Thursday, December 24, 2009

SketchUp vs Revit: How do they match up?

This is a big question, and boy is it contentious! Some people get very very mad when you put SketchUp and Revit together.... Anyway, I have been using SketchUp Pro/ LayOut to produce construction documents ever since LayOut came with SketchUp. Below is a recent sample:



....and here are other samples along with photos of finished buildings documented exclusively using SU Pro/ LayOut.

My main points of comparison can be summed up like this: 

Revit:
  1. Excellent for outputting construction information and automatically linking/ compiling drawings. 
  2. Seemingly cost effective for very large projects, but prohibitive for small projects. 
  3. It is a post-design tool only.
SketchUp Pro:
  1. Used to assist in the design process.
  2. Exports technical data from the model, though this is as yet an unrefined process within SketchUp. However Rpreports can produce Bills of Materials from SketchUp. (Windows platform only)
  3. Creates excellent construction documents in conjunction with LayOut.
  4. Cost effective for very small to medium size projects (May in time become cost effective for large/ very large projects)
The full SketchUp Pro vs Revit review can be found here Comments welcome!

1 comment:

Bobby said...

Boy does that make me mad :)

I love Sketch Up, too! I also use Revit and appreciate the analyzable data you get from your model. I think both have their place, but if all you are going to do is create a model then Sketch Up makes more sense to me.

Thanks,
Bobby W Parker
www.nor-son.com