All
This link takes you to HGTV’s 3D Home design online site.
http://www.plan3d.com/pages/homeFeatures.aspx
For $36/ year you can access the site to do HO level design software.
Currently I am using Home Design 6.0 by Chief Architect. It’s about 4 years old.
Costs $69 or $89 to update to 8.0 (can’t remember exactly) or $495 for the pro version.
Anyway, the HGTV stuff looked similar to Home Design 6.0, except updated.
Anybody have any experience with this? If it is done by CA then it might be cheaper to just buy the license to the site once a year, rather than buy the software and let it get old on you.
Thanks for the input.
Rich
Replies
"Costs $69 or $89 to update to 8.0 (can't remember exactly) or $495 for the pro version. "
The $495 version is not the PRO pro version.
I don't know if it still there are not. But there used to comparison chart on BHG Home Design web site that compare that version to the several diferent $50-100 versions.
And on the CA website that compared the $495 version to the CA versions.
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A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
Bill
The $495 version is not the PRO pro version.
Yeah, I know Chief Architect is alot more than $495
Rich
I was looking at it online and under the FAQ's did see that it is a completely different company fro CA.One thing that I was looking for, but did not find, and then my browser crashed is to see if the file formats where compatable with anything else..
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A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
bill
Company name was something like Nova.
It's nice to be able to talk with CA people.
Rich
I made the mistake of buying Home Designer Pro V 7 a couple of years ago (I think it was about $459 from Amazon). I have found it to be a total waste for me. I went back to using DesignCAD ($29.99, Amazon). I found doing detail drawings of a concrete based "green roof" to be very difficult in Home Designer Pro. I couldn't see that it was really any better than the $69 version. DesignCAD reportedly has some issues in 3D mode, but it has worked well for me in 2D. Hope to soon find time to come up to speed in Sketch Up, although I have found that Sketch Up is proving more difficult for me to use than learning DesignCAD was.
Casey
Interesting
My old version is pretty easy to work with in 3D.
But it won't (or i can't figure out how to) draw a countertop overhang. 36" island top over 24" cabinets.
I can't e-mail out plans. I can convert to jpeg to picasa then e-mail them, but i just figured out how to do that.
Green roof, I'll be all the programs go tilt on that one. LOL
Rich
I found SU to be hard to master too. I'm jealous of guys like Gene who can whip out some very excellent work. I finally bought Chief based on advice in here and my own research and am glad I did. I've more than paid for it with design and construction docs work but the most important thing is that I get a lot of my stuff done when I want it and I'm not held hostage by the architects. Heres one story that save me 1500 on a simple design contract. We sold a package for 3500 and my gal gave the work away without talking to me to our arch. She didn't negotiate a fixed fee and I was caught in the middle. So, before I could stop the train, he whipped out a set of preliminary drawings and of course, I needed to stop this train before our costs soared beyond what we could pay. So, I asked him for a fixed fee to finish the plans. These were a very simple addition onto a very simple house. He priced his services at $2500 which was disturbing to me because I felt that he was taking advantage of my gal and pricing the work on a scale that we never agreed with. So, in my complaint about his gouging, I asked him if he could give us some wholesale pricing, as we had always agreed he would. I also explained that I felt he should price the job based on actual time worked rather than some sf pricing factor becasue of the ease of the job. To illustrate how easy the design and plans were, I whipped out a preliminary set of plans with my Chief program duplicating his work, which really didn't include any design effort. I timed myself with the effort and showed him that I had duplicated his work in less than one hour! Long story short, he dropped his price from $2500 to $1000 and finished the docs. I don't mind a guy making $100 per hour but I object to $500 or more, even though that is my goal. He tried to get it...and I admire him for trying but I was going to cut that gravy train short! In that one instance, Chief saved me $1500!
In that one instance, Chief saved me $1500!
Run that by me once more, how is it that CA saved you 1500.00?
