Collaboration with other software
About model and data exchange with 3rd party solutions: Revit, Solibri, dRofus, Bluebeam, structural analysis solutions, and IFC, BCF and DXF/DWG-based exchange, etc.

Archicad 12 and Revit 2009

Anonymous
Not applicable
Hi,

I know this is an age old topic but my question is..

I would like peoples input as to how easy revit is compared with Archicad - having been an AC user for about 4 years i was pretty quick and could achieve a great deal.

I recently moved jobs and have been getting used to AutoCAD!.. backwards step really. Going to trial Revit I think but i would welcome any comment from AC users who have also used revit.

Thanks
10 REPLIES 10
Anonymous
Not applicable
Revit is fairly easy to get started with, but, like ArchiCAD, takes a long time to master. As an experienced ArchiCAD user I expect you will run into a fair amount of frustration since many of the tools lack the flexibility and subtlety found in ArchiCAD and some of Revit's ease of learning comes at the expense of ease of use. I can't go into all the details here, but there has been quite a bit of discussion on the fora here. You might want to try a search.

My sympathies for having to step down to AutoCAD in your new position. I don't see why Revit is any more useful to you in this situation than ArchiCAD. If anything ArchiCAD is more interoperable with AutoCAD than Revit is.
Anonymous
Not applicable
Thanks for the comments. I am leaning towards AC as i know i can get the work done.. autocad is hugely frustrating and from what i read Revit may well frustrate an experienced AC user!

Are the new dwg translators any better in AC12 - i did eventually find a reasonable way of exporting dwg's in AC10 but it did have its problems..

When I looked at Revit about 2 years ago the dwg interchange was an issue - i would have thought autodesk would have resolved this.. but then again maybe not.
Anonymous
Not applicable
Revit's DWG support has improved but I would still say that ArchiCAD has the edge there. Revit does beat AC in 3D DWF (by having it at all) which I hope GS will address soon.

I have always found ArchiCAD's DWG support to be adequate at least, frustrating at times and quite impressive at others depending on what I have needed to do.

There is no need to go with Revit to interoperate with AutoCAD. It's main advantage is in interoperating with the other Revit variants.
Anonymous
Not applicable
AC 12 is first multiprocessor-support BIM software and the 3D speed is obviously faster than revit.


AC's 2D drawing is much better than revit too.

for import and export dwg files, even different version of autocad has conflict in it. let alone that dump dwg files.
Anonymous
Not applicable
Does anyone have a good example of a DWG file exported from Archicad they could send me? I'm trying to convince others that have had very bad experiences with it.
Anonymous
Not applicable
I should expand - we need to be able to export DWG's that can be used by other consultants/architects and poss contactor's to produce production drawings from - I understand that not all elements will export successfully but the files need to look and work properly.. I have seen some exports in the past that are a joke.. Have Graphisoft sorted this issue out in AC12?
Djordje
Ace
mattjc wrote:
I should expand - we need to be able to export DWG's that can be used by other consultants/architects and poss contactor's to produce production drawings from - I understand that not all elements will export successfully but the files need to look and work properly.. I have seen some exports in the past that are a joke.. Have Graphisoft sorted this issue out in AC12?
Out of the box export will probably not work and be not a joke but ridiculous.

The only way to get what you want is to have the Consultant's template, and set the layer transitions, pen transitions, linetype transitions ... and so on. You need one Translator per Consultant.

Some things can not translate because they don't exist in AutoCAD, but most do translate nicely and in a usable way.

Search a bit in the Data exchange forum, there has been a lot of discussion on this. Also, many good articles on ArchicadWiki.
Djordje



ArchiCAD since 4.55 ... 1995
HP Omen
Anonymous
Not applicable
Thanks for the info.. I will have a look at some old posts. I realize i need to experiment with getting the export to work the way we need it to for our autocad users out there...

I guess i was just hoping it was going to be easy!
Djordje
Ace
mattjc wrote:
Thanks for the info.. I will have a look at some old posts. I realize i need to experiment with getting the export to work the way we need it to for our autocad users out there...

I guess i was just hoping it was going to be easy!
Any translation is never easy. Try language translators on Google for example ... You should know both the languages, and have a knack. Knowing the languages is something computers do well, but they can not have knacks ... and that is where we come in ...

... to completely mess it up!
Djordje



ArchiCAD since 4.55 ... 1995
HP Omen