private industry computer software headquarters coeur d alene idaho u.s. products chief architect chiefarchitect.com diy home designer homedesignersoftware.com website chiefarchitect.com chief architect software is computer aided design software cad for the home building industry created by chief architect software a software developer in coeur d alene idaho united states . chief architect software is 3d architectural design products for the professional home design industry and the diy home design markets . 1 chief architect is a benchmark product for bim building information modeling as it applies to residential construction . 2 released in 1992 chief architect version 2 was a 3d computer graphics software product that ran on an early version of microsoft windows version 3.1 . 3 4 chief architect software enables the novice computer user to utilize technology to quickly and easily visualize a design in both 2d and 3d rendering environments . this has put a 3d home design tool in the hands of builders contractors and homeowners who have traditionally lacked the skills to run complex cad software . 5 contents 1 history 2 products 3 see also 4 references history edit chief architect software is a privately held company founded in 1981 6 in palo alto ca . initially the company was named advanced relational technology inc. art and developed relational databases . the company s founder jack simpson a physics phd from stanford university was a native of coeur d alene idaho and relocated the company to coeur d alene in the late 90 s. at that time he changed the business from database software to home design software . around 2003 the name of the company name was changed to chief architect inc. chief architect software was initially created for home design due to simpson s frustration in designing by hand . 6 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 . 7 in 1993 the company licensed a simplified version of the software to broderbund for sale in the retail diy market . the company ended its relationship with broderbund in 2002 following the release of 3d home architect 4.0 . 1 in 2003 chief architect signed a license agreement with meredith corporation to license the name better homes and gardens . 8 the company used better homes and gardens home designer as the successor to 3d home architect . finally in 2009 the company replaced better homes and gardens name with chief architect home designer . in 2013 the company released its first mobile app room planner for the ipad market . 9 subsequent room planner releases have added additional features and functionality including the ability to import room planner files into select chief architect products . in february 2014 the company released its first macos 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 notably there is file compatibility when moving a plan between operating systems . 10 products edit professional home design software chief architect premier chief architect interiors chief architect lite chief architect viewer diy consumer home design software home designer professional home designer architectural home designer suite home designer essentials home designer interiors home designer landscape & deck mobile app home design software room planner see also edit comparison of cad editors for cae references edit a b about chief architect software . chief architect inc. retrieved 11 may 2012 . bim goes residential . cadalyst . july 1 2008 . retrieved february 15 2012 . a history of windows . microsoft . retrieved february 22 2012 . innovation and design in readington middle school . nj.com . feb 9 2012 . retrieved february 17 2012 . chief architect 9.5 makes 3 d cad easy . builder magazine . january 2004 . retrieved february 22 2012 . a b butler joe december 2006 . software puts the home design process in everyone s hands . the press . check date values in access date help ; access date requires url help chief architect 9.5 fills niche . cadalyst . april 1 2004 . retrieved november 27 2011 . rafter dan 8 january 2005 . clicking through the big picture . the washington post . access date requires url help itunes store software . apple inc. retrieved january 23 2014 . chief architect introduces mac compatible x6 software . builder . december 8 2013 . retrieved february 23 2014 . retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title chief architect software & oldid 744221186 categories computer aided design softwarearchitectural designhidden categories cs1 errors datespages using citations with accessdate and no urlpages using infobox company with unsupported parameters navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 13 october 2016 at 21 33 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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