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Forums >> General Discussion >> Revit Project Management >> Revit and ArchiCAD Evaluation Criteria
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Greetings, We're a mid-size architectural firm (50-75 people) located on the East Coast of the US specializing in commercial, educational, higher education, retail, and corporate markets. We've been using AutoCAD and ADT for quite some time now with SketchUp being used almost exclusively for all SD and DD imaging. We've come to the conclusion that these tools have out lived their usefulness. We've started an evaluation process looking at both Revit and ArchiCAD. Our team (8 people) will be professionally trained by outside consultants so they can competently evaluating both tools. We need suggestions on what type of information gets included in our evaluation criteria. Has anyone gone through this process with both programs? If so, can you give us any tips or directions on what we should be looking for? What are the current advantages and pitfalls to using either program? Is Revit generally better than ArchiCAD? Thanks I advance for any replies. We’ll keep everyone updated on our evaluation process. mj02
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Joined: Sun, Sep 19, 2004
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Hi, A few criteria that I can think of: 1) interoperatable with other software/ ex. software (i.e. ACAD, ADT, 3D Max, vectorwork, mircostation, Maya, Adobe, Microsoft excel; project, primavera, structural analysis program, MEP analysis program, building energy analysis program etc) 2) User pool support/ factory support/ online support 3) Network connectivity issue: capability to work in workgroup/ LAN/ Wan (since you have a reasonable large scale of employee. 4) Cost ($), software cost, annual subsrciption fees/ hardware upgrade required 5) Training resource/ books/ training consultant etc. Should be more, but as a single user, I am more concern about item 1, 2, 4 & 5
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Joined: Sun, Apr 23, 2006
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ale02 said it so well i think that's about all that's gonna get said.. but i think it's so obvious revit is gonna be it.. i sure don't see a hundred and fifty thousand new subscriptions to archicad..
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Here are some other criteria to consider: - How responsive is the software developer to user requests for functionality?
- To add to ale02's #1 - ability of the program to interact not only with structural & mep analysis software, but also structural & mep design & documentation software
- Ease of use - intuitiveness - BIM tools require more of the user than just knowing how to draw lines so it needs to be easy to learn
- Ability to produce a complete document set natively within the program
- Flexibility to draw or schedule anything
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Hiroshi Jacobs
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I am not trying to be biased but I think Archicad also having some niche functions over Revit such as better rendering effects (within package usually comes with Altantis) and the green building analysis is a bit better than revit on boundary setting?! not too sure about that now but did read over some articles before mentioning on that, how revit got to deal with that since then, I am not too sure.) [I believe Archicad properly can do most of what revit can do as of now...but I feel that it is lacking visions as Revit to create a complete BIM package and Archicad more towards architectual BIM only. #personal comments; Archicad users, please enlighten me as I am not used to Archicad package#] It is whether the weight you put on those criteria shall determine which is a better software for the company... I am totally agreed with hjacobs on item 3: ease of use... i think every new revit users will not want to shift to another BIM software once they get hold of Revit... At least I am the one and properly not the only one.. However, it is always good to have another alternative compare to a total dominant product..don't you agree? competitions makes us move forward.
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Joined: Thu, Dec 28, 2006
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The ArchiCAD and Revit debate... well, since your already using mostly AutoCAD products and are in the commercial side of things, I would highly suggest Revit over ArchiCAD. But, there are some things in ArchiCAD that are superior to Revit. The first thing is the worksets functionality. You can assign a user(s) to work on specific areas/worksets in ArchiCAD while in Revit only one user at a time can work on a workset. The difference? Revit cannot assign that workset based on a specific user which can be bad in a mutli-discipline firm (ie interiors moving walls so that their furniture fits). I have used ArchiCAD for the past 5 years and I like it allot. But I use Revit as well so I can see some major differences. Family creation is allot easier in Revit, while the GDL functionality in ArchiCAD gives me a headache. Window and door creation in Archicad seems easier...but I like the ability to create my own doors based on US specs in Revit than European systems based on Metric. Your Sketchup will work with both. I haven't personally used it with either right now, I am still pretty new to Sketchup, but I am finding it easier to use that both Revit and ArchiCAD. The GUI in ArchiCAD seems easier to get around in for basic use....but being higher ed, etc. Revit is allot better. You can network both, the prices seem to be pretty close, but ArchiCAD is a per seat (and they still have dongles) while Revit can be pooled. Geez...I can go on with the strenghts and weaknesses of both... I'll end with this....ArchiCAD is great for residential, Revit is great for everything (I'll be just posting allot of ArchiCAD functions I'd like to see in Revit on the wish list time to time until I am a firm total believer in Revit) Oh, the dimension constraints in Revit is awesome....
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Oh, I should mention...I learned Archicad in a couple of days....Revit took about a couple of days longer (the Family creator was probably the cause of that) and I have 10+ years with AutoCAD at the time.
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