plain & simple...SketchUp. Your client can download the viewer for free and check out their future home, or remodel, when they want to and show it off to their peeps.

Honestly, I've found that clients are happy to see any model, even the hand-crafted ones.

I would second Sketchup as a great residential software package.

I've used AutoCAD, Vectorworks, and a friend swears by ArchiCAD. Haven't used Revit or Chief Architect...I find the object based programs, such as ArchiCAD and Vectorworks more user friendly for small projects than AutoCAD.

Thanks for the response. I thought Sketchup was more of a modeling program like Viz. It's not really something used for construction drawings, is it?

We use ArchiCAD & Sketchup
& send the clients Sketchup Viewer

Sketchup is good for conceptual work, and it can be extremely accurate too, so it can set up linework for documentation.

On a very small project, you could use Sketchup + hand drawn CDs or Sketchup + ArchiCAD....

I do like ArchiCad - the two selling points I find you can do a 3D model AND 2D drawings in one package, and secondly I found it more intuitive and scalable - information-intensity wise - than Revit. I did some really nice work in ArchiCAD at my last job, from tiny residential additions to a Inner City Gymnasium.

I've been using Chief Architect for about 3 years now. If your doing residential this program is made for it. User friendly and so much faster. (my exp. with AutoCAD before Chief)

ArchiCad is my choice. They have a special 'residential' version that is amazing. While you are building the 3D model, you are simultaneously producing the 2D working drawings, filling in all of your schedules and tracking all of you materials. Pretty cool...

olderthandirt/deebeezee: doesn't Chief Architect do all that too?

We've considered Chief Architect, but my partner is resistant to change.

But I'm looking to get new software next year, so I'm curious to ehar mroe responses on this topic. Anyone else?

Chief seems more "contractor" oriented, i.e. may not be a good tool if you are getting into light commercial, revit has been working good for us in both the (commercial), light commercial, and residential (most of the residential work we do is greater in scope than the light commercial). ArchiCad is has solid reports from those that have been using it...

we just use sketchup, autocad, and rhino. there's a guy we occasionally hire to create photo-realistic renderings for us, but this happens once every few years.

yeah chief generates a 3d model while drawing in 2d. click of a button you have 3d and one more click you have a rendering.

for work of residential scale (when i was doing it) i found it much easier to generate models in sketchup and then cut bait and generate separate documents in autocad. i didn't want to be married to the model and i didn't want to have to 'build' every little change.

I'm now using Chief Architect and pretty happy with it. It has some similarities to ArchiCAD, but AC seemed to have more depth.
My major complaint about Chief is the name. (Maybe the only software with a worse name is PowerCAD.)

I don't mind the name. It makes me feel powerful. Don't question the chief.

sk'up is sweet, but I would imagine that if someone wanted a 3d based software vectorworks would be the way to go.

Just had a seminar on the latest Vectorworks 2008 and the 3D component is getting better and better, not super sophiticated but for a small scale office with smallish projects its seems to be very suitable. We are just getting into a bit more and don't see any fatal flaws.

i agree. i like to build rough physical model if necessary and after taking pictures drop it in photoshop to give a little face if necessary for a presentation. i want to learn sketch-up though.
autocad is the only program i know enough to produce working drawings. it is more than i need.
i usually design with traditional plan-section-elevation triangle.
after a while, it is more important for me to construct things flat. most mistakes in architecture come from not being able to see things in 2-D. specially when it is the 2-D drawing used at the construction site. do i make sense?
if i use 3d detail in the detail sheet i usually directly carry it from manufacturer's web site.
ie;

we use autocad after toying with vectorworks.

my partner used to be the model making intern for starchitect so he builds nice models which i photoshop over for prelim sketches.

then i build a 3d model in fmz and cinema 4d, if hte project is complex enough to merit the work. we tend to do a fair amount of furniture in our projects so i often make 3d models to test construction and to give to contractor so he interprets drawings correctly. we find this helps smoothe problems out very nicely.