ADT or Revit

[JEZ]

I am looking to start a new project of 30 houses in the next 2 months and i am looking to upgrade from lt2000 to adt or Revit but i can not deside on which One could do with some help please.

[Harjeet Singh]

lLT to ADT!

Please keep in mind before proceeding with the upgrade that both acad and adt have different approach. And the REVIT is tool from 3d parametric modeling approach. I hope you are aware of the change/shift. Please do proper research otherwise.

 

I would go for ADT anyway if i had to upgrade to any of these because of a familiar interface, small learning curve and compatability with other consultants.

 

regards

Harjeet Singh

[TheAllusionisst]

It would be interesting to know if anyone here is using Revit and how well the models transfer into 3D rendering applications, I will have to go check out whether there is a Revit catagory in the forums. My understanding is that Revit is superior in the parametric modeling and updating of documents, but perhaps not as strong in the construction documentation aspect compared to programs like ADT. Wish I had a crystal ball to see into the future so I knew if Autodesk faded into a Revit based application and faded out ADT such as the case with Engineering Desktop to Inventor. Don't want to bet on the wrong horse! LOL

[Richard McCarthy]

It would be interesting to know if anyone here is using Revit and how well the models transfer into 3D rendering applications, I will have to go check out whether there is a Revit catagory in the forums. My understanding is that Revit is superior in the parametric modeling and updating of documents, but perhaps not as strong in the construction documentation aspect compared to programs like ADT. Wish I had a crystal ball to see into the future so I knew if Autodesk faded into a Revit based application and faded out ADT such as the case with Engineering Desktop to Inventor. Don't want to bet on the wrong horse! LOL

 

 

LOL

Scroll down a bit to the "3D CAD SOFTWARE / Autodesk Revit"

It translate pretty good to VIZ or MAX and you just need to apply textures to it and fix up some UV problems.

 

http://www3.autodesk.com/adsk/files/2436357_Revit_VIZ.pdf

 

Yep like you said, Autodesk plans to fade out ADT just like AutoCAD mechanical desktop transition to Autodesk inventor. I think Autodesk has repeated said that Revit is the future, in fact, beginning of this year, they were READY to drop ADT, but somehow market still demands it so they back down and made another version of it and integrate lots of Revit's feature, making ADT easier and more like Revit. But the problem with ADT is that it's essentially is still AutoCAD underneath, so updating engine and it's HUGE limitation due to AutoCAD make it not the wise investment for the future. On the other hand, ADT is more compatible with AutoCAD (ofcourse..) Revit is more like an completely new program (Autodesk acquired it from another company 2 years ago) but it's pretty compatible with autoCAD already. (output to layered files of DWG2004/2000 and DXF)

 

 

but perhaps not as strong in the construction documentation aspect compared to programs like ADT

 

 

That's a myth. You can do documentation FINE in Revit. Infact if you learn to use itl, you would want to draft in Revit through and through. It's a pleasure to draw in Revit than in AutoCAD.

 

 

 

But the really, there are endless flamewar and discussion about WHICH to use, I can honestly just offer you the advice of trying out both (can you trial ADT?....with Revit you can) programs and make your own decision.

 

To try out Revit : (download link) or call up autodesk and order a trial CD.

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servle...&linkID=3770209

[Richard McCarthy]

This is from another experience user of both program :

"If you follow skisouth's advice and run Revit out of the box, and ArchiCAD out of the box, I think you will find Revit to be superior. ArchiCAD has an open API, and at least a few 'add-on' programs are needed to make it do some simple things, like stairs. (ArchiStair is free, but its still an add-on, and thus must keep up with the development cycle. Will ArchiStair work with ArchiCAD 9, soon to be released?) Rendering in ArchiCAD is done via an add-on. In some cases, add-ons are good because they allow third party developers to create programs that work woth ArchiCAD, but for the most part Revit is 'complete' out of the box and really hasn't required any outside development.

 

ArchicAD is developed to run on both PC's and Macs, which many people like. It also means the programmers have to do double-duty and make sure the code works the same on both platforms. Some might say that this could slow down the development cycle. If your office runs Macs, well then maybe ArchiCAD is for you. If you are on PC's, I'd lean towards Revit.

 

Revit has the financial backing of Autodesk, one of the largest software companies in the industry. Being an Autodesk product assures continued compatibility with other Autodesk software, including AutoCAD, and maybe more in the future. AutoCAD DWG compatibility is absolutely essential.

