VWA vs Revit

[Petri]

A colleague next door is wondering whether they should move from AutoCAD to Revit. A mid-sized practice, some 40 people, mostly smallish projects, very pragmatic stuff (Seven-Eleven convenience stores and KFC outlets are their bread and butter, so to speak), but quite a mix overall.

I of course mentioned VW as a possibility, but was asked how it compares with Revit. Well, I have no idea, but perhaps someone can educate me.

[Jonathan Pickup]

I haven't seen Revit, but I have come up against it in a large practice. When it is explained to me it sounds like the holy grail, it will do the most wonderous things. but they are stragely lacking in detail about how these wonderful things will be carried out and how the drawings will be managed and how the computers will cope with the huge levels of complexity that working a such a Building Information Model will require.

I have also hear that when you buy Revit they give you a free copy of autocad LT so that you can finish off the working drawings, as Revit does draw in 2Dso well...

I think VW copes very well.

[mike m oz]

I have attended a Revit demonstration and it is impressive. They were however a bit reluctant to discuss certain aspects, and to show us how it would deal with particular problems.

An associate who attended the same demonstration decided to run with Revit. After 3 months he is still struggling to come to grips with the program, and is frustrated about how he is going to fill in the missing information.

I have seen a set of his drawings for an addition to an existing house and they are not easy to read or attractive. The exact opposite of his manual drawings that I have seen in the past.

I think the big point to be made is to not underestimate the learning curve on what is a quite complex problem. It will be a major paradigm shift as you will have no option but to model in 3D. Many people don't fully understand the implications of this.

Those people who can't adequately think in 3D and / or discipline themselves in how they tackle projects will get themselves into a serious mess very quickly.

Good luck to them in whatever they choose to do.