Can anyone compare Chief Architect with REVIT LT

[keithhe]

Lew,

I completely agree with you on the Building Options option as SP has. Although like Perry, I have to do a work around for as-builts, there is no easy way to have, and show, various options without having x number of plans. I suspect this has been in the suggestions many times before, but while they are building X6 should have it there again with everyone weighing in on merits of it.

[perryh]

but while they are building X6 should have it there again with everyone weighing in on merits of it.

X6 new feature's are probably already decided upon a long time ago. We just don't know what they are.

[keithhe]

X6 new feature's are probably already decided upon a long time ago. We just don't know what they are.

Perhaps, but if they don't release until next year, a year is a really long time to add, or change programming, assuming they want to. Not as sure what we want matters.

[Justice]

Justice:

I think a closer comparison would be Chief Lite at $1495

Lew

Lew I knew you would say that.

The difference between $1200 to $6000 is big gap for the Revit LT version?

AutoDesk must think we are Donkeys or Rabbits by dangeling a carrot like Revit LT?

[lbuttery]

The difference between $1200 to $6000 is big gap for the Revit LT version?


Justice:

its not about price gap

its about marketplace

a new buyer would be looking at products in the same price range to compare

CA also sells HD products for $79
and that is a big difference between Chief Premier selling for $2295

Its not fair to compare them at all

Revit LT needs to be compared with other products in the same price range

Lew

[Justice]

The difference between $1200 to $6000 is big gap for the Revit LT version?


Justice:

its not about price gap

its about marketplace

a new buyer would be looking at products in the same price range to compare

CA also sells HD products for $79
and that is a big difference between Chief Premier selling for $2295

Its not fair to compare them at all

Revit LT needs to be compared with other products in the same price range

Lew

Lew the comparison between $ value between intro products and the full product must also be weighed with the level of feature content between the intro product and the full product.

For example, I downloaded Revit LT 2013 on the weekend and it appears to have allot in it when compared to the full version that I downloaded a couple of years back.

What is the US maket value for ArchiCAD starter edition and Full Archicad, is it about 50% of the cost?
I estimate that ACSE has about 75% of the content of AC full.

Revit LT is 20% of the cost of Revit full but appears to have a much greater percentage of features in it when compared to $ value.

What would you estimate the content of Revit LT to be against Revit Full?

One thing I can say, is that it appears that Revit has copied things from Chief when it comes to clicking temp dimensions to set walls and other objects into thier positions.

CA has been around allot longer than Revit and has had the number input method mentioned above since as far back as 3dha 3.0 or even earlier?

[johnnyprc]

I faced this decision for our small frim 1 1/2 years ago - and bought Revit first, then CA. Even though there are many things I like about Revit over Chief, such as the UI, less-quirky behavior, and less backwards ways of doing things, Chief is dominate in critical features and overall ease of use. Chief really needs to work on the quirky part, but it is better in so many ways to Revit. Try doing different roof ends in Revit without custom modeling - it doesn't exist beyond a couple options. If I had a larger firm and worked mostly on commercial projects, I would go with Revit. However, it sounds like you are not in that group.

Keep in mind that you will still need another drawing app for misc things - I can't imagine drawing certain things with CA (even though it might be technically possible).

[lbuttery]

What would you estimate the content of Revit LT to be against Revit Full?


Justice:

no clue - I have never seen either one

I have been saying for years that since HD PRO costs $500 versus Chiefs $2300
that it probably has only 20% of the features

that is a guess-timate - a SWAG
the true % ???

Lew

[Justice]

What would you estimate the content of Revit LT to be against Revit Full?


Justice:

no clue - I have never seen either one


I have been saying for years that since HD PRO costs $500 versus Chiefs $2300
that it probably has only 20% of the features

that is a guess-timate - a SWAG
the true % ???

Lew

Lew I downloaded the comparison matrix for Revit LT and Revit Full and it looks like its around the 2/3rds mark and I think
the ArchiCAD comparison would be more like 2/3rds as well when it comes to features contents. But they do leave out the rendering engines in these intro products that I think are a must and CA lite and HDpro both have the rending in it.

[Justice]

I faced this decision for our small frim 1 1/2 years ago - and bought Revit first, then CA. Even though there are many things I like about Revit over Chief, such as the UI, less-quirky behavior, and less backwards ways of doing things, Chief is dominate in critical features and overall ease of use. Chief really needs to work on the quirky part, but it is better in so many ways to Revit. Try doing different roof ends in Revit without custom modeling - it doesn't exist beyond a couple options. If I had a larger firm and worked mostly on commercial projects, I would go with Revit. However, it sounds like you are not in that group.

Keep in mind that you will still need another drawing app for misc things - I can't imagine drawing certain things with CA (even though it might be technically possible).

Johnny,
I can see from what you said here that CA is easier to use overall. If you know specifically what CA needs to work on, please put it in the suggestions I would like to read it from your perspective of using both Revit & CA.

[johnnyprc]

I will try to post something when I get a chance, but overall many architects want to use Revit for its similarity to AutoCad. In a perfect world, I would want Chief to look and feel like Revit, a polished app, but do the things Chief does. In a nutshell that is the basis of my point.

