I AM IMPRESSED WITH A STUDENTS WORK.... REVIT CAN CONSTRUCT QUICK 3D SKETCH MODELS

I've been too busy in my Adelaide Architect's Office to put in any effort towards Learning Archicad for almost a month now. I can knock out the jobs pretty quick in Autocad. I really cannot afford the kind of down-time the change-over will cost me. I have had a 5th year Uni Sa Architecture student working on jobs in parallel with me to show him how a small practice runs. He is experienced in Revit and what he knocked up in 2 and a half hours surprised me. I gave him a sketchup massing model and Autocad plans for a small 2 story house that clients wanted in a Tudor style to get past local planning Authority. Putting aside my gripes of how councils can be very dictatorial and proscriptive concerning what they will and will not grant planning approval for in the sake of Street-scape character (planners actually have no design content in their course... I could grumble for hours about that one) the resultant images this young guy produced in 2 and a half hours on Revit astounded me. I was informed by him that this was a very basic rendering due to time constraints. Also I was informed that Revit is being taught at the Uni. This is how they got market share 15 years ago with Autocad. I now have doubts if learning ArchiCad is the best thing for me. It is a big investment in time if Archicad is going to go the way of the Beta video format or Quikdraw (mmm if you've never heard of it you get the idea). I have posted similar views from my sketchup massing model and his Revit model.

Revit image created from an Autocad plan in 2.5 hours

Sketchup image with just enough detail added to understand design intent. I used sketchup to make a massing model to best work out how the elevations would look and to run a shadow study on the site for planning approval.