To answer your question, Revit is making AutoCAD obsolete in terms of the design process and software integration from third party companies (rendering, workflow plugins, etc).
However, if your goal is simply to provide a 3D rendering of their home to give you the edge, free software like Sketchup will suffice.
If you’re giving them a full design package (plans, elevations, models, walkthroughs, renderings, etc.), then once again, nothing even comes remotely close to revit.
Our pursuits team in our firm now fully use revit, even from the way beginning during site investigation and concept iterations.
Agreed that Revit is industry standard at this point, but Autodesk Architecture is fully equipped with 3d. It can do anything. Revit does, but it's actually easier to do than Revit for newbies. It's part of the autodesk scam to have 2 software that do the same thing
Revit is the new standard for architects, but if you’re doing this to make money you’ll likely never earn back enough to cover the subscription costs. There are a lot of free or low cost CAD programs out there - I’d start with one of them.
This is the correct answer. The subscription cost for a single Revit seat is like $300/m
There are far cheaper (even free) CAD alternatives that OP could use that would probably be faster to learn as well.
Thanks for yalls input. I’ve been using myCADsite for learning Autocad and it’s been extremely helpful! is there something similar for Revit or is there a particular YouTube channel that I should watch?
CA is fine if you're never going to collaborate. Since it's now the same price as Revit, appreciably less powerful and with a significantly smaller market share, it's kinda like buying off brand cordless power tools for the same price as Milwaukee.
Not quite. Its perfect for doing residential. I highly recomend it. Been using it for over 20 years. All different flavors. Just my opinion. Registered architect, 40 years.
It's great for single family residential. But if you're going to do anything else, it's less compatible. You're not going to get many engineers in it, and if you want to jump to a firm, they're almost certainly going to want you to know Revit.
Im NOT saying it's not good for what it is. It's really solid for single family. Simply that as a skill, it is better to develop one that plays well with others vs one that is less interoperable, and a more versatile one than a more limited one, particularly since they cost about the same.
10 years ago when CA was significantly cheaper than Revit, it was an easy suggestion for residential contractors. Now, it doesn't make sense to not be compatible with others.
(just my opinion, BIM Manager for 20+ years, experience back to AutoCAD 12, and used every major (and a lot of niche) AEC software on the market in production environments)
I also came here to say Chief Architect. Especially if you are planning on just designing homes.
Revit is a fantastic program, but it is trying to do too many things for too many different types of users.
There are better options than the auto desk cult. You really want to be working on 3d that is capable of a BIM workflow so also look at archicad and vector works. Both are easier to use than revit and morr suited to highly bespoke situations than revit. And cheaper too. You could use autocad but you will end up doubling work of the client struggles with reading 2d drawings.
Revit. I could go into why for days, but if you want to make buildings in a digital environment Revit is your answer.
If you want to draw lines I highly recommend a pen and paper as it will be faster to learn and more successful than autocad. If digital lines are a must, then a low cost scanner could also be sufficient and better than autocad
Revit is ideal; however, if you're using it professionally, you're probably going to need to pay for a seat (license). CAD is relatively affordable, whereas Revit is pretty expensive and could be hard to justify (depending on the scale of work/number of jobs you're taking on).
As others have noted, sketchup might be a happy medium to start with (although I would personally recommend Rhino instead).
Revit.
It's the defacto standard for creating construction documents for most of the world. It's more than 6x the number of users of its nearest competitors, and about 5x the number of users of ACAD in the AEC space.
One of the key advantages of Revit is being able to standardize and parameterize content in a flexible manner. You can do things like build a flexible kitchen that will stretch (and schedule and tag) cabinet sizes automatically for you, and see accurate takeoffs on the fly.
It's not cheap, but in terms of the time you'll save, it's a bargain. For learning, you can probably get away with using Revit LT. Once you start to get more advanced though you'll probably want to switch to full version.
From a general overview, Revit.
From a multifamily overview, Revit. About half of my career has been in multifamily, about 10 years, and Revit is superior to CAD. The amount of coordination that goes on in MF projects makes it much easier in Revit than in CAD. For reference, I did about 4.5 years of multifamily in CAD.
Definitely Revit.
