I second that. I'm in both camps. My day job is helping a big firm use Revit. My night job is running my own business that makes furniture, custom interiors, and more using a CNC milling table in conjunction with Revit and other 3d tools.
While you can go from Revit to a CNC table, and for certain jobs there is a lot of value there (it rocks for doing custom interiors) there's a lot of stuff lacking (it's not so hot for custom furniture).
Revit's always working in the context that you're putting a building or interior together; not an assembly of complex, interrelated, solid parts that make up something like a chair. That's Inventor's realm. And while I'm not using Inventor, I am learning a different MCAD parametric system just so that we can make certain things we do easier and faster. Revit's also not well suited to quickly modeling complex, sculptural, organic shapes. That's Max's realm. And again, I don't use Max, I use a different 3D program for that work, and then export those models to the CNC mill too.
The big thing that's really lacking from Revit is the ability to 'explode' or break down your model into it's individual parts quickly on a small scale. Also I've found it's modeling toolset to not be as strong in that area, making small, curvy, assembly-based models or complex, organic, fluid models will take a lot longer in Revit then in another tool. Great for buildings, great for generating plans, sections, elevations, etc. It would make a very nice layout tool for your cabinets, actually, and would let you do custom interiors like nothing else. But fabrication models, of complex cabinets? You could do it, but you'd be better off doing it in Inventor. It's got stronger modeling tools for small parts, and it does a lot of things that help you then manage and break down your product into it's individual parts for actual fabrication.
As for using the new AutoCAD, well, while it's modeling has gotten better recently, it still doesn't NOTHING to help you manage your complex models, to handle changes for you parametrically, or to take your models and quickly turn them into a set of drawings. And while it's now got a lofting tool, it still doesn't come close to the kind of organic modeling a 'real' 3D system like Max lets you do. If your crew knows AutoCAD, and refuses to learn new tools, then sure it's a good solution. But there's a lot of value to be had in these other tools, so if you think you can leverage it I think you'll find that Inventor might be your best choice (if you wanna stay with Autodesk that is, which it sounds like you do).
