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?