Chief Architect Tutorial For Beginners

[Totaly Pavlina]

Iknow that many learn at different paces and in different ways, but am just trying to get an overall feel of the degree of difficulty in becoming fairly proficient with the software. I do understand that even the most advanced users face challenges at times.

It's a 10 if you want to master the program. It is a very sophisticated modeling program and if you are starting at ground zero and have no other design program experience you better be ready to LEARN. It also depends on what your knowledge of the construction industry and what projects are you tackling. Good luck

CA has a far more intuitive interface than Softplan for sure. Took me 50-60 hours to get my first basic set of drawings printed and I'm half of that now after a few months. Some folks here can do the same work in a day. In addition, I initially spent half my time watching videos and reading help screens to get the next steps figured out.

10 or more. IMO. i say this because i started with 0 knowledge of CA. i tried other apps in the "Builder Plans" market. like Softplan and Revit. all them are still will have the level 10 Difficulty to it. i dont think theres a level 1 Easy to do what we do. if theres a Level 1 easy out there, i sure would like be interested.

i am not sure it would be worth it for someone thats not in the profession who just want to draft 1 or 2 builder plans a year to invest the time to learn CA. if it's not your profession to produce "Builder Plans" as you core business, then it's not worth you time and effort.

That said, it can also be very rewarding and fast if you do learn its secret handshakes. Chief is a mixed bag but I have to give it a 10 in difficulty due to the aforementioned. Its been the hardest app i've ever had to learn and i do some pretty complex things with other apps.

I've been using CA for 10 years. I had my 1st set of working drawings within a month. Looking back compared to what I turn out now they were crap. It probably took me 2 years before I was proficient with the program but probably 4 or 5 before I really mastered it. Those first few years were difficult because I would run in to situations that I could not resolve without help. Now when I run into an issue I can usually figure it out on my own because I've learned enough about the program to understand how it thinks and what causes certain problems. Occasionally I still need help from tech support but that is rare and usually ends up being a software problem that gets resolved.

With that said I would have to give it a 10 as well but it's worth the effort. One piece of advice I would give anyone learning CA is to use the hotkeys. Figure out your most used commands and create your own hotkeys. I've probably cut my design time in half over the years by using this one feature.

The thing most new users foul up on is not really studying the software in depth before taking on a complicated project. This is like self torture where you assume you can " figure it out on the fly".

When reading or watching a video NEVER go past a word or symbol you do not fully understand, get it defined and understood because it is part of the intended knowledge you need to be competent. Part of learning what Chief can do and how it does it is finding out what it does not do or how you thought it should work. That information is to be found in your "Users Guide" and "Reference Manual" that install as part of your software.

Study in short time segments outside of your working time. Read or watch a video and then open your software and demonstrate whether or not you understand what you just studied. Once you really learn how to do what you desire, using this software is a joy indeed.

I have downloaded the trial version and have found it to be relatively simple to use. However, I have been doing the most basic tasks. I fully understand that the complex tasks would take quite some time to learn. Being able to perform the more complicated tasks is what drove my question.

I have a 15 year background in construction management. For years, I would design homes in the old 3D Home Architect Deluxe and then hand off the floor plan and elevations to a local draftsman to create a simple set of "Builders Plans" (floor plan, foundation plan, elevations, and one cross section).

For MOST basic tasks Chief is unbeatable in its speed and simplicity. Actually a lot of the comments above are relative to the complexity of your projects. A basic straightforward home in Chief isn't going to cause you any issues and Chief is certainly the fastest app on the market for that type of work.

I'd say right between 1 and 10...and I'm not kidding. Totally depends on what exactly you need to do with it, how much you care about the little details, whether or not you will be using other software, what design processes or software you're accustomed to, your individual techniques and tendencies, your design and/or construction experience, your expectations in general as to what a 3D design software should do for you, etc.

In general I think the guys above have about covered it. Its really easy to get started but can take a substantial amount of time to master. I totally agree with David...Study things till you really grasp them. If you don't fully understand something you're just going to continually get hung up on it later and it will likely affect your understanding of other processes as well. The Users Guide is really a valuable resource and is probably worth going through, and the Help files are invaluable as well. Take advantage of them.

I'd also add one more note...You will likely learn substantially faster and more efficiently by studying, taking training classes, hiring a tutor, and/or watching tutorial videos than you will winging it and just using the forum. I've kinda done both and I have to say the best things I've learned that have proven to be the strongest foundation and best reference were things I learned from the Users Guide at the very beginning and things I've read in the Help files when I have questions. The forum is definitely a close 3rd but IMO should serve as more of a supplement and clarification source than as a main learning tool...although, you will of course also pick up value tips and tricks from the forum that you can't find anywhere else which gives the forum a unique value all its own. I just really recommend you avoid making it your go-to learning source. I think a lot of people do it and it really just slows the learning process in a lot of ways and can lead down all sorts of rabbit trails keeping people from learning things correctly.

To jump start your CA education, take a few classes online, or better yet get actual training. You will save a lot of time wondering what to do. I did and it worked. I needed to learn very fast b/c I dumped Softplan and needed to get going or I would have starved to death.

Learning difficulty depends on the house and scope of the project. Small ranch on slab with hips everywhere you'll feel like a hero which is deceiving. The irony is it tends to be the more complex jobs that require 3d.. which is the way I started in Chief a looong time ago. Quit using it due to frustrations and hours stuck. Came back a few months ago and it is much better than before.

I have always felt that one on training is the best. I was fortunate to have Louis Fernandez teach me the program one on one for quite a while ( I was also working for him). This was back in versions 8, 9, and 10. One on one allows you to stop and ask a question at any time. Your mind can only soak up so much information at one training session. one key is practice, practice, practice.

When I first was learning Chief I bought 4 hours of one on one training from Chief. I used that training over about a 2 week period. I was actively working on my first project and generating a lot of questions. I would package those questions and get very specific help on the areas where I was getting hung up. I found this worked quite well. After that I went to this forum for a lot of help.

You will find that if you ask a thoughtful question and provide a plan file and any images that can communicate the question well, you will probably get an answer back on this forum within an hour or two. Giving your question a clear title relating to the question will help you. A title like "Ahhhhhh, Help" is quite unclear. "Poly line won't connect" is clear.

trial, fell in love and bought the program by the end of the day. I have now drawn a dozen plans or so, same type as you listed on your question. It took me from November to now to do this. Of course you have to do your regular work all day and draw evenings and weekends. I love it. But...the time contribution is enormous. Go for it.

Feel free to contact us in the Chief Architect Sales Department. We can provide you with a list of free training resources to help you to get started as quickly as possible. We can also set up a one-on-one online demo of the software. You can contact me directly by email de...@chiefarchitect.com or call 208-292-3400 and ask for Derek.

If you are looking for a 2D drafting package, have a look at Librecad. The price is right for DIY, free. Similar to Autocad, so whatever skill you pick up using this is readly transferable to other packages.

I'd rather not learn Chief Architect because the newer versions are subscription-based and it's a completely unafordable solution for me. I'm not a professional and a 250$/month is just out of the question. It might take me 2-3 years to get the project done.

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