Design Software Features
"Clients love to understand the finished product before a hammer is lifted. Chief Architect makes me the hero."
–Adam Gibson, CKD
AG Design
3D Kitchen & Bath Design Software
3D Models with Chief Architect
Powerful Design & Building Tools
Automated & Manual Building Tools
Interior & Exterior Design Tools
Cabinet Designer™ Tools
Chief Architect is a great tool for the Design professional to help the client see the project before construction begins. Often the most challenging issue with designing is communicating your ideas and helping the client visualize the finished project. Chief Architect enables the Designer to communicate and illustrate a 3D model of the project reducing frustrations, unknowns and uncertainties. Realistically design every detail of interiors and exteriors with customized cabinets, fixtures, furnishings and accessories – assign materials, colors, textures and more. Improve client communication with photo-realistic renderings, quickly incorporate changes and design for your client’s needs with Chief Architect software.
Design & Visualize With Your Client
- Help your clients visualize your ideas using realistic Render and Raytrace views – get immediate visual feedback from clients
- 3D models are automatic – to see a view, simply point-and-click the camera. Save any view as an image to email or print
- Advanced 3D tools: Raytrace, Glass House™, Doll House™, 3D Cross-Section Elevation Slider™ and many more
- Design in both 3D and 2D simultaneously using a split screen view
- Choose from over 10,000 Library objects to make your designs realistic and match the client’s criteria – easily import name-brand objects
- Develop lighting plans using fixtures and independent editable light sources
Interior & Exterior Design Tools
- The House Wizard™ provides a quick way to layout rooms – great for client consultations
- Material Painter® – point-and-click colors, materials and textures for all your design elements – roofs, siding, flooring, countertops and more
- Color Chooser™ – easily create custom colors from photos
- Use the Final View™ or the Raytrace View™ for photo realistic images – email, print or place on your website
- Generate landscapes, terrain and Site Plans for all your outdoor related design projects
- Floor and space planning is easy with resizable furniture – create any size or import new objects
- Design and decorate by room – assign wall coverings, custom moldings, flooring materials, ceiling accents and more
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 to make the most of your design including: 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
Powerful Design & CAD Tools
- A complete CAD tool set, including the Visual CAD Snaps™ to highly customize designs
- Choose from a Library of over 1,000 CAD Details – customize or import new Details
- Easily design custom cabinets with the Cabinet Designer™ tools – over 1,000 styles of cabinets including a built-in Cabinet Library
- Design realistic kitchens and baths in 3D, dropping in parametric cabinets, changing styles, adding custom countertops, flooring and more
- Group select and block similar items and save to the Library for future reuse – a great time saving feature
- Use the Create Symbol Wizard™ to import DWG/DXF/3DS/OBJ files
Plan Sets & Construction Documents
Create & Import Library Symbols
- Use the Layout tool to produce detailed, professional Plan Sets with framing, elevations, cross-sections, 3D overviews and more
- Layouts are synchronized with your design – change the floor plan, it automatically updates in the Layout
- Use the Layer Sets to turn on and off layers to create the exact view for your Plan Sets
- Control line weights and styles, set scale, select built-in architectural fonts, choose colors and more
- Print anywhere – desktop, large format printers or use the built-in PDF print driver