1UPrime

1 minute ago, nVisionTEKBIM said:

I agree that no software is perfect. Even if we think it is we all slowly get annoyed with things. Hopefully you would agree with me that since Autodesk is such a corporate giant, they barely listen to their users' feedback. Each yearly release barely has anything new added. CA seems to have a large list of great improvements.

 

Autodesk thinks because they are so popular that they can just barely improve the products, and people will continue to buy.

That I most definitely agree with. I am still on Revit 2016 and my firm has seen little reason to update passed that because there are barely any improvements over the years. Each new release brings about less hope for things to actually get better.

You are very right about Autodesk products in general, their only major advantage is that they are so inbuilt into the design marketshare while actually offering little more than their competitors. I use Revit mostly because it's what I'm now used to and what I've encountered the most from firms around me but it has a long way to go before it could be considered the software to beat.

4 minutes ago, nVisionTEKBIM said:

 

CA can show lines with custom letters that repeat. No such thing in Revit. AutoCAD, ArchiCAD, Chief, and Softplan all have that feature. It's difficult to use all kinds of dashed line styles in Revit to show a site plan. Sure, I went ahead and created a custom annotation family with custom letters, but that won't work for curved areas. A horrible work-around in Revit.

 

Also, try placing a light on a sloped ceiling, and having it's 2D symbol show correctly in plan view. After years of cheating it, I went ahead and spent half a day modifying my recessed light family to show the 2D symbol correctly (flat) on the floor plan when the ceiling is sloped. Totally ridiculous! Believe me, I loved Revit for a while, but it's only efficient for square flat-roof buildings (boxes). I do very detailed modeling and very detailed plans, so I got really tired of spending so much time on "ridiculous" work-arounds and problems that I went searching for a better software suited for residential. Chief seems to be the one for me, at least so far as I'm learning it.

I see what you mean for your first point and I do agree that I use a workaround in Revit for that as well.

However I really disagree with your second point. That is that Revit is majorly only good for boxed buildings. Out of both Revit and Chief only one of would be able to form a shell structured building and it wouldn't be Chief. Chief has always worked through floors but with Revit you can work through form. As to the issue with the sloped ceiling light I don't recall having an issue like that myself so far. But I do believe you, over the years I have developed a lot of workarounds for Revit so I do know how difficult it can be and that it is definitely not perfect, but no software is. I'm not here to start an argument though. Whatever issues you have that make you want to drop Revit is valid. I just think you're choosing to see the weak points to Revit more than its strengths.

On Mon Dec 10 2018 at 9:39 PM, nVisionTEKBIM said:

I agree with you about Chief. I'm a new user slowly learning CA as I migrate away from Revit. A few hours a week on a training book, so no actual project experience yet, though. I did trials of SoftPlan and ArchiCAD before ultimately deciding that Chief is hands-down the most intuitive, with the best interface and vast amounts of great training videos.

 

Softplan had a simple user interface (not saying it's better than CA). The huge turn off for me was not being able to edit anything without right-clicking. Also, you can't really select much in 3D to edit. It's like the 3D is only for visuals. Coming from Revit where I can can click on anything in any view, that was very frustrating.

 

The reason I then considered ArchiCAD was to not have any limitations, as sometimes I do some large complex residential projects. I was very surprised, and frustrated that they did not have a single sample file for me to click on things to see how things work in the software. Every software has at least one. They pointed me towards an website ran by someone for a template, but it was a tiny "shed" and very messy layout for sheets and such. Ultimately, Graphicsoft was not as helpful as I wished, and the ArchiCAD interface was way overly complicated! If I learned ArchiCAD instead of Revit, I'd be much happier due to some really nice architectural tools. But not worth switching from Revit when there is Chief to choose.

 

Revit....I used to love until I started getting tired of days of 2D detailing of sections of a 19k SF house. So, I started looking for software better for residential.  Almost everything in Revit takes way too long, and there are so many limitations. You can't do lines with letters (i.e. site plans). Autodesk has grown to a huge corporation that doesn't listen to it's users. Each release barely has any new improvements. People just use it because it is marketed better. Now, with learning CA, I'm becoming very annoyed having to use Revit in the meantime.

 

Hopefully my opinions help you feel better about liking Chief for what it is, and what it does best.

I'm sorry to jump in on this but I'm not sure what exactly you mean by lines with letters here. I'd call myself a Revit expert as well but I do agree that it is not the best for small residential projects. However I've never understood the concept that it takes too long to use to design barring instant dimensions with chief but to each his own. I've also never had an issue drawing up site plans in Revit especially so I'd like to know what it is you're exactly referring to. Also 2D Drafting is a lot better in Revit than it is in Chief (although we all work differently so I will say it is for me and also to each his own).

Do note I agree with the poster that Chief Architect is incredibly intuitive but I also agree with the second post that it is good at what it does but not for anything beyond its focused scope.