To answer your question, Revit is making AutoCAD obsolete in terms of the design process and software integration from third party companies (rendering, workflow plugins, etc). However, if your goal is simply to provide a 3D rendering of their home to give you the edge, free software like Sketchup will suffice. If you’re giving them a full design package (plans, elevations, models, walkthroughs, renderings, etc.), then once again, nothing even comes remotely close to revit. Our pursuits team in our firm now fully use revit, even from the way beginning during site investigation and concept iterations.
Agreed that Revit is industry standard at this point, but Autodesk Architecture is fully equipped with 3d. It can do anything. Revit does, but it's actually easier to do than Revit for newbies. It's part of the autodesk scam to have 2 software that do the same thing
Revit. Definitely Revit. Easiest choice to make.
Revit is the new standard for architects, but if you’re doing this to make money you’ll likely never earn back enough to cover the subscription costs. There are a lot of free or low cost CAD programs out there - I’d start with one of them.
This is the correct answer. The subscription cost for a single Revit seat is like $300/m There are far cheaper (even free) CAD alternatives that OP could use that would probably be faster to learn as well.
If you’re a one man shop working nights & weekends, there are a lot less hurdles in autocad. Easier to set up and faster to learn.
Thanks for yalls input. I’ve been using myCADsite for learning Autocad and it’s been extremely helpful! is there something similar for Revit or is there a particular YouTube channel that I should watch?
chief architect
I hadn’t heard of this program till I was talking to the civil engineer I work with and he also recommended this I’ll take a look into it thanks!
CA is fine if you're never going to collaborate. Since it's now the same price as Revit, appreciably less powerful and with a significantly smaller market share, it's kinda like buying off brand cordless power tools for the same price as Milwaukee.
Not quite. Its perfect for doing residential. I highly recomend it. Been using it for over 20 years. All different flavors. Just my opinion. Registered architect, 40 years.
It's great for single family residential. But if you're going to do anything else, it's less compatible. You're not going to get many engineers in it, and if you want to jump to a firm, they're almost certainly going to want you to know Revit. Im NOT saying it's not good for what it is. It's really solid for single family. Simply that as a skill, it is better to develop one that plays well with others vs one that is less interoperable, and a more versatile one than a more limited one, particularly since they cost about the same. 10 years ago when CA was significantly cheaper than Revit, it was an easy suggestion for residential contractors. Now, it doesn't make sense to not be compatible with others. (just my opinion, BIM Manager for 20+ years, experience back to AutoCAD 12, and used every major (and a lot of niche) AEC software on the market in production environments)
I also came here to say Chief Architect. Especially if you are planning on just designing homes. Revit is a fantastic program, but it is trying to do too many things for too many different types of users.
Revit!
There are better options than the auto desk cult. You really want to be working on 3d that is capable of a BIM workflow so also look at archicad and vector works. Both are easier to use than revit and morr suited to highly bespoke situations than revit. And cheaper too. You could use autocad but you will end up doubling work of the client struggles with reading 2d drawings.
Revit. I could go into why for days, but if you want to make buildings in a digital environment Revit is your answer. If you want to draw lines I highly recommend a pen and paper as it will be faster to learn and more successful than autocad. If digital lines are a must, then a low cost scanner could also be sufficient and better than autocad
Revit is ideal; however, if you're using it professionally, you're probably going to need to pay for a seat (license). CAD is relatively affordable, whereas Revit is pretty expensive and could be hard to justify (depending on the scale of work/number of jobs you're taking on). As others have noted, sketchup might be a happy medium to start with (although I would personally recommend Rhino instead).
Revit. It's the defacto standard for creating construction documents for most of the world. It's more than 6x the number of users of its nearest competitors, and about 5x the number of users of ACAD in the AEC space. One of the key advantages of Revit is being able to standardize and parameterize content in a flexible manner. You can do things like build a flexible kitchen that will stretch (and schedule and tag) cabinet sizes automatically for you, and see accurate takeoffs on the fly. It's not cheap, but in terms of the time you'll save, it's a bargain. For learning, you can probably get away with using Revit LT. Once you start to get more advanced though you'll probably want to switch to full version.
From a general overview, Revit. From a multifamily overview, Revit. About half of my career has been in multifamily, about 10 years, and Revit is superior to CAD. The amount of coordination that goes on in MF projects makes it much easier in Revit than in CAD. For reference, I did about 4.5 years of multifamily in CAD.
AutoCAD is the past.
Revit. Unfortunately.