I'll add that I just finished watching a Vectorworks seminar this morning where an architect from Santa Barabra was showing off his drawings (he had elevation drawings). The mediator thought he had done this in Vectorworks with 3D - but to his suprise, and somewhat embarrasment, it was discovered that the Architect produced the drawings in 2D only - for speed and quality. The ONLY app I have see that can produce a client ready 3D model presentation in the same time it takes sometimes to draw a 2D presentation IS CHIEF. Truthfuly, the quirky nature of Chief made me NOT want it to be the case, I with Revit was better, but I can't argue with results.

Here is a little farmhouse we did in a couple hours the other day (Joey Martin did this). I have not seen a rendering from Revit that could even do this out of the box. I know a lot of people do better stuff, but I wanted to show some of the work done in "concept" time.

[yusuf]

I will try to post something when I get a chance, but overall many architects want to use Revit for its similarity to AutoCad. In a perfect world, I would want Chief to look and feel like Revit, a polished app, but do the things Chief does. In a nutshell that is the basis of my point.

I'll add that I just finished watching a Vectorworks seminar this morning where an architect from Santa Barabra was showing off his drawings (he had elevation drawings). The mediator thought he had done this in Vectorworks with 3D - but to his suprise, and somewhat embarrasment, it was discovered that the Architect produced the drawings in 2D only - for speed and quality. The ONLY app I have see that can produce a client ready 3D model presentation in the same time it takes sometimes to draw a 2D presentation IS CHIEF. Truthfuly, the quirky nature of Chief made me NOT want it to be the case, I with Revit was better, but I can't argue with results.

Here is a little farmhouse we did in a couple hours yesterday. I have not seen a rendering from Revit that could even do this out of the box. I know a lot of people do better stuff, but I wanted to show some of the work done in "concept" time.

johnny that is verry good, and when rotating and revolving, view from many angles , top\ bottom, right\left ideas will come to flow i like concep 3d. Btw i bought revit architecture,structure plus an autodesk revit mep appls. They r very good and ideal for commercial buildings.i will start full scale in few days after i get my pc changed to fit an optimum performance. But i dont think i will stop riding chief parallely, since i like it and dig it deep inside its unseen capabilities,[/QUOTE]

[Justice]

I will try to post something when I get a chance, but overall many architects want to use Revit for its similarity to AutoCad. In a perfect world, I would want Chief to look and feel like Revit, a polished app, but do the things Chief does. In a nutshell that is the basis of my point.

I'll add that I just finished watching a Vectorworks seminar this morning where an architect from Santa Barabra was showing off his drawings (he had elevation drawings). The mediator thought he had done this in Vectorworks with 3D - but to his suprise, and somewhat embarrasment, it was discovered that the Architect produced the drawings in 2D only - for speed and quality. The ONLY app I have see that can produce a client ready 3D model presentation in the same time it takes sometimes to draw a 2D presentation IS CHIEF. Truthfuly, the quirky nature of Chief made me NOT want it to be the case, I with Revit was better, but I can't argue with results.

Here is a little farmhouse we did in a couple hours the other day (Joey Martin did this). I have not seen a rendering from Revit that could even do this out of the box. I know a lot of people do better stuff, but I wanted to show some of the work done in "concept" time.

Johnny,
Vectorworks and ArchiCAD have similar input methods when drawing the model up with elements.
I have lots of my work stored in CA files. To edit a CA model is very quick for me and so is building a model.
I use ArchiCAD full as well but on simple builders homes that are not too complicated I can do a fatser job in CA
since the framing in CA is part of the package and is easy to use as well. If I dont need to do framing plans and the house
is more complicated I will use AC instead. I am more used to Chief but it has gotten better over time like good wine. I have had to ask for things I needed and they eventually gave them to us. They do listen more than others as well I have found and thats why I ask guys here to make suggestions on how to Iron out some of the wrinkles from Chief.

[Fun2Learn]

Hi again everyone. I'm the original poster. I'm happy to have gotten so many replies. It has been very interesting to read. Just to clarify though- correct me if I have misunderstood, but I have come to understand that the major difference between revit lt and the regular revit is that only one person can be working on a project file at a time with revit lt. This would be no issue of course for the very small one or two man firm, but a huge problem for a larger firm. The other features that revit lt doesn't have, such as energy analysis and mass modeling, probably wouldn't be needed by a small firm either. The lack of on-board high quality rendering might be a problem though you do get some in the auto cad cloud if you pay extra for it. So I don't think you can compare Revit LT with Chief Lt --- I think you have to compare it with Chief as far as features go. So Revit Lt (which includes support and the rendering "cloud" free the first year) is half the cost of Chief x5!!

[Derek Pedersen]

There are many differences between this software and Chief Architect. Something that is often overlooked is ease of use and efficiency and this was touched on by users with hands on experience in the posts above. It's hard to beat Chief Architect in these areas for residential and light commercial work. It's difficult to compare software on a feature by feature basis in a simple list. You might find a feature listed in both but find that they are handled in much different ways or run into more limitations in one vs. another. I would recommend downloading the Chief Architect Free Trial and get a hands-on feel for how Chief Architect works if you have not already.

Feel free to contact me in the sales department if you have any questions or would like a personal webinar demo of Chief Architect. You can call 800-482-4433 and ask for Derek.