I came across Chief Architect Software when I was looking around for a program to design blueprints. I tried several free programs online and some trial versions of others. Nothing seems to give me exactly what I was looking for. When I found Chief Architect I was thrilled. I played around with the trial version and watched many of the starting videos they have available. The blueprint design window in itself is great, I was able to switch views, create new ones for things like water and electrical.
Being a visual person though the option to have a blueprint layout and also go into a 3-D view, Framing View and Cross-section views to get a real-world look at what I was creating, and a place to make visual adjustments that fit my style and liking. There are also many landscaping features that I have not experimented within their full capacity, yet! I will be looking more into those as I continue learning about the programs and diving in deeper.
The program was a little hard to understand and a little intimidating when I opened it up for the first time, but there were many videos, help tutorials, and forums to help me figure out the basics, and some of the more complex questions I ran into. The only down-side of the program is the cost, and it is not really beginner type software. The similar version Chief Home Designer is around $400 and the Chief Architect Premier is a whopping $2,795. But, if you are like me, you want to have control over what your future home will look like and Do-it-yourself. Though I am by no means an Architect, I do have some ideas of what I want, and how I want them to look so getting the experience of learning and designing that idea and being able to visually see the layout and blueprints is rewarding.
In this section of videos, I will be using the Chief Architect to work out some design ideas, and hopefully give anyone out there some pointers that are looking to take a similar path in designing their homestead home. I am in no way an authoritative resource for the Chief Architect Programs, and this series will be a learn as I go, but if you have questions I am sure I can help to the best of my ability.
