This is a tricky topic since we are really comparing two of the top BIM products available today, that being said...
I've used Revit professionally for about three years and only recently (4 months ago...) switched to Archicad and I can say without a doubt that Archicad is far more flexible than Revit at almost everything from the way objects represent on each story (linetypes, fills, etc) to the ease with which objects (slabs, roofs, walls) can be edited. Especially objects (families in Revit) like cabinets and windows. Try editing the mullions on a Revit window...and you can kill hours easily)
I also teach Revit at a university and know first hand how difficult it is to teach and for students to learn. (Although students generally don't seem to mind since they are just happy to be in 3D...two years ago the construction side of our dept was all 2d
...)
Revit is all in all a good BIM program and so is Archicad. I personally think that Archicad offers far greater design flexibility and options for documentation. It also plays better with others (MACs, third party plug ins, etc) than the Autodesk giant does. But that's also one of Autodesk's strengths is that they are so popular (at least in the US market).
I would agree with the statement that Archicad's strengths really show up at intermediate or advanced levels of proficiency whereas that is where Revit really falters. (I worry with my students that Revit's limitations really begin to effect their designs).
By the way, yes you can go from concept to CDs with Revit without ever touching Autocad for detailing.
I hope this helps.
I've used Revit professionally for about three years and only recently (4 months ago...) switched to Archicad and I can say without a doubt that Archicad is far more flexible than Revit at almost everything from the way objects represent on each story (linetypes, fills, etc) to the ease with which objects (slabs, roofs, walls) can be edited. Especially objects (families in Revit) like cabinets and windows. Try editing the mullions on a Revit window...and you can kill hours easily)
I also teach Revit at a university and know first hand how difficult it is to teach and for students to learn. (Although students generally don't seem to mind since they are just happy to be in 3D...two years ago the construction side of our dept was all 2d
...)Revit is all in all a good BIM program and so is Archicad. I personally think that Archicad offers far greater design flexibility and options for documentation. It also plays better with others (MACs, third party plug ins, etc) than the Autodesk giant does. But that's also one of Autodesk's strengths is that they are so popular (at least in the US market).
I would agree with the statement that Archicad's strengths really show up at intermediate or advanced levels of proficiency whereas that is where Revit really falters. (I worry with my students that Revit's limitations really begin to effect their designs).
By the way, yes you can go from concept to CDs with Revit without ever touching Autocad for detailing.
I hope this helps.
adrian_tait wrote:
This is a tricky topic since we are really comparing two of the top BIM products available today, that being said...
I've used Revit professionally for about three years and only recently (4 months ago...) switched to Archicad and I can say without a doubt that Archicad is far more flexible than Revit at almost everything from the way objects represent on each story (linetypes, fills, etc) to the ease with which objects (slabs, roofs, walls) can be edited. Especially objects (families in Revit) like cabinets and windows. Try editing the mullions on a Revit window...and you can kill hours easily)
I also teach Revit at a university and know first hand how difficult it is to teach and for students to learn. (Although students generally don't seem to mind since they are just happy to be in 3D...two years ago the construction side of our dept was all 2d
Revit is all in all a good BIM program and so is Archicad. I personally think that Archicad offers far greater design flexibility and options for documentation. It also plays better with others (MACs, third party plug ins, etc) than the Autodesk giant does. But that's also one of Autodesk's strengths is that they are so popular (at least in the US market).
I would agree with the statement that Archicad's strengths really show up at intermediate or advanced levels of proficiency whereas that is where Revit really falters. (I worry with my students that Revit's limitations really begin to effect their designs).
By the way, yes you can go from concept to CDs with Revit without ever touching Autocad for detailing.
I hope this helps.
That's one of the best (and frankly speaking, most unbiased) comparisons of Revit and ArchiCAD, or of learning Revit and ArchiCAD, that I've ever come across. Along with Mathew's up above as well, of course.
I especially agree with your assessment at the end regarding the perpetual need for 2D clean-up and patching in ArchiCAD versus the full 2D Docs-3D Model integration of Revit allowing one to go very fluently from modeling to straight documentation minus all the 2D doctoring and detailing. GS have a lot to do with regards to integrating the 2D aspects of AC with the 3D representation, as well as the general state of Detailing tools and library resources (that are integrated with the 3D-Model - it is after all, supposed to represent AND contain the same 2D information) to diminish this tendency.
On the other hand, as you pointed out, ArchiCAD's strengths ( which, IMO considerably outnumber Revit's) only begin to become more apparent and vivid as one becomes more proficient with the program rather casually using it. It has a lot of hidden goodies, tricks and helpful workflow features which could greatly be facilitated by better help documentation and tutorials by GS. Regardless of the fact that GS already does a far better job of documenting Help, tutorials and Learning support, than Revit does.
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