Without Chief, I couldn't have leveraged the Architect to reduce his price from $2500 to 1000. I did that by showing him that I had the capability of finishing off what he had started with a quick set of preliminary plans with Chief. Paying him the $1000 was still more than I liked but it was a fair price based on his actual hours into it.
1k seems pretty cheap for addition drawings.
It took me one hour to draw the simple rectangle house with a simple rectangle addition off the back? Another couple hours (because I'm slow with the program) and I'd have everything I needed for the permits. It was pretty cheap for the drawings but it still represented a fair hourly rate for his services. When we first discussed working together on a regular basis, he told me that he would bill at x per sqft. The first job, was small sq ft and that wouldn't have been fair. We decided on a fixed fee. We also agreed on an hourly rate for some things. When this job slipped by me and he got it, he tried to ignore the sqft rate and just attach a fixed fee without negotiating it with me. He was backdooring the deal and he knew it. He had my email and phone and shoulda worked it out with me, mano mano. When I figgured out I was going to have to fire him, I decided to go the other route. I whipped out a duplicate of his efforts in a very short time. I think it was 45 minute and laid out why I thought I was being overcharged. At the rate he was charging me, I'd have to spend $500 for the rendering that I'm posting. I whipped that up in three minutes LOL.
I wouldn't call yourself slow, one hour to draw and create the rendering is good time, even for someone more "experienced". Even 1 day on the addition drawing and you are well on your way to a permit set of drawings. I think an hourly figure would probably work best on small jobs such as that. Usually around here I would need the min. for permits: Site plan, foundation, floor, elevations, building section and wall detail. Also need to calc and spec all structural which can add alittle time. Depending on the municipality some require more info on the drawings than others.
>I found SU to be hard to master too.<
I bet you had a hard time learning Pencil v2.0 too. :)
You really ought to get the basics down on SU, it' s really a good tool to use for creating 3d symbols to import to Chief to fill in where it lacks (like chimneys).
Jim,I would agree that SU is an excellent tool to supplement other tools.http://www.josephfusco.org
http://www.constructionforumsonline.com
I know you and John are right but what John doen't know is that I don't even know what to do with sybols LOL! I don't have a clue!I did do a lot better with SU after I learned a bit about CA. I've "built" some tools that are heading for a patent app.
Jim,That's good.You know most of this stuff is just making the time to play around with it. Sometimes a good book or video can really make the difference.http://www.josephfusco.org
http://www.constructionforumsonline.com
I actually bought a SU book but I couldn't make sense out of it. I think the versions were different. The truth is that I'm not that skilled with softwares and computers and I think I need to get some ADHD meds.
I agree....maybe my memory isn't that good...that must be what it is. I have two SU books...one with a CD even.
Too many icons for me to remember. I just want plug and play but that'll cost us!! By the time I learn SU I could build an entire neighborhood.
Was on the Chief A site last night and was watching the video's. They sure make it look easy but who's got 2 grand to spend on it? I shoulda bought it years ago when i had the dough.
http://WWW.CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
http://www.ramdass.org
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muhvpNuVN4Y
>Too many icons for me to remember<
Skip the icons (I don't know 1/2 of them) and learn the keyboard shortcuts. If they're not what you'd think they should be change them to match how your brain interprets it.
The basic keyboard shortcuts in SU are found on the Quick Reference Card under the Help button. To add or modify the KB shortcuts go [[window][Preferences] then select Shortcuts. Adapt them to you instead of you to them.
yeh...I've seen them. OK...my next try I'll swing that way. I need to print out a card to have right next to me too. A sort of cheat sheet.
Thanks dude
http://WWW.CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
http://www.ramdass.org
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muhvpNuVN4Y
>I need to print out a card to have right next to me too. <
that's the way to do it.
Use the Force, Andy. Use the Force.
>I don't even know what to do with sybols LOL!<
Theyre' the big metal shiny things that that the guy in the band smashes together.
or
3d Symbols in Chief is any shape it can't make.