It is a great software with a great many features.

I don't like that major bugs and kinks are never ironed out of the software before the release of a new version. I wish they would fix what is broken first. Each new release for the past 3 years seems to be worse and worse.... by Chief Architect on 23/07/2019 Thank you for the review and comments. I think we can help. There is an optimization you can make in preferences to fix the zoom and pan issue. For the double inch symbol is sounds like you may have inadvertently added that symbol to the macro in the label and have the use default formatting checked. You can reach out to our in house Tech Support for assistance with getting this resolved if needed.

There are many features to take advantage of almost immediately. They make many of our common tasks such as floor-planning, creating shells, and dimensioning quick and easy.

With so many features, we were worried training materials would be hard to come by for our staff. On the contrary, it was extremely easy reaching customer support and training was a breeze.

I have used this product for almost 20 years on projects, and it’s still my go-to.

This is hands down the most user friendly architecture software I’ve used. It has what’s the perfect balance of features and ease of product use.

The graphic renderings can be difficult to fine tune, especially with respect to rooflines. This is typically just a problem using weird height vaulted ceilings.

WE like Chief Archeiect. We have support only a call away. AND there are many users out there who are willing to help and teach as we go.

We like that this software is a monthly subscription. We can suspend in downtimes. We like that is easy to use and that there is a large user base to get tips and tricks from.

There is an issue with the program holding measurements in that we input certain wall lengths and they somehow become skewed...It leaves a rendering our of square. This should be something inherently basic. Maybe we are missing something. We wish there were more LOG HOME related tools. by Chief Architect on 30/01/2020 Thank you for your review. If you are getting dimensions that seem to be changing, it is recommended when you set dimensions that you work around the exterior clockwise and then double check all dims are correct. Because dims are dynamic it can be easy type in a dimension value that affects another dimension by accident. You may find watching our videos on dimensions helpful, so that you have a exact understanding of how parallel and perpendicular dimensions work and differ. Here is a playlist of dimension videos: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/playlists/92/dimensions.html

Chief architecture is used to design complicated building plans

Chief architecture is best tool to develop complicated designs with detailed drawings and information

Not a freeware but worth related to its functionality and output... Can learn the software easily...

After years of using Revit, I had the opportunity to try out Chief Architect recently. Needless to say, I am hooked! CA is a quick study for experienced CAD users and performs exponentially faster that other programs I have used. The ray trace rendering feature is helpful but could be improved by allowing users to render in the cloud as other CAD programs (Autodesk products in particular) do. For designers who want to produce high-quality 3D representations of their work and generate construction documents and elevations, Chief Architect is well worth the investment!

Ease of use; graphics; available options for materials and finishes; ability to import and edit SKP files

Even with rental options, could be a bit expensive for new designers; rendering in the cloud is not an available option at this time

I have been using Chief Architect since 2015. Before that I used AutoCAD for over 20 years. I've also used REVIT and Sketchup, but for what I do, which is Residential Design and Remodels, this program proved to be the most versatile. There is somewhat of a learning curve the first 6 months, but impressive when it comes to showing clients who have a difficult time envisioning 3D from 2D drawings. The customer support is really A+. They usually can figure out any problem I'm having or will consider a "work around" option that may still get me the desired effect.

The fact you can instantaneously see what you've drawn in 3D and that you can import models into the drawings as you need. Also it's constantly being updated with new useful features and better output results. KUDOS for the programmers. It's not flawless, but it is impressive for what the program can do. It has definitely made my work easier & faster. Also makes my services more marketable.

There are simple commands in AutoCAD that are not in Chief Architect that I wish could be there, like hatch, fillet, extend, trim, stretch, rotate, hatch, etc., so it's not the greatest to use when I do have to draft in 2D at times. You can do most of these but the way you have to get there is more time consuming. The result I get when I do a section through a building results in me having to create a DWG then editing it to remove extra lines I can see to get the final image I need. However, the time to do this is offset by not having to get the base drawing of the cross section done from scratch and I can see instantly if there is a problem with roof/ceiling heights, floors or any other issues.

Good 2d components.

Poor render quality.

I really love this software for light remodeling and construction. You can quickly create plans for builders and permitting. The software is geared towards residential use with lots of good options to fill the spaces with. It also makes 3-D renderings and screenshots fairly quick and high quality for client presentations.

The software tries to think for you and is sometimes wrong. I found difficulties connection multiple roof lines and had issues with staircases every now and then.

Great tool to design and rendering is also very good.

Chief Architect is a very interesting tool to create your ideas into drawings. it is easy to learn, you just have to give some time to learn and adapt the new system the product. Different styles of building type will help your design and your work.

not much but just have to adapt to the new system and functions. Sometimes it tends to freeze may be because of my PC low specs.

Chief Architect offers a wide variety of features to build and render properties, particularly for the novice user. The variety of structures that you can build is endless and the ability to insert custom materials into the design is so easy. Clients love seeing their new homes transformed.

Start up time should not be underestimated. New users should plan on investing a considerable amount of time reading documentation and watching the videos that are available online. It's nice that they have all of this available, as well as a live support center, although honestly, I found more luck figuring things out myself.

It is a good tool for interiors and kitchens

It is quite simple to use and has a lot of nice features for things like kitchen renovations

It does not have any sort of parametric functionality or ability to mass edit/control

Rendering capabilities far exceed any other design software I've ever used. Very user-friendly and easy to use.

Would love for Chief to implement a cabinet quoting feature (similar to 2020 or ProKitchen) that would make it easier to order cabinetry designed in Chief.

You can do accurate space planning and quickly convert that to 2d and 3d images without having to put in a ton of information. It can be very detailed if you want it, but is not necessary like some other CAD programs.

This program can be difficult to get started with because the features and tools are very foreign if you have no formal training. However the training videos are very helpful and you can get basic designs done pretty quickly.

They have a great customer support. They have helped me on multiple occasions. I have the SSA package and it is well worth the value. Must have they will solve any issue you have.

This software is easy to use easy to learn. You don’t have to attend their classes because they have a great library of videos to help with the learning curve. They also have a great community of people working to help you solve problems. They respond quickly and are always helpful.

Nothing to dislike for me! This is great software for anyone wanting to get into this kind of design.

Downloaded this to do 3d walkthrough of house prior to construction. it was great for that and allowed my wife to understand what things would look like.

You need a pretty good computer to run this. it'd be nice to have a light version that runs a bit faster

I like very little about this software package. It says it is for professional architects and they even show reviews by some they claim are architects, but I can't imagine doing anything beyond simple residential projects with this package. Unless you are a novice, don't bother.

This package does not deliver anything near what it promises. OK for a Do yourself a favor, keep looking.

My friends in the the field of architect have been using this and I see it working very well for them . Have used it myself too for sometime. A great tool , easy to use and affordable.

It covers most of features and modules required by an architect. Nothing which I did not like in this .

It adds an extra touch to my proposals. IT managers appreciate it when I include a rendering of the server location.

Awesome product and interesting competitor for software that costs thousands of dollars. I use it when Datacenters will be moved to new locations and waiting for floorplans it's impossible. The results are stunning.

I've used Chief for the last 10 years. It's the only program I know for designing clear and concise building plans that show the clients in vivid 3d, what the finish product will look like. All to often clients use terms and descriptions that don't convey to the plans. Chief shows them what they are getting for a complete understanding before a shovel hits the ground. by Chief Architect on 27/12/2016 Thank you for your loyalty with us, Charlie!