 

Revit is easy to learn and use, as you have already discovered. It is very intuitive, and is programmed to work how Architects work, because it has Architects developing it.

 

ArchiCAD has over 20 years of experience in the 3D CAD/BIM market. Revit has 5. ArchiCAD should be widely accepted and an industry standard by now, shouldn't it? Revit in my opinion has created more of a buzz in 5 years, and keeps getting better with every release.

 

Building content in ArchiCAD will required learning a programming language called GDL.. Yes, add-on programs will help build the code for you, but to truely harness the power of ArchicAD, you will need to learn GDL. Are you a programming firm, or an architectural firm?

 

Go over to http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/ and read their forums. You will find out plenty about what ArchiCAD can and can't do. Just recently, there was a thread discussing the procedure to put a perspective view on a sheet in PlotMaker (another separate program to lay out sheets). It involved several steps to do....in Revit, drag the perspective on the sheet. Done.

 

Revit has bi-directional parametrics. You can make a change in a schedule, and the model will update.

 

ArchiCAD doesn't assure full drawing coordination. In ArchiCAD, the user can 'break' the links to views, so they are no longer 'live' views of the model. If a change is made to the model, the view wont update. This leads to coordination errors. In Revit, you will never have to second guess that a detail callout is filled out correctly.

 

There is so much more, and I will try to add them here as I think of them. There are many Revit users here that have a lot of ArchiCAD experience before coming to Revit, so hopefully they will add to this. I have zero ArchiCAD experience, except what I have learn from their newsgroup. If I have mis-stated anything here about ArchiCAD, I will gladly welcome corrections.

__________________

Scott Davis

Revit Tips and Tricks Forum Manager

Forum Moderator

WLC Architects, Inc.

 

I have to add that ofcourse this guy is bias LOL.. he is after all Revit tips and trick forum manager... ... but some of his points ARE valid.. really upto you to try both to find out which is better...

[stark3d]

Go with Archicad 9

Autocad ADT is a piece of junk. DO NOT BUY ADT PLEASE.

If You Do Buy it Your Just Stupid.

REVIT Is Not a tool for CD's

[STRAT]

Go with Archicad 9

Autocad ADT is a piece of junk. DO NOT BUY ADT PLEASE.

If You Do Buy it Your Just Stupid.

REVIT Is Not a tool for CD's

 

please use IMO after statements like that else it'll be edited.

 

i use ADT and certainly dont find it a "piece of junk". it's certainly my #1 choice of cad modelling software

[bricklyne]

This is from another experience user of both program :

 

"If you follow skisouth's advice and run Revit out of the box, and ArchiCAD out of the box, I think you will find Revit to be superior. ArchiCAD has an open API, and at least a few 'add-on' programs are needed to make it do some simple things, like stairs. (ArchiStair is free, but its still an add-on, and thus must keep up with the development cycle. Will ArchiStair work with ArchiCAD 9, soon to be released?) Rendering in ArchiCAD is done via an add-on. In some cases, add-ons are good because they allow third party developers to create programs that work woth ArchiCAD, but for the most part Revit is 'complete' out of the box and really hasn't required any outside development.

ArchicAD is developed to run on both PC's and Macs, which many people like. It also means the programmers have to do double-duty and make sure the code works the same on both platforms. Some might say that this could slow down the development cycle. If your office runs Macs, well then maybe ArchiCAD is for you. If you are on PC's, I'd lean towards Revit.

Revit has the financial backing of Autodesk, one of the largest software companies in the industry. Being an Autodesk product assures continued compatibility with other Autodesk software, including AutoCAD, and maybe more in the future. AutoCAD DWG compatibility is absolutely essential.

Revit is easy to learn and use, as you have already discovered. It is very intuitive, and is programmed to work how Architects work, because it has Architects developing it.

ArchiCAD has over 20 years of experience in the 3D CAD/BIM market. Revit has 5. ArchiCAD should be widely accepted and an industry standard by now, shouldn't it? Revit in my opinion has created more of a buzz in 5 years, and keeps getting better with every release.

Building content in ArchiCAD will required learning a programming language called GDL.. Yes, add-on programs will help build the code for you, but to truely harness the power of ArchicAD, you will need to learn GDL. Are you a programming firm, or an architectural firm?

Go over to http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/ and read their forums. You will find out plenty about what ArchiCAD can and can't do. Just recently, there was a thread discussing the procedure to put a perspective view on a sheet in PlotMaker (another separate program to lay out sheets). It involved several steps to do....in Revit, drag the perspective on the sheet. Done.

