Chief Architect
3D Architectural Design & Drafting Software

Chief Architect is a fun, powerful, and cost effective professional 3D design solution for students, educators, and schools. Whether it’s residential or light commercial, Chief Architect’s ease of use lets instructors focus more on teaching concepts and less on teaching software. If you’re short on time, Chief Architect also includes a complete curriculum with textbooks and interactive training videos built into the software making it easy to learn and teach your design classes.

– An ideal solution for secondary and post secondary education!

Architectural Design

• Turn concepts into realistic 3D models in minutes – get immediate visual feedback
• 3D models are automatic – to see a view, simply point-and-click the camera
• Over 50 completed sample plans are included to integrate within the curriculum
• Over 40 Interactive How-To Training Videos are built into the Help Menu for independent and/or classroom study
• Easily create Virtual Tours from your designs
• Produce detailed, professional Plan Sets with framing, electrical, plumbing, elevations, cross-sections, 3D overviews and more
• Advanced 3D tools: Raytrace, Glass House,™ Doll House,™ 3D Cross-Section Elevation Slider™
• Design with smart objects that can bump, easily be resized, apply colors and textures to create realistic plans

Automatic & Manual Building Tools

• Quickly drag and arrange walls, windows, doors, and cabinets in 3D and 2D
• Use the powerful built-in Automatic and Manual Building tools including: dimensions, walls, windows, foundations, framing, stairs, decks, CAD, electrical and more
• Automatic and manual roofs: hip, gable, curved and more
• Design custom ceilings – vaults, trays, coffered and barrels
• Materials Lists and cost estimating – Chief Architect maintains a complete model as you design and automatically generates a Materials List in spreadsheet format
• Material Schedules: windows, doors, cabinets, electrical, fixtures and furniture

Interior and Exterior Design Tools

• The House Wizard™ provides a quick way to layout rooms – great for initial design ideas
• Material Painter^® – choose colors, materials and textures for all your design elements – siding, flooring, countertops and more
• Color Chooser™ – easily create custom colors from photos
• Floor and space planning is easy with the Space Planner and House Wizard™
• Design and decorate by room – assign wall coverings, custom moldings, flooring materials, ceiling accents and more
• Develop lighting plans using fixtures and independent editable light sources
• Choose from over 10,000 Library objects – Download Free manufacturer Library objects or import your own!

Powerful Design, Drafting & CAD Tools

• A complete CAD tool set, with Visual CAD Snaps™
• Use the Layer Sets to turn on and off layers to create the exact view for Plan Sets and construction documents
• Choose from a Library of over 1,000 CAD Details – use as-is, customize or import new details
• Easily design custom cabinets with the Cabinet Designer™ tools – Over 1,000 styles of cabinets including a built-in Library
• Design realistic kitchens and baths in 3D, dropping in parametric cabinets, changing styles, adding custom countertops, flooring and more
• Group select and block like items and save to the Library for future reuse – a great time saving feature
• Create Symbol Wizard™ imports DWG/DXF/3DS/OBJ files

Decks & Landscaping

• Plant Encyclopedia and Plant Chooser™ – choose from over 2,000 landscaping plants with access to all the plant data
• Choose from pre-arranged flower and garden beds. Design your own custom landscapes
• Generate landscapes, terrain and Site Plans for all the outdoor related design projects
• Import terrain data or input from a GPS to build specific terrain
• Use Hill and Valley tools or the Pathway tools for outdoor design
• Integrated road and sidewalk tools for site planning
• Design custom decks and patios. Use the automated deck framing tool to quickly complete the design