Rand,
Thank you for your comments. You make very good points about Chief Architect being a BIM type software. And it does integrate schedules, material lists and cost estimating fairly well. I frankly do not use those features on most smaller scale projects. Mainly I use the 3D tools to show clients design options during schematic phases which it does very well. Once we settle on a design the same 3D model is then used to create the 2d construction documents. So the software suits my current needs very well. When I say it is not BIM...what it is lacking is full model integration with engineering disciplines. i.e. I cannot give a Chief model to a mechanical engineer for integration of their 3D components and I probably could not hand off this model to a contractor and have them extract info to build from. I have no need at this point to do that because the clientele and contractors that I work with are not requiring that level of drawings or "building model". And yes you can export chief to .dwg and .dxf formats. I have done this on occasion but the drawings have to be "cleaned up" some. For my type of practice (Residential and Light Commercial) I do highly recommend this software and have had good success with it.
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Michael Dolce AIA
Owner / Architect
Michael P. Dolce, AIA Architect
Forest Hill MD
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