Autocad v Revit for construction drawings

[a.edgley]

I have been searching the internet and now forums on here for an answer to my question.
Would it be beneficial for my company to switch from autocad to revit to produce construction drawings?
A potential new client insists that all the architects that work for them to produce technical drawings use Revit, this has prompted us to take a view on switching from AutoCad.
The benefits of revit and the realtime updating of multiple aspects of the drawing is clear to us, but one thing I am struggling to find is a definative answer on whether or not you are able to produce the same amount of detail for a construction drawing in revit as you do in Autocad.
If anyone has any examples of construction drawings produced in revit that they could send me that would be ideal. Also the time saved on an average project from drawing for instance a 3 bedroom house in autocad compared to the time taken in revit, for construction drawings as we do not currently carry out design work.
Cheers Guys.

[cliff collins]

take a look at these, ( attached zip file) done probably 5-7 years ago.

Revit can do anything Autocad can, better.

It is CRITICAL to understand that Revit is BIM, not a "Cadd" application.
So it is not just switching "cadd software" to do "construction docs"
It is a whole new way of doing business--it changes EVERYTHING
about how we do architecture.

Speaking from 25 yrs. experience--from hand-drawing, to Autocad, to ADT, Microstation,
to very 1st Revit release, and now Revit 2011 which is coming very soon.

cheers.......

[wmullett]

I completely agree with cliff. We have found that Revit is easier and faster than CAD but you have to adopt Revit ways and don't try to make it follow your CAD rules.

[patricks]

Ditto Cliff's comments. I feel like I can produce BETTER documents because I see it on the screen exactly how it will print. None of this color representing line weights or any of that rubbish. WYSIWYG. :D

[gwnelson]

I would prefer to draft in Revit any day. I've had instances where I've been forced to make revisions / additions to ACAD dwgs, and I did all the drafting in Rvt and exported back into ACAD.

[david_peterson]

It is CRITICAL to understand that Revit is BIM, not a "Cadd" application.

I'm not going to disagree with what Cliff has said, but this statement is said why to often without the side note that says, "Revit is only Bim if you do Bim"
Revit can be just lines and arcs. Bim is Bim and can be done with Autocad. Revit is parametric. That's it's big thing. If I take an Autocad drawing, create some 3d blocks with an attribute tag, that qualifies as Bim. It's a Model that contains Information about a Building. BIM. BIM is a different way of thinking. Revit is just a different tool to get you their. So you can have a revit file that is more useless than a cad file and vice versa.
I just really hate when people say "Oh, Revit Is BIM". That's a completely false statement. Revit is a Tool, Bim is a process, and Bim doesn't equal Revit. There's plenty of other ways to do BIM.

But on the question, for me it would depend on what you need to do to get the job done. If you do metal buildings for example and only do the CD's not shops or anything else, and you're not going to get a 3d model of the mech systems, what's the point? Not that it can't be done, but I can draw a line much faster than modeling the unique truss that it represents.

[a.edgley]

Cliff and everyone else who kindly replied. Thanks.

cliff those drawings are a great help and its good to see that we could recreate a level of detail that matches autocad in revit. As a comparison for example how long would it take you to draw one of those sections in revit compared to Autocad?

We are well aware that we would have to start a fresh with how we draw in revit as there is no comparrison with autocad, but we want to be sure we can reproduce the same level of detail for a construction drawing if we move to revit.

Cheers guys you replies are great.

[dzatto]

Cliff, how much of your sections were modeled, and how much of them are just linework in the section itself? For instance, did you model the rafters or just use line work?

[patricks]

Cliff, how much of your sections were modeled, and how much of them are just linework in the section itself? For instance, did you model the rafters or just use line work?

I try to model "bulky" items such as foundations, structure, etc. but then the rest I usually use mostly detail components, for the simple fact that things like brick walls, etc will have more surface texture shown (mortar joints) where the wall in the model is completely flat. So I hide the walls or whatever else I don't want to see.

But whichever way you go, the model will be there as your basis, which is one way Revit is superior when you're detailing. No need to xref in a plan and elevation, rotate it if needed, project a bunch of lines, etc. etc. to make sure everything is shown in the right place in the section.

[dgreen.49364]

I've been using Revit since 2004. If I had to go back to AutoCAD...I would probably fall into a state of deep depression.

Understand that switching to Revit will not be an overnight matter. Proper training is needed. Re-thinking the approach to drawing is necessary. You are modeling and creating a data base rather than simply drafting. There is a lot of up-front stuff that needs to happen, i.e. converting front end documents and detail libraries to Revit.

There will be people who complain. "Where is the command prompt?" "It doesn't look like AutoCAD!" ...and so on. People who are strictly CAD operators may struggle. If you do not understand construction and how things are built and how things go together, Revit can be a challenge.

It can be slow going in the beginning, but it is all worth it.

[Andrew Dobson]

I agree that Revit is mostly quicker (one you have a model already) but do miss certain functionality that AutoCAD has. Conversely, the Revit fill tool is a million times better than AutoCAD hatching.

