Revit

Revit is arguably the industry-standard BIM (Building Information Modeling) program that design professionals use to create detailed 3d models of their designs.

Nope! You’re also welcome to use a pencil to write an essay instead of a computer. It just depends on what you like to spend your time working on.

I personally want to spend my time designing as much as possible. Revit does such a good job at streamlining many of the mundane, repetitive drawing tasks that plague typical AutoCAD or SketchUp workflows, particularly in documenting your design, that I can’t come up with a reason to not use it.

When you draw a plan in Revit, it instantly comes along with a 3d representation of that concept as well as all the technical specifications needed for construction documents and scheduling.

As long as Revit can also function as a flexible design tool, why would you not use it?

Yes! With the proper setup.

Revit has a reputation for being too rigid to function as a design tool during schematic design and that it should effectively just be used as a documentation tool. That has led to workflows that involve drawing 2d plans in AutoCAD, modeling initial 3d designs in SketchUp, then re-modeling the project in Revit after client approvals are obtained. This is a relatively old-school and inefficient way of approaching design.

I’ve solved this by developing a workflow that uses my own custom-built Revit families, some dialed in View Templates, and an iPad. I have all the tools I need to quickly iterate on a concept and build a detailed, but flexible 3d model. Check out this video.

When I deem Schematic Design complete with my clients, I present a photo-real rendering from a fully-built Revit model that’s ready to sprint through Design Development and Construction Documentation. It’s super flexible and super efficient.