DIY home design software

[CharlieR]

IXLR8 - We bought our modular home from Westchester Modular in Wingdale NY, an employee owned, ISO 9000 certified company.
Their factory reps/consultants/regional sales people use Chief Architect software with laptops to help customers realize their own house designs or they'll work with their own existing plans.
westchestermodular.com

 

[gocards1177]

Yes I've decided to keep using sketchup since ive used it before. If I can't get it to do what I want I'm going to spring for chief architect.

 

[NorTracNY]

IXLR8 - We bought our modular home from Westchester Modular in Wingdale NY, an employee owned, ISO 9000 certified company.
Their factory reps/consultants/regional sales people use Chief Architect software with laptops to help customers realize their own house designs or they'll work with their own existing plans.
westchestermodular.com

We also went with modular. We drew up the plans in Autocad and the modular place sent them to be drawn for free. I couldn't be happier with the modular building. We were SHOCKED when we saw what they could do. Ours was built be Ritz-Craft in PA.

I do understand about the OP and finding a GOOD modular place. A lot of places that sell manufactured homes also happen to sell modular. We found that these places were use to dealing with poor quality and didn't appeal to us. We went with a place that only delt with modular homes and we didn't feel like we were "upgrading" everything they did. I'm told that the factory difference in price is ~$1500/box between manufactured and modular.

 

[IXLR8]

I have the Punch software, I don't like it and I was going to try the Chief Architect. I notice that they have two brands and several levels, which ones are folks using? The Chief Architect Pro series or the Home Designer series? I see that there are 6 versions within the Home Designer series as well... which version are you using?

TIA

 

[dstig1]

I went top of the line. It was around $2k at the time, but I consider it no different than materials to build the house I am designing. One good thing Chief does is let you trade up with a full credit for the version you have (I think - check the web site to be sure) for both series.

You can also download the demo program for free and try that.

All depends on how serious you are and what you need to do with it.

 

[beppington]

Wow, I just watched the "Overview Video" for Chief Architect Premier, which I had never even heard of - Man that program does everything. Holy cow, I don't see how they can program it to do all that stuff, & keep it all straight!!!

I'll stick to my basic, good old TurboCad, but Chief Architect is very impressive!

 

[Furu]

I use Punch Home Design Architectural Series 3000. There are several varieties of the Punch series but I like my version it is more capable than some others. It does take a bit to learn it though.

 

[IXLR8]

This software will probably be a one time use only situation, designing our retirement home. I have the Punch HD Architectural Series 4000, I have spent hours and hours and hours and hours trying to get it to do what I wanted, unsuccessfully. It is suppose to do all that I want, but I have since read reviews that getting it to do all that it is capable of is very difficult, I agree. I was hoping the Chief Architect would be easier to learn and sort out. I did spend some time on CA's webpage, their upgrade program did interest me, I didn't notice they had a video and downloadable demo software. Time to spend more time researching their products.

 

[dstig1]

There are a lot of quirks to any CAD program, and Chief is no different in that regard. It takes time to learn any of them, but some are inherently more capable than others. Punch was pretty unstable when I tried it (6-8 yrs ago). Few things worked as advertised and anything off the beaten path was a disaster. Even Chief has some of those things when you get into odd structures. They keep improving it, but there is always room to improve...

How simple or complex are you thinking for your place, Jim? That would drive how far you want to go with home designer or Chief. It is serious pro-level software, but you pay for it. Not as bad as AutoCAD or some of the other packages like ArchiCAD but it still isn't cheap.

 

[AverageJoe]

I've used both Punch and Chief Architect.

Punch is a little easier to learn to use, but not as featured as Chief Architect. I bought the lower end of Chief Architect's line after evaluating both.