How do others cope in Revit without Osnap commands such as From, Mid point between two points etc and commands such as divide and stretch when drafting in Revit? Should these be in Revit?

[jhs.222310]

How do others cope in Revit without Osnap commands such as From, Mid point between two points etc and commands such as divide and stretch when drafting in Revit? Should these be in Revit?

snaps exist - took me a while to find them - right mouse click.



Took me a year to convert fully from autoCAD to revit - and I think the workflow advantage only happens a day or so into a small project and happens more and more the deeper and deeper you get into a project.

the less dumb you make the lines the more you reap, but it also involves lots of investment in libraries and families and learning a whole knew way of doing things - but then get into schedules etc and wow!!!

I think for early sork a pencil beats both, for some simple stuff AutoCAD, but then revit every time and when you start producing sections and CDs and changes (like taking a floor level off a building design or changign floor to floor heights in a design etc you are going to LOVE revit!

[cliff collins]

All:

1. The examples I posted were not done by our firm--they were something I found
a few years ago to use in Revit training, as an example of how con docs can be done.
We can actually do better than those. (We use "smart annotations"--like tags and keynotes and not text notes, for instance.)

2. BIM and Cadd ARE two very different things. Sorry, but I'll stick to that,
since I've spent many years in both worlds.

cheers.........

[matt_dillon]

It's important to reiterate what Cliff said - Revit is not CAD and the processes used to generate construction documents are going to be significantly different. It's difficult to compare, therefore, the time spent to create a particular detail in Revit vs. the same detail in AutoCAD. At first glance, it may appear that the line drawing and 2D detail component tools, as well as the Cut Profile, mask region and filled region tools are a bit cumbersome to deal with to a seasoned AutoCAD user, but at the same time, depending upon how much model geometry you're using in the detail, the detail is already half drawn before you start - and once you get familiar with the detailing tools in Revit, they really aren't as cumbersome as those done in AutoCAD. Just different. (Although I'd really like to see some sort of content management/search tool for navigating the myriads of 2D and 3D component families that you wind up collecting).

What you will find initially is probably that you'll be losing a bit of time on the detailing aspect, until you develop your internal processes and get accustomed to the new tools. Once you cross over that hump, however, you will not want to go back.

[a.edgley]

Thank you all for the great messages in regards to my question. As a company that solely creates technical drawings I think we are now looking at moving down the route of autocad architecture insted of REVIT as it creates the sections and elevations for you like revit does but in the autocad enviroment which will therefore cause less disruption and cost to the company. Having said this we would purchase the revit suite so have revit with autocad so im sure we will be learning revit on the side for if and when it becomes the industry standard.

[Andrew Dobson]

snaps exist - took me a while to find them - right mouse click.



I haven't known about this in in five years, thanks. I have added a screen shot.

I'm pretty happy with the way that snaps work without overriding them, but I was really hoping to right click and find From, mid point between two points etc on the list.

[Scott Womack]

Here are a couple of links to items on what level of detailing can be done in Revit. (shameless self-promotion:lol:)

http://revitoped.blogspot.com/2009/08/is-is-cad-or-revit.html
http://digitaleditiononline.com/publication/?i=25028

[BomberAIA]

Not even close, REVIT is the way to go. I switched when I first saw REVIT in 2000 and never looked back.

[cliff collins]

a edgley,

I would highly recommend making the jump to Revit.

BIM is not "the future"--it is NOW.

Take a look around the industry. Cad is dying. BIM has already become
the standard.

The longer you "hold on" to old cad mentality, the farther behind you get,
and the harder it will be to catch up.

Revit is not new--it's 10 YEARS OLD.

cheers..........

[dlpdi5b]

I strongly agree with Cliff; the time is now.

The thing that I found is that moving to a BIM process and Revit was as big a cultural shift as it was to go from pencil to Autocad. And similar to adopting CAD, it is slow and expensive at first as you build your library of parts and refine your template.

The less Autocad you know, the easier it is to learn Revit. Revit is not CAD.

The more building construction you know, the easier it is to learn Revit.

It takes a real effort and commitment to learn a new method of working, but you risk being obsolete very soon if you are not able to work in BIM centric world.

Get outside training and help on your first projects.

Revit has it's problems, but even on it's worst day it is ten times better than Autocad.

[j_starko]

Ditto Cliff's comments. I feel like I can produce BETTER documents because I see it on the screen exactly how it will print. None of this color representing line weights or any of that rubbish. WYSIWYG. :D

You are my favorite person on this board right now !!

my left eye twitches a great deal when I'm detailing from a revit model, in autocad... and some of the detailing has been done with the "thick" lines in autocad.

why bother... just draw it as one of the colours that shows up thicker.. nothing else in the drawing has line thickness in autocad. just some fancy colors. so make it consistant.

I really like how when you're detailing in revit. it shows you what the lines will look like plotted at scale. and if you want, you can just click the line thickness button and it all goes to a lighter line.