(continued)

Using a digital camera, Wike photographed the ocean from his clients' favorite viewpoints. He inserted the new photos into Chief's background files directory, generated a perspective view from the same viewpoints in the proposed design file, and very quickly had "photographs" of the clients' views looking through the new windows.

"It was immediately clear to them," Wike says, "that the new decks would work and that their view down the coast would be unimpeded. They chuckled in astonishment at how quickly Chief Architect could show them what they wanted."

Such experiences dramatically improve client confidence, Wike notes. It's also helpful that he can use the software to develop preliminary cost estimates. By setting parameters for material types (structural and finish materials, insulation thickness, cabinet styles, etc.) he gets tabular material takeoffs automatically as he designs.

He then gives that information to a builder who adds labor costs. "Doing these preliminary estimates at an early stage," says Wike, "helps guarantee that the job will get built."

Chief Features

With an easy-to-use interface, Chief Architect supports full 3D modeling, using libraries of parametric components such as windows, doors, cabinets, furnishings, and so on. Library components can be customized with the separate Symbol Development Utility.

Details and materials for these components are incorporated in the bill of materials, schedule-creation, and rendering capabilities. Stairs and roofs can be constructed automatically with optional manual tweaking.

The software's new terrain tools make design on sloping sites easier than in the past. Objects of specified thickness can be defined in plan by combinations of lines and spline curves. The software, not the designer, handles the chore of vertically aligning the resulting roads or paths with the existing landforms.

New in the current version of the software are OpenGL-based rendering capabilities, providing quick visualization and animated walkthroughs. Import and export capabilities enable Chief users to work interchangeably with external renderers and drafting systems.

Preliminary Massing

One of Chief's newest features is the "House Wizard," a space diagramming tool. Through a series of dialog boxes, the user specifies all the room types desired in a new design. Chief Architect then creates rectangular shapes to represent the rooms in plan.

The shapes' initial sizes are arbitrary, but as the user stretches their sides to adjust size and shape, the software reports back on the size of the room being created. When the shapes are properly sized, the user arranges them in a spatially logical way. Multiple floors can be developed similarly, with Chief's "ghosting" function used to reference and align walls between floors.

Then the software takes over to create interior doors between spaces and exterior walls to enclose the whole. The user specifies roof type and overhang, and the software automatically creates a workable roof form.

Although this form-making is extremely preliminary, Wike believes it provides a fast and effective way of creating several massing alternatives to show clients and to study possible space arrangements and roof forms.

One drawback, he says, is that until the initial shapes have been converted to CAD wall objects, the designer is limited to squares and rectangles, and they can't be rotated. But after moving from the House Wizard into the normal CAD mode, the designer can make any such modifications, with circular or angled walls, for instance, and tweak the roofs to conform.

Since discovering Chief Architect in 1997, Wike has continued to use AutoCAD for drafting construction documents (CDs) because of his large accumulation of details. However, he says that the latest version of Chief is so much stronger in this area that he will probably cease exporting 2D data and remain within Chief through the CD phase.

Although Wike concedes that no software can automatically create complete 2D drawings from 3D models, he feels that a worthy goal of architectural software developers is to allow users to perform all their work within a single software environment. Chief Architect, he believes, has just come one step closer.

B.J. Novitski is managing editor for ArchitectureWeek and author of Rendering Real and Imagined Buildings.

A version of this article originally appeared in the June, 2001 issue of CADALYST.

Digital photography viewed within a Chief Architect rendering shows clients exactly what their coastal views will look like. Image: Michael Wike, AIA A new terrain modeling feature enables architects to easily place roads on sloping sites. Image: Michael Wike, AIA An aerial view of a house without its roof is an ideal way to show a floor plan to many clients. Image: Michael Wike, AIA Chief Architect features "intelligent objects" for common home furnishings. Image: Michael Wike, AIA The existing plan of a Sea Ranch house by Wagstaff & McDonald, before remodeling by Wike. Image: Michael Wike, AIA Lower floor plan of a house at Sea Ranch. Image: Michael Wike, AIA West elevation. Image: Michael Wike, AIA South elevation of a house at Sea Ranch. Image: Michael Wike, AIA   Click on thumbnail images to view full-size pictures.