Chief Architect Software is a developer of 3D architectural home design software for builders, interior designers, architects, and

DIY "Do it yourself" ("DIY") is the method of building, modifying, or repairing things by oneself without the direct aid of professionals or certified experts. Academic research has described DIY as behaviors where "individuals use raw and semi ...

home enthusiasts. Chief Architect uses

BIM ''Bim'' is a 1974 Trinidad and Tobago film written by Raoul Pantin and directed by Hugh A. Robertson. It was described by Bruce Paddington as "one of the most important films to be produced in Trinidad and Tobago and... one of the classics of Ca ...

tools to create a 3D model of the structure and automatically generates all of the building systems of the home. For the professional architectural and building market, it publishes the Chief Architect product line. For the consumer DIY market, it publishes the Home Designer product line. Chief Architect Software is located in

Coeur d’Alene, Idaho Coeur d'Alene ( ; french: Cœur d'Alène, lit=Heart of an Awl ) is a city and the county seat of Kootenai County, Idaho, United States. It is the largest city in North Idaho and the principal city of the Coeur d'Alene Metropolitan Statistical ...

, United States. Chief Architect was first released in 1992 as

3D computer graphics software 3D computer graphics, or “3D graphics,” sometimes called CGI, 3D-CGI or three-dimensional computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data (often Cartesian) that is stored in the computer for the ...

product that ran on an early version of

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

Version 3.1. Chief Architect Software has been reported to be easy to use (in comparison to other 3D CAD packages) for 3D home design, and thus provides a valuable tool in the hands of builders, contractors and homeowners who have traditionally lacked the skills to run complex CAD software.

History

Chief Architect

software Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. At the lowest programming level, executable code consists ...

is a

privately held Company A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in the respective listed markets, but rather the company's stock is ...

founded in 1981 in

Palo Alto, CA Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. The city was estab ...

. Initially the Company was named Advanced Relational Technology, Inc. (ART) and developed

relational databases A relational database is a (most commonly digital) database based on the relational model of data, as proposed by E. F. Codd in 1970. A system used to maintain relational databases is a relational database management system (RDBMS). Many relation ...

. The Company's founder, Jack Simpson, a physics PhD from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

, was a native of

and relocated the Company to Coeur d’Alene in the early 1990s. At that time, he changed the business from database software to home design software. In 2005, the name of the Company name was changed to Chief Architect, Inc. 3D Home Cut-Away

Chief Architect software was initially created for home design due to Simpson's frustration in designing by hand. Finding that intuitive residential design software did not exist, Simpson created Chief Architect - a tool to design homes. Chief Architect's first version of this professional 3D CAD home design product line was officially sold as version 2.0. New versions released over the years with key automated building features to help improve the process for residential design. In 1993, the Company licensed a simplified version of the software to

Broderbund Broderbund Software, Inc. (stylized as Brøderbund) was an American maker of video games, educational software, and productivity tools. Broderbund is best known for the 8-bit video game hits ''Choplifter'', ''Lode Runner'', ''Karateka'', and '' ...

for sale in the retail /

market. The Company ended its relationship with Broderbund in 2002 following the release of 3D Home Architect 4.0. In 2003, Chief Architect signed a license agreement with

Meredith Corporation Meredith Corporation was an American media conglomerate based in Des Moines, Iowa, that owned magazines, television stations, websites, and radio stations. Its publications had a readership of more than 120 million and paid circulation of more ...

to license the name Better Homes and Gardens. The Company used Better Homes and Gardens Home Designer as the successor to 3D Home Architect. In 2009, the Company replaced Better Homes and Gardens name with Home Designer. In February 2014, the Company released its first

macOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...

compatible version for the professional design market. This release is engineered in a way that allows users to run a single license on either a Mac or Windows computer and most notably, there is file compatibility when moving a plan between

operating systems An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also inc ...

. In June, 2016 the Company released the Chief Architect 3D Viewer mobile app for

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...

and Android. This app allows users to experience 3D models generated in the Chief Architect desktop software to help visualize the design before construction has begun. The app features a

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), educ ...

experience without use of a headset.

Products

; Professional Home Design software : Chief Architect Premier, Chief Architect Interiors - compatible with PC and Mac ; DIY / Consumer Home Design software : Home Designer Professional, Home Designer Architectural, Home Designer Suite - compatible with PC and Mac ; Mobile App Home Design software : Chief Architect 3D Viewer - compatible with iOS and Android

References

{{Authority control Computer-aided design software Architectural design

History

Products

See also

References