Steve wrote:
So if a person is forced to abandon ArchiCAD for the sake of employment,
which would be the better program to learn, AutoCAD Architecture or Revit Architecture ?
It depends on what you mean by "
better
".
Off-hand, I would say AutoCAD Architecture is "better" from a subjective workflow/ease-of-use point of view, but from a practical perspective that takes into consideration the current economic climate, I would opine that Revit is probably the "better" or safer option to learn.
The reason I say this is because AutoCAD Architecture is "easy" too learn. It's basically AutoCAD with the 3D/BIM component layered on top. And anybody who can use ArchiCAD (And might not have used AutoCAD before) can easily learn AutoCAD. And from this perspective learning it if you have the option of your preference would make for a much less painful transition.
However, with most firms buying into Autodesk marketing spiel and trying to position themselves for recovering from the recession to be competitive, cutting edge and/or up to date technologically, a lot of firms are jumping on the BIM bandwagon (read : Revit) and making the transition into Revit and you can bet that when they do begin hiring they will be looking for Revit fluent employees. Even if you have the luxury of working independently on your own and only collaborating with offices on a contract basis for projects, chances are that the model, or information that they will be exchanging with your will be in the form of a Revit or .RVT model and since Autodesk is not so hot on IFC format, you are still likely to have to learn how to deal with their .rvt format.
So smart money is on being proficient or gaining some minimal proficiency in Revit.
A lot of people on this forum don't like hearing this, but that's just the stark reality of the current economic climate and the new face of the Architecture profession that we face particularly in North America where Autodesk have completely dominated the market and hoodwinked a lot of people and firms to buy into their marketing.
But again it all depends on your local market climate (i.e what are most firms using) and your own situation vis-a-vis flexibility and independence (i.e just how much do you or can you control your own destiny and not have to worry about outside forces).
( Autodesk is even launching 2011 products !?) 
