andrewt

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  1. I realize that's probably a loaded question, so let me give a little background. I've been using SketchUp Pro and LayOut to design a house we're getting ready to build. SketchUp has gone totally wonky on all 3 of my machines, and the file I was nearly finished with now appears to be unusable. I've got the design of the house basically complete (including a partial set of construction docs produced and printed from LayOut), but I really need to produce an actual complete set of working construction docs for HOA approval, building permits, and construction. I'm beginning to think that rather than continue monkeying around with SketchUp, I might ought to break down and buy a purpose-made piece of software to complete the project. I've downloaded and played with the trial version of 2015 Pro, and it seems like it will probably do the trick after I learn to use it correctly. However, back when I first started this project, I purchased a copy of Home Designer Architectural 2014 (not Pro) and later found that it wouldn't produce anything larger than 11x17 docs - which is not good enough for construction documents. Even my HOA requires 24x36 docs. I could print to PDF at 11x17 and then print on paper at 200%, but that seemed like quite a workaround. I ended up returning the product for a refund. All of which brings me to my main question - is the 2015 Pro version suitable for creating real live large-format construction documents? Are there any caveats to be aware of? How does it compare to one of the "regular" versions of Chief Architect (either Lite or Pro)? I don't want to spend the money on Chief, but I also don't want to waste money on HDP2015 if it won't do what I need it to. Thanks in advance for your input.