SketchUp Vs Chief Architect
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Can anyone with experience in SketchUp Pro and Chief Architect Premier share your opinions on which is superior for a professional architectural drafting/design/BIM service (mostly residential, but occasional commercial)?
Chief Architect seems really great, and SketchUp seems really great as well. I see some people using SketchUP to create house plans with 3D modeling, but it seems it is really not made for architecture specifically, whereas Chief Architect is. In SketchUP, it seems a lot of things are manual by placing "dumb" annotations in layout of sections, tags, and electrical symbols. I don't want to go backwards from Revit! I just want something mainly faster!
I have PlusSpec Pro for SketchUp and it has some nifty things for residential BIM, but is fairly new and in my opinion needs about 10 years to have everything I would need. It's an Australian company and their building methods differ slightly from here in the US. I like that SketchUP is great for free-form modeling, but I don't want to be left modeling everything from scratch, especially when the design changes!
As a last note, I'm a current Revit expert and am looking to move over to a more efficient software for modeling and documenting residential projects. Revit takes way too long for almost everything, costing me significant lost revenue.
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Which is the difference in price between both of them ?? That could be the main difference
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Well there is a big difference other than price. I would say they are completely different sorts of programs. Chief Architect is a whole framework that develops your model towards working drawings, and built-in parametric function. SketchUp is more open in format, requiring you to figure out a way of working and add plugins to do whatever it is you are after, and with plugins has little non-destructive parametric ability. The question is has anyone tried both for their work? I know a small firm that has used Chief Architect (hate the name) for years successfully doing just the sort of work OP describes. They still use AutoCAD for details (they have a huge library from before, of course). I've never tried it personally.
I am not 100% sure but it seems in CA you tend to work in built-in 2d views more, and in SU you work in perspective most of the time.
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While I'm very thrifty and smart with my money, the difference in price between Chief Architect and SketchUp is not a concern. Simply because my time is valuable, and if I can finish my flat-rate projects faster, I will earn more money over a given time.
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Apple to an Orange. One should not compare the 2 as they are 2 different types of programs. CA is a BIM program geared for houses, SU is NOT a BIM program at all. Sure there are LOTS of 3rd party add-ons that get SU really close but it is not BIM. Last time I tried CA is was no where as easy to use as SU either. imho
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