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Should I Upgrade to Revit?

21 REPLIES 21
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Message 1 of 22
chris_the_masshole
471 Views, 21 Replies

Should I Upgrade to Revit?

My ofiice is small, 4 employees total, including 2 drafters and two owners. We are currently using AutoCAD LT 2006. We did not sdo any 3D design that was not for presentation work, and when we needed presentation renderings I used MAX, which I purchased while still in school. But now, the license has expired and we will need to do more renderings soon.

The issue I am having is whether or not to just buy a single seat of VIZ (price reasons) or try to talk my boss into buying 2 seats of Revit (whioch are on sale for $1995 for LT users). He is on the fence but will ultimately go with my recommendation.

I know how easy Revot makes things, expecially coming from a 'dumb' program like LT. I have tinkered with it in the past and imagaine it would save lots of man power.

The only thing I am concerned about is Revit's rendering capabilities. I will be uinable to have my boss buy 2 seats of Revit & a seat of VIZ (a total of $6000, is just impossible for a 4 person firm right now).

I have attached a rendering that I did in MAX, can you please tell me if I should be able to render one with the same quality using Revit?

Any comments, or program suggestions are appreciated.
21 REPLIES 21
Message 2 of 22

Go n check revitcity.com - gallery section. I think revit is capable of that kinda quality. It might not be photoreal, but would do for most basic needs.
L
Message 3 of 22

Thanks. There are actually a few of them with the quality that I am looking for. I think I will recommend picking Revit up.
Message 4 of 22
Anonymous
in reply to: chris_the_masshole

be careful, the galleries do not usually contain 100% revit generated
renderings - sometimes photoshop and or MAX/Vray is used as well.

to be sure, download a free 30 day and run through one of the rendering
tutorials to be sure the output meets your needs.

IMO the current 9.1 rendering presentation quality would have been
acceptable in the 90s but not now. Depends on your market.

nice rough visualization tool though.

--
Brian Earsley
www.arete3.com
18645 South West Creek Drive
Tinley Park, Illinois 60477
708.342.1250 x.225

New to DWF? Check it out!
http://www.arete3.com/services/communication.html
select "ARCHITECTURE" - "File Formats"

wrote in message
news:5441161@discussion.autodesk.com...
Thanks. There are actually a few of them with the quality that I am looking
for. I think I will recommend picking Revit up.
Message 5 of 22

I made sure I looked at the ones that said "Modeled & Rendered in Revit". I work for an architectural firm, not a visualization firm, and our rederings are just for progress and deisng intent, not design competitions, but I will take your opinion into consideration, as you are an actual Revit user. Thanks.

I sent away for the free trial yesterday, hopefully it comes tomorrow.
Message 6 of 22

Correct, some are rendered using other tools. A good photoshop tweak to a final presentation image wouldn't do any harm though.
In general I'd call Revit a good BIM tool with a basic rendering system.
For "nice stuff", you need something better.

L
Message 7 of 22
Anonymous
in reply to: chris_the_masshole

You can download a trial version from this link if you don't want to wait
for the disk.

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=5488990


--
Jeff Hanson
Autodesk - Technical Publications
Building Solutions Division
Manchester, NH
_______________________________________

wrote in message
news:5441206@discussion.autodesk.com...
I made sure I looked at the ones that said "Modeled & Rendered in Revit". I
work for an architectural firm, not a visualization firm, and our rederings
are just for progress and deisng intent, not design competitions, but I will
take your opinion into consideration, as you are an actual Revit user.
Thanks.

I sent away for the free trial yesterday, hopefully it comes tomorrow.
Message 8 of 22
Anonymous
in reply to: chris_the_masshole

Just a suggestion, make sure you have your boss include training in the upgrade budget. You can't use Revit the same way you use acad and without training, the transition time will be much longer.
Message 9 of 22

I usually just stay away from rendering discussion...but I'm not going to say anything controversial...

I think the Revit internal version of Accurender has a softer light and is less photo real than say VIZ/Max/VIZrender/vray etc. For conceptual and early design studies it is really nice once you have wrung out materials. For high quality photo realism the others are just better at it, being purpose built for it.

Revit's deployment of Accurender is missing UVW mapping tools, a really nice material library (it has so/so materials) and it is just slower than the others or at least can be depending who is "driving".

Based on your description of your firm and the comments about what you saw on Revitcity though, you'll be in good hands with Revit. Just make sure you're prepared for some change 8-). Try to include time and money for some training to get you off on the right foot.

The price for LT users to upgrade as you said is a real bargain too, particularly if it includes the first year's subscription.
Message 10 of 22
Anonymous
in reply to: chris_the_masshole

Keep in mind that if you are considering upgrading to Revit that you will be
working with a complete architectural program that will allow you to go from
concept to construction documents in one model. The ability to also create
perspectives throughout the design process is an added bonus. This will be
very different from working Autocad LT and I agree with the others about
getting some kind of training.

