Vectorworks or Revit

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by M Jackson Ford on February 20, 2010 at 8:42pm

Hi Robert:

I have experience with both, but my bias toward Vectorworks will prevent me from being fair. In short, Revit CANNOT produce 2d drawings (which, unfortunately, are still required) at any reasonable quality that matches Vectorworks. If it can, it takes about 3 times as long to achieve that quality. I am speaking specifically of the way it handles line weights, hatches, colors, transparencies, image underlays, etc. Futhermore, its rendering engine is no match for Renderworks. On its positive side -- it is the de facto standard of the industry; so, if you are transferring a lot of files between consultants and contractors, you will be in a very small minority with Vectorworks. I work in a firm of over 1000 architects. It has one of the largest installed user-bases of Revit among any any architecture firm. For presentations and diagrams the drawings I produce in Vectorworks are usually universally preferred to those done in Revit. Vectorworks also seems to be much more forgiving in terms of importing files. Revit is limited. Vectorworks happily imports most 3d file formats, dwg., and even GIS files.

Finally, Vectorworks is infinitely more user-friendly. It has a much faster learning curve so that you can be up and producing. Also, it's a fraction of the cost of Revit.

Sorry, I told you I was biased at the beginning.

Permalink Reply by Robert Swinburne on February 22, 2010 at 7:11am

I was briefly considering a switch to Revit in order to work with a long term collaborator who is a revit pro. decided against. I did a lot of 3-d modeling in VW before I discovered sketchup but found it cumbersome and aggravating. I switched to sketchup for modeling because it took significantly less time in the early stages and was much more intuitive as a modeling tool. Now I am looking towards revisiting VW's modeling capabilities in terms of BIM but haven't had time to dive in. Most of my work is very simple and low budget so it is hard to beat my super fast 2-d drafting methods after exploring basic spatial and massing issues with a sketchup model.

Permalink Reply by Felipe Junqueira on March 18, 2010 at 8:56pm

I've been usign VectorWorks since school days. In the last year I've decided to try archicad and revit as a future alternative to my projects.
I could see that they are very robust solutions for architecture, and architects. Revit has a very good parametric solution and is easy to have a very accurate model of your design. To have a parametric custom door you have only to draw a door, draw it's dimensions and transform those dimensions in parameters that can be changed any time in a palette similar to object info. So you can buid your own parametric objects easily after you learn of course. There are a parametric beam system too, and you can attach your structure to a a structural grid, just change the grid and your detailed structure will change too. You can use these system to built a parametric detailed roof with tiles, for example. Search for revit family on youtube...
But one thing that you have to keep in mind is that, in Revit and Archicad you HAVE to do it in 3d, so only after knowing very well the software, or having a full time cad manager in-house you can trust it as a solution.
I don't agree with mister Roger about the rendering engine in Revit, by now it comes with MentalRay, one of the best rendering engine's in the market, and very easy to set up. For aditional informations revitcity.com is a good portal, like vectorworking for us.
I'm trying to do BIM projects in VectorWorks, but so far I'm having a huge hard time with it, almost not reaching my deadlines, but hope this will get better soon!

Permalink Reply by bil taylor on June 3, 2010 at 2:15pm

Felipe /what sorts of problems you having with VW?
how long have you been using it?

Bil

Permalink Reply by Steven J. Calvanico on February 25, 2012 at 4:16am

Hi Robert, 

What version of VectorWorks are you using? I have always been a 3d first architect using Architrion first, then BOA (block modeler) through 2010, then we started experimenting with Revit. I recently decided to adopt VectorWorks because of the major improvements I was seeing in the model capabilities (Push Pull, follow me automatic working pane and others) another factor was cost. I had owned a full license for v10.5, and I upgraded and joined service select, now learning and using v2012. (Any work I have in existing BOA that is needed, I am printing to PDF and importing the 2d Drawings (if complete enough to use) or I bring the lifework in through dwg. I have not found a way to use my BOA 3d data effectively in VW- that would be useful.