Revit or Autodesk for Interior Designers

[Anonymous]

Good day 

I am a interior designer working for a architectural firm who is moving over from AutoCad to Revit. I would like to find out from other Interior Designers what their option is on moving from AutoCad to Revit. I have read some opinions on the Internet and spoken to other Interior designers and there is a feeling that Revit is not the best option because of the fact that your unable to do Outside the box designs and your unable to get the same amount of freedom in design as with Autocad. I also understand Revit is great for 3D modeling of projects but i currently use Sketchup for that. 

Any advise from people who have used both? Specially in the Interior design field? 

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Although I'm not an interior designer, in my opinion that feeling is not correct.  You are not restricted to 'out the box' designs - you will have complete freedom of design.  You will also have the advantage of nice interior views.  If your company is in any case switching to Revit it would make sense to use the same platform for interior design.

[aRcHiTeCt.JM · Accepted solution]

… hi @Anonymous 

… once you learn REVIT

… you will discover that they are great opportunities for any design – interior or exterior

… the people who say REVIT is difficult or complicated are people who don't know anything about REVIT

… and they are afraid of changing

… once you start learning and perfecting the use of the program

… things and results will just get better and better

... you can do anything you want / need

... everything is REVIT 100 %

... as I said before with REVIT you can do anything you want / need

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the feedback. its greatly appreciated 

[Anonymous]

Thank You @aRcHiTeCt.JM for the feedback its greatly appreciated. 

Revit is clearly a great tool to use specially when your looking at doing 3D generated models i can see. 

If you don't mind me asking when it comes to detailing joinery for construction would you say its also easy to do? 

[aRcHiTeCt.JM · Accepted solution]

… hi @Anonymous 

… of course you can do any type of detail

... REVIT is basically build for that specific reason

... to be able to create a complete set of construction plans

… take a look at this course from lynda.com

… revit construction details

... the more you learn the easier it gets

... 

[hmunsell]

i wholeheartedly agree with both @Anonymous  & @aRcHiTeCt.JM  in the ability to do interior design in Revit. There is a lot of content out there from manufacturers for interiors and more coming out every day. our interiors group would kill me if i told them they had to go back to Autocad.

That said, beware of downloaded content! No all content from the vendors is modeled to best practices. Their families are very pretty, but not modeled efficiently. The model can get very bloated very quickly. we had to split our Interiors department into here own model because they were slowing down the Architectural model. Mind you we are doing multistory office buildings with 100's of thousands SqFt. We end up making a lot of our own content.

[chughes]

I am an architect working in a small firm with interior design in-house, mostly working on full custom, high end, single family residential.  I had 20 years of Autocad experience in my head.  I fought the Revit transition for over 2 years, using the same argument that it is not flexible enough to accommodate the amount of custom work we execute.

I was wrong.

Revit is far more flexible than Autocad and it will ultimately make you a better designer.  Revit will require you to finish your design.  Revit will not let you hide from those unresolved details and blatantly show you the details you think are resolved when they are not.  You, as an interior designer, will likely get involved in the overall design sooner as the design portion is far more front-loaded.

But it will be hard.  There is a lot to learn and precious little of your Autocad workflow will translate.  Revit will push you around for a couple of years.  Your designs will suffer.  Your profitability will suffer.  You will scream and yell and may go through a couple of monitors with broken screens.  But ultimately it will be worth it.  You start to push Revit around.  You will start to make the 'workarounds' work for you.  You will get a library of families that you can rely on and easily manipulate.  Then you may integrate an add-in like Enscape to use during the design process and suddenly you have giddy clients in your conference room fully 'seeing' your design as you walk around the space instead of looking at 2D prints and nodding their heads blankly.

This is experience speaking, and coming from someone who was a complete Revit pessimist.  It is hard, and still is some days, but the transition is ultimately worth it.  Just make sure you budget for monitor replacements.

[Anonymous]

Good day!

Thank you so much for the time you've taken to give me some feedback on
your experience in the transition from Autocad to Revit. I have started
with online courses but i think the real thing is to sit and just work on
Revit. I also work mainly for a architecture firm so our firm are about
50/50 on Autocad and Revit and as luck will have it my projects are still
on Autocad and the other issue is that deadlines they don't really allow
for time to struggle through the time to get documentation out so one or
two projects i had in Revit at the end i did the drawing work in Autocad to
get it out in time.

I have started with courses focusing on Revit for Interior design and I can
see that if I just push through what a great tool Revit can be. I have to
agree with you that having a well setup family library will help a lot and
that many frustrated days are in my foreseeable future to get the hang of
the program. I will just have to look at alternative outings for this
frustration like taking a walk to calm down because the replacement of a
monitor will not be a cheap round and I am not sure my insurance will be as
understanding.

Thank you again!

[salahzgtu]

Design interior cad

[uniqueinteriorm]

Revit is generally considered the better choice for interior designers due to its Building Information Modeling (BIM) capabilities.