Chief Architect Premier X15, a professional home design software, is revolutionizing the architectural industry with its innovative features and user-friendly interface. This article aims to provide an in-depth review of this powerful tool and its latest features that make it stand out among its competitors.

1. Professional Home – Design Chief Architect Premier X15 –

Chief Architect Premier X15 is known for its comprehensive approach to residential and light commercial design. It enables users to easily draw walls, place intelligent architectural objects like doors and windows, and generate a 3D model. Its in-built powerful building tools assist in producing construction documents including site plans, framing plans, section details, and elevations.

The software seamlessly creates a materials list as you design, ensuring you have an accurate estimate of the cost and quantities of the required goods and services for your project.

2. Productivity Features – Design Chief Architect Premier X15 –

The software is packed with numerous productivity features that enhance the overall user experience. It allows users to create custom patterns, replace fonts, customize toolbars, and much more. Its Library Browser is redesigned with various filter tools based on tags, object properties, and types. Users can even save 3D solids to the Library Browser for future use.

Chief Architect X15 also provides a unified symbol specification where controls to manage imported 3D symbol data and general specification options are accessible in a single dialog box.

3. Design Features – Design Chief Architect Premier X15 –

Chief Architect X15 comes with a plethora of design features that cater to the needs of architects and designers. It offers an edit tool to quickly change a room’s ceiling type from flat to vaulted, display cabinet end panels in the plan view, and even control the display of cabinet pilasters from the Cabinet General Defaults dialog.

The software also allows users to specify horizontal and vertical offsets for rails on a railing, similar to the offset controls for moldings. Furthermore, it provides users with the ability to convert cabinet moldings to molding polylines and attach electrical objects to cabinet partitions.

4. Building Features – Design Chief Architect Premier X15 –

This software introduces new building features like automatic trusses, end truss control, skylight sizing controls, and more. It also provides users with the option to extend wall layers over the slab and control U-shaped wall framing. The software’s ‘Suppress Molding Behind Objects’ setting in the object’s specification dialog allows users to remove automatic room moldings behind individual fixtures and furniture objects.

5. Drafting Features

The software provides a dynamic Materials List that updates as the design changes, reflecting product quantities, prices, and general costs. It allows users to sort schedules by column, control the format display of numbers listed in schedules, and even include a column that lists the header height in window schedules.

6. Presentation Features

Chief Architect X15 offers several presentation features, including settings for the sun, moon, horizon, and their impact on a scene’s lighting from within the camera’s specification dialog. The software also provides the ‘Depth Cueing’ feature that assigns a ‘foggy’ or shaded effect to areas that are a specific distance from the camera.

7. CAD Tools for Precision

The software features a powerful CAD engine that includes tools for lines, polylines, splines, arcs, and solids to produce custom entry columns, deck ledger details, and more. It also supports a CAD-to-Walls tool that imports AutoCAD® files and provides mapping for layers for quick 3D visualization.

8. Construction Drawings

Chief Architect X15 helps produce professional residential construction drawings for permits, subcontractors, and clients. All views in your project, be it floor plans, framing, electrical, section details, or elevations, have a user-defined scale and link to a specific drawing that updates as your design changes.

9. Interior Design & Decorating

The software uses smart design objects, such as cabinets, to quickly and easily create various styles, shapes, and sizes. It also partners with specific manufacturers so that styles, finishes, and other product-specific design details can be accurately drawn and rendered.

10. 3D Design & Modeling Tools

Chief Architect X15 supports full 3D editing and provides both photo-realistic and artistic styles such as line drawing and watercolor. Its extensive 3D Library of architectural objects and tools makes it easy to detail and accessorize designs.

11. Site Planning & Landscaping

The software allows users to create site plans for single or multiple lots. Its terrain modeling tools can be used for a 2D site plan or viewed in 3D to show the specific topography. Users can also create a variety of roof styles, stairs, framing, and more with its automatic and manual building tools.