Revit for residential?

[joeman27]

Is Revit good for residential construction drawings? I am currently using autocad and drawing everything line-by-line but I need a faster way to do floor plans, sections, details etc.  Can Revit do details pretty well?  Like with hatch paterns, lines, text, etc.?  I have attached an example drawing of what my drawing looks likes.

Any help would be appreciated.

[rightdesign]

I have been doing residential work with Revit for about 6 years and before that used Autocad LT. It is good for residential new build work. For small alteration jobs I would suggest stick with Autocad LT as Revit can prove a bit frustrating. I find Revit great for 2D detailing, better than Autocad. There are hatch patterns inside Revit but you can also import the Autocad hatch pattern files.  

[gc]

I find Revit to be quite useful for residential design and construction drawings, especially in coordinating plans, elevations, and sections.  I've been using Revit since it was introduced and for the past 8 years as a sole practitioner for custom residences, new construction, renovations, and additions.  I jumped right from traditional hand drawings straight into Revit without any prior CAD drafting experience, including AutoCAD; Revit allowed me to avoid learning AutoCAD and CAD drafting altogether.  Be aware though, AutoCAD and Revit are two different animals and need to be approached quite differently, especially the work flow in the early phases of a project and design; Revit is not a 2D design process, but truly a 3D modeling process.  Once a digital (Revit) model is constructed it is relatively efficient to extract information needed for construction drawings including 2D details (the model can be used as a base for "tracing" 2D details).  2D details and drawings are also fairly easy to accomplish in Revit since Revit has a full, at least in my experience, complement of 2D drafting tools.

George Crawford, Crawford Design Associates

[heterarch]

I think that Revit is perfectly fine for residential projects, especially where you're utilizing a lot of industry/manufacturer standard elements and practices.  Highly unique custom homes can possibly get tricky, depending on exactly what you try to accomplish.  The biggest drawback in my mind with Revit for Residential projects is that you're more likely to be working with engineers who aren't using Revit, so the potential colaboration and coordination of Revit is lost.  You'll likely have to model all the structural and mechanical stuff yourself, which is likely to come directly out of your pocket.

The advantages that are possible can still make it worthwhile though, especially if you do a lot of residences, and reuse a lot of the same construction systems/details/products...  Once you've built up a well organized and tested library, you'll probably be able to bang out work faster than you ever thought possible, and be able to give your clients some decent renders/views/sun studies/etc. on top of it all as an easy bonus.

[tgivaughn]

The answer will become crystal clear when you visit the Chief Architect website & begin a trial use of this 3D modeling software.  Pull a wall, then look at it in 3D, spin it around - it's that fast, easy.  Think about having to work for hours using Revit, having to cut your rates in order to compete with others charging for their full rate time using Chief.