I have always drawn up everything that I build.  Even if a client has a finished plan I will redraw it, this reveals any design flaws and lets me mentally build the house from the ground up.

Years ago I had a large drafting table in my office, and a smaller drafting board that I would take to client’s homes to work on plans. Then in the mid 90’s drafting software became readily available for builders. I started with Chief Architect in the first few revisions and have kept with it ever since. It is a very robust program designed for residential builders. In the drafting days even the side elevations of a building looked flat and didn’t reveal the true appearance of a home. Now with the Chief we can render a photo realistic 3d image and even slowly turn it to simulate a drive by.
Most important is the ability to quickly try different ideas and changes to a plan. Computer drawing is a great “what if” tool. We can save as many different plans as we like, and go back to previous ideas, building towards the perfect plan for each client.

Another great Chief innovation is the client viewer. This is an application the client installs on their home or work computer that displays the plans from my work computer in all the same ways as the mother program. As we discuss plans via phone or in person, I can send different plan files over the internet to the client’s computer. Then they can view the plan in many different ways, 3d from any direction, night time, day time, lights on or off, even remove the roof to look into each room. My customers know what their home will really look like before we settle on a plan.