Revit has bi-directional parametrics. You can make a change in a schedule, and the model will update.

ArchiCAD doesn't assure full drawing coordination. In ArchiCAD, the user can 'break' the links to views, so they are no longer 'live' views of the model. If a change is made to the model, the view wont update. This leads to coordination errors. In Revit, you will never have to second guess that a detail callout is filled out correctly.

There is so much more, and I will try to add them here as I think of them. There are many Revit users here that have a lot of ArchiCAD experience before coming to Revit, so hopefully they will add to this. I have zero ArchiCAD experience, except what I have learn from their newsgroup. If I have mis-stated anything here about ArchiCAD, I will gladly welcome corrections.

__________________

Scott Davis

Revit Tips and Tricks Forum Manager

Forum Moderator

WLC Architects, Inc.

 

I have to add that ofcourse this guy is bias LOL.. he is after all Revit tips and trick forum manager... ... but some of his points ARE valid.. really upto you to try both to find out which is better...

 

 

I just have only 2 things to say regarding this. Firstly, the person quoted in the post above as an "experience user of both program", by his own admission, both here and elsewhere has NEVER used ArchiCAD. I repeat; By HIS own admission ( even in the above quote)!! Consequently, a lot of what's said about ArchiCAD in that quote, is not only hearsay ( from out-of-context Graphisoft User forum's Wishlists and the like), highly subjective opinons but also patently untrue and considerably misinformed regarding the product itself and its capabilities (specifically regarding stairs and GDL programming). I'm not going to go into any of it here, due to the high propensity of this subject degenerating into a flamewar, other than to agree with the suggestion to visit Graphisoft.com for more qualified information regarding the product itself as well as a demo if you're so interested. Needless to say, to qualify the above would be like implying that based on 3DS MAX users' complaints, the program is horribly unstable and crashes all the time simply on the basis of fragmented complaints of some its users at their forum, when in truth all that the users had asked for was a bit more stability in the program's core. In any case, before I get banned, flamed, or any such thing, just take the above information with a huge grain of salt, and please consider all sources of information carefully in making your decision or considering products.

 

Secondly, IMHO any of the 3 products ( Revit, ADT, ArchiCAD) can be highly productive in any environment, if optimally and effeciently integrated with and based on whatever resources you have at your disposal; and consequently to get into a discussion of which is better than the rest is not only a pointless exercise, but also ignores the fact that it all boils down to which product you're most comfortable working with, and as such, have a personal preference for. Best advice in this kind of scenario; try to get a working demo of each, and if possible run a small project through each of them from start to finish, and use the respective experiences to help you make the decision as to which direction to go.

 

Remember that at the end of the day you're the one that has to live and work with the software after you make up your mind, and someone else's experience will only take you so far. And contrary to what you might otherwise hear, there's no silver-bullet, do-it-all, bug-free, limitation-free solution or software in this or any situation; they all have their own strengths and weaknesses and it eventually boils down to which ones you're willing to work with ( or work-around).

[Scott Davis]

REVIT Is Not a tool for CD's

 

Oh really? I'd better stop doing my CD's in Revit then and bail out on our office's 100 licenses.

 

Bricklyne - I was very careful in that post that's been quoted here...please tell me how I spoke out of context. I said GDL is not necessary to learn, because some content creation in ArchiCAD can be handled by add-ons, that builds the content (in GDL) for you, but to really harness the power of ArchiCAD, one should learn GDL. Don't you agree?

 

Stairs - Stairs can be built out-of-the-box, but not very complex stairs, correct? It takes an add-on such as Archistair to produce more complex geometries, right? Archistair is free, but still must be "updated" along with the base program as new versions come out to insure compatibility.

 

Other items in my quoted post...well I don't think that any of them are out of context at all. Like I said in that post, I will gladly accept corrections where I have said something incorrectly.

[makks]

hello guys,

Feeling good to get so many views on BIM Techno softwares.

For me the transition from autocad/max to revit/archicad was smooth.

i work on revit/archicad primarily for modelling purpose.

Material,rendering n walkthru i do in max.

but yes i find revit all in one and simple.

Archicad is time tested stable but yes i do get stuc at times at complx organic forms

and let me add we architects r not good in programmin or scripting thing.

For complex organic forms i would stark with poly box/nurbs in max n get the shape rather

than break my head in revit or archicad.

Revit has created a buzz but yes i really dont know what autodesk has in store for us in furure.

