Chief Architect + SketchUp

You are never going to pull me away from SketchUp but I do have a lot of users of my extensions who actually work primarily in Chief Architect, as crazy as that may sound to some. I’ve spent some time discussing with them the reason why this works for them and why they would go in this direction. Here are my findings:

1.) Chief Architect is principally an architect or house designing tool and seems to fill that role very well. It is exceptionally good at automating the generation of the construction documents.

2.) SketchUp is a “natural” 3D modeling tool and is easy to work with (I say a Joy to work with), most notably the learning curve is not too bad compared to other systems out there.

Now the bad…

1.) Chief Architect kind of puts you in a box, it feels a bit clunky and is not a “free” modeling system like SketchUp. Work arounds can be used to model “other” geometry but they are honestly hacks and takes some serious skill in many cases.

2.) SketchUp does not have an automated construction documentation system in place and Layout is still not to the level it needs to be for many designers. We could write a book on Layout and still be arguing about what it gets right and mostly what it still gets wrong. I would love to see SketchUp really put some time and energy into Layout, that is my single biggest wish right now.

Arguably, both systems have their strong points and their weak points. I think that is why some people have chosen to use both programs in their workflows, trying to leverage the power of both worlds. I am curious if anyone on the forum has experience with this combined approach and what are your in-depth thoughts on the matter.

What is your honest take on Chief? What is it like to use compared to SketchUp? How does one compliment the other?

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I’ve not used it, but that’s the classic problem with a turnkey BIM program. If you don’t like it, your choice is drop it completely for someone else’s turnkey BIM program where you might find the same thing. I like your plugin within a general modeler. I’m never stuck with just the capabilities of your creation. If there’s something it doesn’t do, I can stay in SU and use other tools.

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Couldn’t agree more, and that is why I personally would never want to adopt a boxed in BIM software like Chief Architect or Revit. Sometimes you need the freedom to roam a bit and SketchUp gives that to you in spades.

However, the plus side to these tightly integrated solutions is the automation, and especially with the condocs, for some that is a deal breaker, they either don’t have the skills to generate their own or they simply find it too tedious.

Of course there are many other combined software approaches out there that incorporate SketchUp into the workflow, I am actually curious as to what those look like.