As an architectural firm, regardless of whether your firm decides to
purchase a seat of VIZ in the future, you should upgrade to Revit now. Give
a copy of the attached brochure to your boss and it becomes a no brainer.


wrote in message
news:5441028@discussion.autodesk.com...
My ofiice is small, 4 employees total, including 2 drafters and two owners.
We are currently using AutoCAD LT 2006. We did not sdo any 3D design that
was not for presentation work, and when we needed presentation renderings I
used MAX, which I purchased while still in school. But now, the license has
expired and we will need to do more renderings soon.

The issue I am having is whether or not to just buy a single seat of VIZ
(price reasons) or try to talk my boss into buying 2 seats of
Revit (whioch are on sale for $1995 for LT users). He is on the fence but
will ultimately go with my recommendation.

I know how easy Revot makes things, expecially coming from a 'dumb' program
like LT. I have tinkered with it in the past and imagaine it would save
lots of man power.

The only thing I am concerned about is Revit's rendering capabilities. I
will be uinable to have my boss buy 2 seats of Revit & a seat of VIZ (a
total of $6000, is just impossible for a 4 person fir
m right now).

I have attached a rendering that I did in MAX, can you please tell me if I
should be able to render one with the same quality using Revit?

Any comments, or program suggestions are appreciated.
Message 11 of 22

From what I understand, accurender is based on antiquated technology. The base program within the new ACAD 2007 have better and much more sophisticated rendering capabilities. The latest release of accurender alone will never come close to the quality of renderings VIZ is able to produce, even one simple as the one you posted - it'll always look cartoony
Message 12 of 22

But AutoCad 2007 is built-in to Revit, so therefore would I not get the most recent version of AutoCAD's rendering engine? Or is that a different engine that only comes when you don't purchase it tied with Revit?

Sorry for all these questions.
Message 13 of 22
Anonymous
in reply to: chris_the_masshole

AutoCAD is not built into Revit. Revit is a totally different technology
and platform when it comes to creating drawings. It has very little in
common with AutoCAD other than they are both tool to create drawings. If
you want to keep AutoCAD you need to buy Revit Series. This is a package
that includes both Revit and AutoCAD.

Jeff

wrote in message
news:5442176@discussion.autodesk.com...
But AutoCad 2007 is built-in to Revit, so therefore would I not get the most
recent version of AutoCAD's rendering engine? Or is that a different engine
that only comes when you don't purchase it tied with Revit?

Sorry for all these questions.
Message 14 of 22

I was not aware of that. Thank you very much. I think I was getting lost in all the talk that the salesmen was shooting out. As much as I would love to buy Revit, it looks like I will be sticking with my original plan to buy VIZ, unless my trial with Revit shows me something really nice.
Message 15 of 22

After working in LT all this time I'll be interested to hear what you think after you spend some time with Revit, if you do.
Message 16 of 22

Autodesk is promoting Revit, so If the latest promo is still available it was actually based on upgrading from LT to either Autocad (and then you get Revit free of charge) or Revit (so you get Autocad free). That was around euro 2400 in Dec06.
Message 17 of 22

I will let you know what I think of Revit. I should have some time next week to use it.
Lucas, I know of the promotion, which is the only reason why we are looking at revit. My boss would never ok a $10,000 purchase (2 seats), but a $4,000 purchase is much more realistic.
Message 18 of 22

It's an 'awrite' package. Especially bundled with full acad.
Knowing any other tool, preferably any BIM (like ArchiCAD), the transition should not take long.
It has a number of drawbacks, tends to try to be intelligent (which might cause lots of annoyance), still does not make any proper use of OPEN GL. It introduces some different approach, getting rid of the layering system.
The main drawback though is it's very hungry on resources, so be prepared for the hardware upgrades.
Running Revit 9.1 on core2duo 2.16 GHz, 4 GB of RAM, nvidia 7950gx2 and with a midsize shopping centre project the performance is "not entirely acceptable". Even 2d drawings do not run smoothly... For small houses ans so on it might be just 'ok'.
Some ppl call it 'next step', I'd call it 'worth consideration' ;]
I've recommended it myself for the company I work for and we've just bought 20lics.

Good luck!

L
Message 19 of 22

Your video card is for gaming. You should be considering the (unfortunately more expensive) Nvidia Quadro 1500 / 2500 / 3500 Series cards. They are designed with 3D in mind.
Message 20 of 22

It's not the hardware issue. Quadro's ride the same processors, they're just supported by different drivers. AutoCAD 2007 flies on that 7950gx2. It is a SOFTWARE problem, as Revit has one of the poorest implementation of OPENGL (if it has any) I've come accross so far.
Quadro in this case is just another waste of $.

L

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