So, the other day i got to see a Revit model of a medium sized project in action and even handled it a bit. The project was about 20,000m2 multifamily project, but not that complex and the clients pc is somewhere between medium high and high spectrum, not a workstation nor anything like that but they got 32gb ram (more than my laptop 
), and the project was done by a reputed local office.
Lets just say that if i ever needed reassurance that i made the right choice with Archicad this was it. The model handled like the clunky mess i remember from when i took my basic revit courses, but worse because the model was bigger. The level of detail was dismal for a supposedly finished project that cost dozens of thousands of dollars; i could almost imagine the modellers giving up on the model (and life), their faces resting in defeat at their keyboards. Forget about editability.
I was very shocked by this experience. Knowing the office that made the project i expected something much better (i learned later that they do heavy editing in Autocad). I mean, why do they still use this?? Maybe it is an isolated experience and the rest of Revit offices have a very enjoyable process and the output is great, but i seriously doubt it.
), and the project was done by a reputed local office.Lets just say that if i ever needed reassurance that i made the right choice with Archicad this was it. The model handled like the clunky mess i remember from when i took my basic revit courses, but worse because the model was bigger. The level of detail was dismal for a supposedly finished project that cost dozens of thousands of dollars; i could almost imagine the modellers giving up on the model (and life), their faces resting in defeat at their keyboards. Forget about editability.
I was very shocked by this experience. Knowing the office that made the project i expected something much better (i learned later that they do heavy editing in Autocad). I mean, why do they still use this?? Maybe it is an isolated experience and the rest of Revit offices have a very enjoyable process and the output is great, but i seriously doubt it.
We have both though majority AC. IMO AC is an autobahn sportswagon on a wheat field while Revit is a tractor on autobahn...kind of 
.
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jl_lt wrote:
So, the other day i got to see a Revit model of a medium sized project in action and even handled it a bit. The project was about 20,000m2 multifamily project, but not that complex and the clients pc is somewhere between medium high and high spectrum, not a workstation nor anything like that but they got 32gb ram (more than my laptop
Lets just say that if i ever needed reassurance that i made the right choice with Archicad this was it. The model handled like the clunky mess i remember from when i took my basic revit courses, but worse because the model was bigger. The level of detail was dismal for a supposedly finished project that cost dozens of thousands of dollars; i could almost imagine the modellers giving up on the model (and life), their faces resting in defeat at their keyboards. Forget about editability.
I was very shocked by this experience. Knowing the office that made the project i expected something much better (i learned later that they do heavy editing in Autocad). I mean, why do they still use this?? Maybe it is an isolated experience and the rest of Revit offices have a very enjoyable process and the output is great, but i seriously doubt it.
Offices that you see that have Revit and do large projects and (seem to) have no complaints about it or specifically the performance, is usually almost certainly because they have powerful workstations.
I mean,...as a general rule, in architecture you should have high end hardware regardless of whatever software you're running - or at least as high end as your budget and resources can allow.
But in the cases of Revit users, that I've personally observed and experienced, this is simply not a choice if you want to work comfortably.
That software is simply not optimized to run well on anything outside of really high end computers.
And even then it's anything but an enjoyable experience.
A lot of the cause of the issues is the parametric engine they use and the constraints orgy that define a Revit workflow - so much so that their BIM managers will remind people often to disable automatic constraints as much as they can to avoid fatal crashes and slowdown later on.
You've heard of stories of offices where they have licenses of Sketchup and Rhino which are what they use to do the actual design work, and then the documentation is handled by BIM-monkeys on Revit.
It's because you simply can not design or do design on Revit.
All your design issues have to have been worked out fully by the time you get to working on Revit, because of said performance nightmares.
Dendarii wrote:You mean: "It's easier to break the model for novices."
Revit positives are that it is easier for beginners/less experienced users as there are far less settings (no layers etc.) so users can begin modelling with little thought to tool settings.
Beginners in Archicad (persons switching from Revit) are often astonished by how easy a BIM program ca be to grok.
If I show them around they always have the same look on their face, a delightful blend of joy and amazement.
What's really great in Archicad is the fact that while there are the standard tools (the wall tool will give you, well, a wall), advanced BIMmers will know how to "abuse" this system for the needs they have.
A railing can be a railing can be a wall can be a fence can be a skewed parapet wall can be a an distributed ornament.
Try that in Revit! There is only take it or leave it, and forget about correct IFC types.
But, in Revit there is also wide abusing going on: The offices I know draw things with dimension lines, since there is no other choice.
Also, the office of a good friend of mine draws everything again in Autocad. I don't even know why they have the Revit model in the first place, because not a single plan leaves the office directly out of Revit. (It's one of the biggest offices in West Germany)
Still looking?