So plan out well,look to ur needs n then go for it rather than blindly upgrading.

Makks

Delhi

India

[Ed Goldberg]

Richard Mcarthy:

 

I don't know where you got the information about the demise of ADT, but your statements are totally untrue. There was never any directive within Autodesk to stop developing ADT.

 

As a practicing Architect of 27 years, and the Author of 5 books on ADT, I am in constant contact with the program managers for both ADT and Revit, and AutoCAD.

 

I run all the Autodesk programs + Graphisoft's programs + write a monthly column for several magazines + build buildings.

 

Be careful when you make statements by heresay, and not by knowledgeable fact.

 

Ed Goldberg AIA, NCARB

http://www.hegra.org

 

Author of the Architectural Desktop books - Prentice Hall.

Author of the CADALYST AEC column.

[Sawyer]

Richard Mcarthy:

I don't know where you got the information about the demise of ADT, but your statements are totally untrue. There was never any directive within Autodesk to stop developing ADT.

Thats interesting. I know a local reseller here has mentioned the ADT phase out rumor as well. Maybe it is just a rumor I sure have heard it alot though.

[joseph alexander]

Revit:

 

For residential i think it's great. I know people who have a lot of success. I'd avoid using it for big projects though.

 

For buildings over 100,000 sf avoid it for three years. We had a very bad experience using it. It's not a point where it's developed enough. However AutoDesk is pushing it really hard. (A little bird told me that SOM is having major problems with it. Something else that annoyed me is that the support user group all have experience with small residential buildings and would constantly claim that it it should work, when they've never worked on large projects themselves)

 

For modeling it's really slow, particularly if everything is parametric. However, in the long run the parametric aspect saves you a lot of time. But if you just want models for images there's no reason for it. You'll spend hours making a sofas or cabinets. And there's not good import feature.

 

One program I've been very interested in is SolidWorks. Our curtain wall associate in Spain uses it for drawing and fabrication and they swear by it. I think one of the problems with Revit is that it tells you how an building should work, which in our case is often times a roadblock.

Anyone ever play with SolidWorks?

[Craig Hunt]

Go with Archicad 9

Autocad ADT is a piece of junk. DO NOT BUY ADT PLEASE.

If You Do Buy it Your Just Stupid.

REVIT Is Not a tool for CD's

 

"Your Just Stupid" is the best quote ever.

 

Seriously, you could put this on T-shirts and make a lot of money, guy.

[Antisthenes]

From what i have observed if you want to use Revit you will NEEED to get some flavor of autocad as well to do regular/trad. things and y not make it adt ?

 

but i say avoid autodesk all together new alteratives are sprouting up all around. i am not advocating archicad thou.

[ChooChoo]

Seriously, you could put this on T-shirts and make a lot of money, guy.

 

I think I'm gonna run with that. It's hillarious.

 

I use Revit almost exclusively. I find it to be a great program to use. I like the parametric features and the updating of every view saves me a ton of redraw times and makes things accurate.

 

I have found that if you have some modeling that is rounded, it doesn't transport the greatest into Max/Viz. Unless I have missed a step somewhere, it creates flat edges on rounded surfaces a little, not a whole lot. Can't quite remember what this is called, tesselation?

 

And I have no problems with CD's here either and Scott Davis has been around since the dinosaur.

 

I think Revit is good and ADT is good too. I think both are going to stick around and I think you are going to be prying ADT from the cold, dead hands of many architects that use it. They won't phase it out.

[Lyle]

Re: ADT or Revit!

I have both programs. I've used autocad since it's inception and there have being great impovements. I purchased Revit 2 years ago and I am going to drop the liscence. If you were starting from scratch Revit is easy to learn, but

from cad it lacks tons of our tools. Try doing a edit in place on a wall in ADT then in revit. Profiles are done in the Family editor, for ADT users dead slow.

If you are using Revit's library fine but that family editor is a night mare for

ADt users.

All the best,

Lyle

[MegaPixel]

One program I've been very interested in is SolidWorks. Our curtain wall associate in Spain uses it for drawing and fabrication and they swear by it. I think one of the problems with Revit is that it tells you how an building should work, which in our case is often times a roadblock.

Anyone ever play with SolidWorks?

 

I used Solidworks for over 7 years in a Mechanical design environment and I loved every minute of it. However this software is still better suited for high precision Mechanical and Industrial Product Design. I might have heard a rumor somewhere that Dessault Systems might be toying with the idea of an Architectural Product, but it is only a rumor.