To Revit or Not to Revit

[Bill Tillman]

Ok after much debate a few of us are trying to decide whether to move to Revit Architect from plain old AutoCAD 2011. As I understand it you can do everything in Revit that you can do in AutoCAD plus all the other stuff that comes with Revit. Or are there limits to what you can do with AutoCAD in the Revit version.

[Noahma]

Revit is primarily a BIM design tool. Your design will be entirely built within the 3d world within the program. There is very limited 2d functionality. The program you are probably thinking of is Autocad Architecture, which has everything that AutoCAD has, plus the BIM (AEC) components and functionality that revit has (minus the parametric capabilities)

 

Revit is its own program as well, and does not use the DWG file format, or have anything affiliated with AutoCAD at all.

 

both are excellent programs.

[tzframpton]

Yeah.... my advice is to sloooowly involve yourself with Revit. You won't be able to just "jump in" and do what you do now in the same amount of time.

[boofredlay]

Yeah.... my advice is to sloooowly involve yourself with Revit. You won't be able to just "jump in" and do what you do now in the same amount of time.

 

This is true but if you take too long you will always drop back and punt with what you know.

 

4 years ago our firm made the switch to Revit and we did it cold turkey. We took some official training classes and only used our old software to finish up existing projects. The rest, as they say, is history. There is a large learning curve but we feel it was well worth it. And we are still learning.

 

I also agree with everything Noahma said.

[tzframpton]

This is true but if you take too long you will always drop back and punt with what you know.

 

4 years ago our firm made the switch to Revit and we did it cold turkey. We took some official training classes and only used our old software to finish up existing projects. The rest, as they say, is history. There is a large learning curve but we feel it was well worth it. And we are still learning.

 

I also agree with everything Noahma said.

Yeah, I should have said that a bit better. I just don't want him to just buy it, open it up, and realize "Holy crap, this isn't ANYTHING like AutoCAD" because its not.

[boofredlay]

Amen brother.

[mykol]

Autodesk is now packaging AA with Revit. I am currently using AutoCAD. Is it worth the effort to now learn AA when my final destination is Revit. Or will the switch from standard AutoCAD to Revit do just as well? It's my understanding that some Revit users are still using 2D for detailing. If that's truely the case, will it matter which AutoCad to use just for details?

 

Thanks for any help or clarification.

[harley558]

I know this forum is primarily Autodesk products but if you are not one of those that thinks you have to stick with Autocad you might want to look into a program called Chief Architect. When I took some refresher courses in school I had to do a few Architectural classes that used CA. I found that I liked it just as well as Revit if not better. I felt like it was more User Friendly

[tzframpton]

I know this forum is primarily Autodesk products....

This forum does talk about Autodesk based products, but it is not dedicated to this particular brand. Any alternatives are greatly encouraged in this forum, at least as far as I'm concerned. I would hope that most would agree with me on this board.

[Noahma]

Autodesk is now packaging AA with Revit. I am currently using AutoCAD. Is it worth the effort to now learn AA when my final destination is Revit. Or will the switch from standard AutoCAD to Revit do just as well? It's my understanding that some Revit users are still using 2D for detailing. If that's truely the case, will it matter which AutoCad to use just for details?

 

Thanks for any help or clarification.

 

The more you know, the better it looks on your Resume lol I would say learn both, ACA is very similar in many aspects to Revit, and can be used as a main design tool, or a stepping stone between Acad and Revit.