OK...this is for a dear friend of mine who has been furnishing small projects over the past 5+ years. She works with contractors who are building senior assisted living complexes to furnish and decorate the "common areas" including the office furnishings. She is embarking on her largest project EVER...a 3-story, 300+ unit assisted living complex where she will be furnishing and decorating the common areas, office space, guest areas, game room, hallways, etc. She will not...NOT...be responsible for any kind of medical furnishings such as hospital beds, medicine cabinets, etc., or for furnishing the individual units, as the tenant would bring their own furnishings.

So with that background, she came to me asking advice about any kind of Interior Design Software I might know about. Not being in the biz and having been out of IT for over 13 years, I just don't have any good guidance. She's seen a package called "Chief Architect" (that's what the builders are using), but she would essentially have to manually re-build the entire plans of the structure one line at a time before adding any furnishings, colors, etc. to the plans.

So what she would like to get (if there is such a thing) is a user-friendly software package that will import the building plans/HCAD drawings from the file she has in Dropbox (PDF, I presume) and then add her representations for paint colors, textiles, area rugs, ceiling tiles, window treatments, art, furniture, etc., etc. to the imported drawings. That would keep her from having to recreate the wheel in terms of the buildings plans themselves.

As always, any and all advice is appreciated. Thanks!!

My daughter is an Interior Designer who has done a lot of hospital / clinic design work, including the new Univ of IA Children's Hospital. She, and most pros (including architects), use Revit. Priced in the 4 figures though. She has never heard of "Chief Architect" so she didn't know if Revit would import files from that program. She said Google Sketch Up is a pretty good program with a lot of capabilities, but likely won't import files.

I know nothing about the subject......But a quick search turned up some Revit alternatives.
https://alternativeto.net/software/autodesk-revit/

YIKES!! That's a little pricey! But thanks for the heads up on Rivet. I'm thinking that package would be a little overkill for what my friend's needs are. I was looking at some programs yesterday that were $100-ish...of course you get what you pay for, right?

Thanks again...

quote:

Chief Architect

Good stuff, it is what I use.
Like any program of this type it requires a learning curve but not bad.
There are several levels of this program that can suit many needs or as your need grows.
I use the Professional version and even that is overblown for my needs for general home remodeling.
Recommend it.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Does the pro version of CA have a feature that would allow my friend to import an existing CAD drawing into the program and then she could start loading/adding her designs, furniture layouts, colors, etc. into that file/drawing?