Landscape Architecture: Revit vs 3ds Max

[Anonymous]

For a Sketchup alternative in making hardscape elements, which should a landscape architecture student use? I am very handy with Photoshop and can make almost professional quality renders, but Sketchup ruins the realism. I would like to have a program to replace it that is till really "photoshopable" but can stand on it's own. 

 I heard 3ds Max is really difficult to learn. We don't learn these programs in school so I will be learning on my own. I hear that some people use revit then move to 3ds Max, is this true? I really want to learn this software quickly because school starts up soon and I'd like to learn before then.

Thanks in Advance.

[ToanDN]

I think Revit is not the right program and 3DS Max is overkill for what you do.
You can still use SketchUp but you need some additional rendering engine plugins such as VRay or Maxwell to get the realistic kind of renderings.

[Anonymous]

Do they have free versions of that I can use? I'm not able to make contours on my student version of sketchup. Does Autodesk make any programs I can do that with, along with the hardscape? The edges in sketchup are really what I have trouble with. I think it would be benificial to know more than one program, because the larger firms don't really use Sketchup. Our rival college learns Rhino and 3ds Max but I don't know to what extent they use them or if they are interchangable.

[Anonymous]

It may be worth taking a look at AutoCAD Civil 3D which has Image Based Lighting backgrounds available. Revit is also a good contender espescially with the site designer plugin. 

Most medium to large projects make use of either the Building Design Suite Premium or the Infrastructure Design Suite Premium, which both include both Revit and 3DS Max and has a workflow assistant built into Revit that allows the model to be sent to 3D Studio Max when it is ready to render. AutoCAD Civil 3D comes as part of the infrastructure Design Suite too!

You can download a 30 day trial of the suites from the Autodesk website.

[Anonymous]

Revit can create topography from contours and AutoCAD Civil 3D can import data from LandXML files. All Autodesk software is available for 30 day trial and can have a student licence applied if required after that

[Anonymous]

Awesome, that's super helpful information! If I were to download the student versions of Revit and Max on my laptop, do you think it would really eat it up? I have Autocad, Sketchup and 3 Adobe peograms. If I had to just pick one, which would you suggest? I have heard of one firm using Civil 3D in conjuction with Lumion, but the man I spoke to said that he mainly used it to calculate site grading. Is that what it is typically used for?