I'd like to hear the outcome of your new employee, Matthew!
This may sound odd, but I'm rather excited about the new features in AC10. I used ArchiCAD back at 6.5 and then ended up using Vectorworks. Like Scott, I like to keep my ear to the ground, and the only way you'll ever hear the truth about a program is to listen to its users. Usually you'll find the best users on forums like these!
AC and Revit users are brothers-in-arms really -- people who have committed themselves to documentation via virtual building. (Forget the psychobabble word BIM!) As a Revit moderator and AUGI wishlist manager, I get a front row seat of how Revit shines and stumbles. Where it shines: great programmers, and a great engine under the hood. Where it falls: poor modeling capabilities (the kernel can do it but the tools to make the forms haven't been developed yet), and it gets sluggish on large projects.
I don't think anyone here should switch, unless there's something that Revit does that AC does not, and that's a deal maker for you. And up til now, in my area, for every 10 people who tried Revit, about 3 bounced off because they got stuck at some point and bailed back to AutoCAD.
I think everyone should try both AC and Revit, and then scream bloody murder about the great feature Brand X CAD has that we have to have.
The comparison between Revit and AC is becoming slightly more apples to apples. I think that's great.
With regards to the original thread title: it's an interesting comparison:
- You guys have MaxxonForm; we have "in place families", which can include geometry from Revit or other solid modelers. MF's capabilities outstrip Revit's, though we can import that which we cannot model, and turn it into a Revit object. The object can only be edited outside of Revit, but the Revit geometry behaves like a wall or roof or whatever you told it to be. Revit objects can curve in two planes, unlike the new ArchiCAD canted walls, which appear to only curve in section. But still -- it's a dead heat. Advantage: nobody
- Plotmaker is dead. Thank God. But Revit has the project browser, which has all the views and sheets and other project related data a few clicks away. Used to be Advantage: Revit but I'd say the score is nearly even here as well.
- Working drawings: Revit seems to have the upper hand here -- between a fabulous looking drawing set and the truly automatic organisation Revit offers.
- Presentation: ArchiCAD wins easily with the gradient fills, better OOTB renderer, etc.
- Ease of use: good question. Everyone says Revit is easy, until they start making their own windows!
- Interoperability - everyone's got IFC
- Brighter future - dunno. Autodesk won't be able to screw up Revit -- the programmers would kill them, and it sounds like AC is getting some attention to ensure it can go head to head with Revit.
Given the great capabilities of each software, you need to have access to good support and good users. Here in Vancouver, AC predates Revit but I've worked hard to seed Revit in the area and it's gaining momentum. I hope this will spin off some more seats of AC into the Vancouver community, because I hate monopolies.
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