Revit V's ArchiCad

[Kenny Gee]

I wonder if any1 out there can help me with the benefits of using Revit versus ArchiCad. As I'm totally unfamiliar with Achicad as I can only assume some of you fine people may have had experience with this software
I may have trouble converting some ex-archicad people undermining Revit - ahh, the joys of implementing Revit......

[Jun Austria]

I wonder if any1 out there can help me with the benefits of using Revit versus ArchiCad. As I'm totally unfamiliar with Achicad as I can only assume some of you fine people may have had experience with this software
I may have trouble converting some ex-archicad people undermining Revit - ahh, the joys of implementing Revit......

I did a powerpoint presentation for my colleagues who are using Archicad and was the official BIM software being used in the office.

I did a comparison. Used Archicad for 3 months. Then after that I said "no more".
Archicads weakness is modelling. How fast and how you model it makes a big diffrence in production. They argue "but our architects are not modeller". This I disaggree. Once you drive a car you become a driver. Once you start using a Building Information Model(ling) software you become a modeller.

Archicad is cheap but you still have to buy "EXTRA" plug-ins just to accomplish something
thats not included in box. And I hate the way the view rebuild itself everytime you switch views. It just cost me so much time.

Anyway, attached is one of the screen cap from my powerpoint. An "Out of the Box" comparison. In my presentation, theres a video that correspond to each point in Revit.
It rendered them speechless. Hope you can do the same to them.

Goodluck.

[Kenny Gee]

Thanks junaustria. Much appreciated mate.

Hopefully other people ad there 20 cents or sen (Malay) to this post.

[iankids]

Hi kmannix,

I trialled Archicad V10 for several months before trialling Revit. There were a number of things within Archicad which were very nice. However, there are a number of major drawbacks as well.

Whilst they maintain that one can export to AutoCad, in reality, I found it less than satisfactory, which means of course when one needs to send a file off the the engineer or whoever there is a good deal of sorting out to do. Export - Open in Autocad - correct all the lines and colours - finally save to which ever version of AutoCad the engineer is using.

The final deal breaker for me was the convoluted way which shadow diagrams were created which I found very, very difficult to either do quickly or be confident were correct. (Hate to go to VCAT with dodgy shadows!!??)

The current version of ArchiCad may well have fixed up these and other matters, but all in all, my view now is that Revit is a far superior package.

Cheers,

Ian

[Jun Austria]

Using the Archicad tutorial handout. I did an external rendering. As you can see, Revit can project a proper Architectural Perspective. Meaning, at normal eye level. Everything are vertical. The interior perspective was done by our intern. Note the quality of mental ray.

As in Archicad... well a picture can tell you a thousand words.

[patricks]

The 3-point vs. 2-point perspective you're showing really only has to do with camera position and direction. If you look up, or anywhere other than exactly horizontal from the camera's elevation, then you will have 3-point perspective in Revit just like in the Archicad rendering.

[Joef]

.

Note the quality of mental ray.

As in Archicad... well a picture can tell you a thousand words.

Is the interior rendering Archicad? It looks very grainy and slightly out of focus.

[winnwgomez]

I also heard that you cant do massing in ArchiCAD. it seems you have to use Maxonform to model the 'mass', but cannot convert it into building elements like you would in Revit, using the Revit Building Maker. Is this true?

I 've been hearing of their plugin ArchiFacade. which is usefull fot curved curtain glass..

any more input would be welcome!!


winn

[Wagurto]

Not to mention that you need a Phd to master Archicad. I've tried archicad since v4.0 and I couldn't get use to the program ever.

[davidcobi]

I've only done the tutorial that comes with ArchiCAD. It was fairly simple to use. Most of the tools are the same as Revit only named differently. The one big difference I've heard is that most ArchiCAD users don't create their own content. They typically just use the library that comes with ArchiCAD.

Our office is very particular about graphics so we had to go with a program that makes custom content creation as easy as possible. Content creation is not the easiest thing to do in Revit but I've heard it's easier than ArchiCAD.