ArchiCAD is made by Architects for Architects so Revit is made by Engineers for Engineers? There is no denying that ArchiCAD looks better in presentations even if I have 3 years of experience in Revit. Layers seems old fashion but it is quite customizable and is as good as Revit subtractive method, filtering by parameters. The main problem is multi-disciplinary workflow so I won't be listing most of pros and cons of each software.
Filipino Architects does Everything
In the Philippines, architects and their draftsman does all drawings from architectural to electronics. If the architect does ArchiCAD for architectural, Revit could be used for structural and MEP. Or if you want to avoid the behemoth Autodesk, you have to learn Tekla Structures for structural and DDS-CAD for MEP. Structural in ArchiCAD seems usable but the MEP is horrible, not even close to Revit's engineers' tools.
These days, Autodesk is mostly focusing on improving the engineering tools in Revit as we have seen in Revit 2020.1 update. Autodesk is clearly don't want to add more text features, OTF support, custom schedules with images, solid operations, flexible family creation and more for years now. Well, ArchiCAD delayed view updates is not better and learning GDL sucks. I like ArchiCAD though.
Revit
Revit's unmatched massive arsenal of tools
Revit All-in-one package is a very attractive workflow. Revit is also much popular in practice in the Philippines although students leans more on ArchiCAD. It is also much easier to learn since the commands are only two keys away. Disciplines are separated in toolbars and views. What sucks the most is the hard-coded discipline-based visibility/graphics settings but is tolerable. With one file or separate Revit files, we can expect the views are consistent to each other such as plumbing lines having single lines or categorised accordingly. I'm still not sure if IFC can do that but that part is unimportant if you're stuck in Revit.
ArchiCAD
No Contest. Revit's family type properties sucks compared to ArchiCAD's object.
ArchiCAD is specialised in doing architectural. It has SketchUp like tools that speeds up modeling process and have better visibility controls for presentations. Whilst it can do structural and MEP drawings, the integration for such disciplines like analytical model, steel connections, rebars, electrical, duct and pipe flow calculations seems unattainable automatically and should be done manually in your excel workflow. Although these features should not be a concern for architects. ArchiCAD IFC interoperability is better than Revit so working with other BIM capable software should be a breeze. ArchiCAD and Revit can be paired via IFC but that means two software. Using Tekla Structures and DDS-CAD means three software. The software cost and training time will be the limitations. It is important to assess the actual need of the level of BIM model to the workflow.
Conclusion
Revit is better for engineer-minded architects and ArchiCAD is better for architect-minded architects. But with the current practice of architecture in the Philippines, architects are better off with Revit. One reason is that Revit is multi-disciplinary BIM software; second is that the grouping works like SketchUp; thirdly, standardisation of families/objects and details and lastly; the abundance of education and training in the country.
Why is this part 1? It's because I am currently testing ArchiCAD and hoping to use it in future projects.
It took me an hour to write this post. Updated with images.
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