By Dani Walker

Chief Architect recently partnered with Wayfair Trade to produce a catalog of over 500 free models for our 3D Library.

This catalog includes a collection of lighting, furniture, and home décor models of real-life products from Wayfair.com. Chief Architect and Home Designer customers are able to create free, shoppable renderings for clients of any style. With more than 10,000 suppliers and eight million products, Wayfair is one of the largest online shopping destinations for all home décor and furnishings. (more…)

Richard placed 2nd in the Chief Architect Residential Home Design Contest. He has always had an eye for creative design and is now working with Norris Architects to dive deeper into architecture.

“I lived my former years with the notion I wanted to go into Real Estate. As a child, I had a burning passion for building with Legos, crafting creative objects from obscure materials and creating abstract, yet understandable forms through any medium I could get my hands on. Essentially, my passion for architecture, houses, the glitz, the glam, the overall peculiar curiosity for a betterment of design of the sort had always been a prevalent part of my upbringing. The moment I turned 18, I obtained my real estate licensure in Arizona and soon discovered that I had an insatiable desire for more; I started working alongside my father, who is an architect, learning the complex jargon and every bit of minutia involved in the trade. I still love what I do to this date despite the constant desire to discover and master everything in the realm of architecture. (more…)

By Adrean Stephenson

Downloadable Sample Plans are a great resource for experiencing the features in Chief Architect’s software hands-on and in real-time. A variety of plans are available on both the Chief Architect and Home Designer websites. 

Now that the latest Home Designer product line has been released, we are excited to offer another set of great tools for DIY designers and Home Enthusiasts to showcase their talents. There are many new features offered in the product line that you can view here; however, today I want to share our process for creating new downloadable sample plans and shine a light on the sources of our inspiration.

With each new release of software, Chief Architect’s Art Department develops a new look for the products’ packaging. For the Home Designer product line, separately featuring 5 unique packages is no small feat! The goal this year was to utilize a photograph of a residential design that is well suited to the functionality available in the product. If you click on the images below, you can see that we create our version of the scene using the software and then display the rendering as an inlay on the product cover.

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Chris placed 3rd the Chief Architect Residential Home Design Contest in April. He has been designing since the 80’s and has moved from residential design to the commercial marketplace.

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William of HearthStone Homes placed 1st in the Chief Architect Residential Home Design Contest in April! He fell in love with log home design back at the very beginning.

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By Adrean Stephenson

Custom furniture pieces like this coffee table are easy to create with Chief Architect’s modeling tools.

Additionally, 3D models from other sites can be imported into the program to create an endless selection of furnishings, accessories, and fixtures for your design projects. (more…)

Justin Link placed 2^nd in the Chief Architect Remodel/Additions Design Contest in March. He is from Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada, and owns a small drywall business called LX Drywall.

“My wife, Helen, and I are really just home renovation enthusiasts, but I’ve had an interest in design and remodel as far back as I can remember. As a young child, I remember looking through Sears catalogs not at toys, but at the furniture and home décor imagining what my home would look like when I became a “grown-up.” (more…)

Tara Pike placed 1^st in the Chief Architect Remodel/Additions Design Contest in March.

“Ever since I was young, when I saw an abandoned house that was in disrepair, I’d automatically start thinking about what I’d do to make it beautiful again, if it were mine. It became a joke between my father and me. If we were out in the car driving somewhere, and we happened to pass an old shack, often in unison and with excitement we’d say, “there’s a fixer-upper!” Eventually, my husband continued on with the humor. However, since he was very handy in all areas of home construction, it soon became more of a goal of ours than a silly joke. (more…)

Chief Architect was an exhibitor at the 2017 JLC Live in Providence last week and we have Scott Harris, our VP of Sales and Marketing, here to fill us in about this event.

1. What can you tell us about this show?

The Chief Architect booth was located on the main exhibitor floor, Booth #7.  We had a large 10×20 booth and the CA staff was very busy throughout the show answering questions and providing informational presentations and software demonstrations for show attendees.  Many of the presentations were centered around the new features in X9 which was officially released Feb 15.  There was a lot of great feedback on the new X9 version including a significant buzz about the new Virtual Reality features for 360 Image & 3D Viewer export and the new enhancements for supporting touch screens with gestures. (more…)

Christopher won 1st in the Chief Architect Remodel/ Addition Design Contest in March.

“I am a Residential Designer in the San Francisco Bay Area designing custom homes and remodels. I have been designing homes since I was a High School student back in the 80’s in Austin Texas drafting by hand.  I then moved to the San Francisco Bay Area and worked for a kitchen designer and then for a structural engineering company.  I later needed a change and began my lengthy career as a designer when I started working with my good friend in Palo Alto designing homes by hand drafting then later turning to AutoCAD. (more…)