ARCHICAD VS REVIT

[Luis Vinagre]

Hi, we are a office in South Africa, and last week were informed by our directors that we might be changing over to ArchiCad 8, but our local autodesk supplier told us that you cant compare archicad 8 to acad 2002, 2004 and ADT 3.3 & 2004, they proposed that we should go onto revit. both presentations were quite amazing but are having a tough time deciding on which to go for? All input on both packages would be greatly appreciated? :?:

[aggockel50321]

Get a copy of both packages (Revit & Archicad), give them two two people in your office, give them each a week to learn the package, using whatever means each package offers (online classes, tutorials), & see who's ahead at the end of the week.

[Vincent Valentijn]

Yeah! now that would be a great experiment..
If you read the posts here that mention ArchiCAD you might get a pretty good idea on which software will will this battle though :wink:

[gregcashen]

...and if you read the ArchiCAD newsgroups, you might get a different idea.

Do your own Due Diligence. Andrewg's suggestions is very good.

[hand471037]

I haven't used V8, so I really can't say. I do know that a semi-famous local firm that decided to go with ArchiCAD V8 is now switching to Revit and trying to get thier money back from Graphisoft, due to V8 not working as promised (for thier needs- I don't know what there experance was). That sure doesn't look good for V8 however! :)

[rgecy]

I had to make the same decission. I evaluated Revit initially for a month. Then I went on and tried Archicad. There is absolutely no way anyone can say Archicad is easier. I have no doubt I made the right choise.
The Revit menus are much easier and the parametric modeling is very flexible and easy to learn. I have been using Revit for over 3 months now and will never change. You cannot go wrong with Revit.

Go with Revit!
RGecy

[Wes Macaulay]

I had a look at R8 recently and was again struck with how much more complicated ArchiCAD is. There are good reasons for the myriad buttons and settings, but in this world, you're better off to keep things simple. The other thing that bothers me about many architectural CAD products is the quality of code - the "bugginess" of the software. ArchiCAD users are often pulling their hair out...

http://escribe.com/software/archicadtalk/index.html?by=Thread

I have to admit that even ADT, a favourite target of scorn for me, doesn't have nearly the bugs in it that other programs have, even if you have to be a software engineer to understand it.

[pseletsky1770]

You might find these 2 articles to be of interest:

http://www.cadenceweb.com/2003/0803/fr0803_archicad.html
http://www.architectureweek.com/2003/0723/tools_1-1.html

In short, no product is perfect. Some products have a maturity in certain areas that their competition lacks and vice-versa. The point that you're pursuing a Building Information Modeling package at all is really the measure of importance here. Let's not forget that - it's not the superiority of one product over the other - it's pursuing a change in the process from manual, electronic drafting to a more intelligent methodology that matters. Finally, let's not lose sight that competition drives innovation. If all we're left with is just ArchiCAD or just Revit, then we all lose because the developer then has no motivation to provide for (what amounts to) a captive audience.

[ajayholland]

Pcell, thanks for the architectureweek.com link to the article by Larry Rocha, CIO at WATG. Even some members of this forum may not know that Larry has long been a leader in the arena of architectural computing, and is responsible for facilitating his company's integration of advanced methodologies.

-AJH

[ajayholland]

ArchiCAD users are often pulling their hair out...

http://escribe.com/software/archicadtalk/index.html?by=Thread


I followed that link and ended up viewing the BOA Research site. I didn't delve deeply, but suffice to say that BOA is an inexpensive Macintosh only 3d software created by the former authors of Architrion, which was the chief competitor to ArchiCad way back before AutoCad had toolbars. :lol:


Some days I feel like I've become something of a Don Quixote flogging a solution to a problem a lot of people don't seem to realise they have.

I worked in a sales support role for Architrion fourteen years ago! Macintosh and 3d modeling for architects - quite an exclusive fraternity! :wink:

A. Jay Holland

[Wes Macaulay]

I followed that link and ended up viewing the BOA Research site. I didn't delve deeply, but suffice to say that BOA is an inexpensive Macintosh only 3d software created by the former authors of Architrion, which was the chief competitor to ArchiCad way back before AutoCad had toolbars. :lol:

[quote:a8dbf0a0da="metanoia"]Some days I feel like I've become something of a Don Quixote flogging a solution to a problem a lot of people don't seem to realise they have.

I worked in a sales support role for Architrion fourteen years ago! Macintosh and 3d modeling for architects - quite an exclusive fraternity! :wink:[/quote:a8dbf0a0da]
Wow. An Architrion user... I remember seeing Architrion - the first time I had seen a 3D architectural CAD program. I thought it was way cool...

The lead developer of BOA talks about BOA and its history and connection to Architrion on Architosh...

http://www.architosh.com/features/2000/2000-08intev-boa.html

There is so much history in the CAD world. I have the Windows BOA version (it's free) and tried to get my head around it. Obviously it doesn't have mental model that Revit has, but it obviously has good lineage.

www.boaresearch.com

I had to dig around to find Quicktime 5 (gotta have it to make BOA work on the PC), so on my work desktop I've done it. It is free - which ain't bad! Printing seems painful, and I haven't delved into it much further. Too many Revit clients to support!

[Wes Macaulay]

Here's the BOA user's forum on Architosh...

http://forums.architosh.com/forumdisplay.php?s=1840489d84a49f3ca82f4cb93c8067ee&daysprune=&forumid=1

Seems like the program has limitation, but it sounds like it does a lot considering the minor league budget they have for development. But hey: it runs on a Mac!

[ajayholland]

The first version I saw was MacArchitrion and ran on the classic black & white 512k Mac. The software was sold with a modem and membership in a BBS usergroup, which was part of their tech support strategy.

Deja Vu 8)

-AJH

[madmax001760]

Getting back to the subject. The August issue of CADENCE has a review
on Archicad 8.0. The only thing I will say is that the Cons are bigger than the Pros. I have alot more to talk about on this thread. I'll be back.
You might be able to view it at www.cadenceweb.com

[Scott D Davis]

Speaking of pros and cons, here they are quoted from the latest edition of Cadence magazine:

"Pros: comprehensive toolset covering most architectural design tasks; smart building objects based on powerful GDL technology; full-fledged API for developing add-ons; interoperates with other building applications using IFCs; cross-platform (Mac and Windows); several useful enhancements in Version 8.

Cons: installs only on newer operating systems, forcing users to upgrade; little support for programming and conceptual design tasks; complex interface that makes it difficult to learn and use; documentation not well organized or comprehensive; needs to extend its repertoire beyond architectural design to better realize the potential of BIM."