Revit

Revit is a versatile drafting and design software which is certainly very popular with contractors, engineers and architects. It has all of the functionality you could ever want to design buildings and manage construction projects with 3D capabilities when rendering construction drawings. The multidimensional aspect of this software is outstanding. The user interface is clean and straightforward. It's relatively intuitive to learn and use. And the drag and drop technology is always nice to have too. The ability to coordinate early on in your project design process is helpful and can save a lot of time and hassles later on in the project. There are a lot of resources and tutorials available for Revit on their website and online with a lot of time saving tips that can really speed up your learning curve and overall workflow. The customization and configuration possible for your designs is virtually unlimited. You can create massively complex designs using all of the tools and features available in a single software rather than piecing this system together in other ways. If you have great communication with your subs you can use this software to collaborate very well which optimizes your process and approach for success.

The consensus online seems to be that Revit is not as flexible as it could be. For example, it's not easy to change building components in a project without having to fully alter the entire model. It's helpful because you're notified if there are compatibility issues within the change across your project, but for doing quick case studies it would be cool to have the option to ignore this temporarily. The software is quite a large download and uses a lot of computer resources. This is to be expected with any software utilizing your video card and rendering in 3D but it's good to be aware of this upfront in order to have your hardware setup optimized for the long term. I'm a new user of Revit and haven't experienced the buggy technical issues I've read about occurring consistently with the exception of a slow start time. It takes a good minute or two for the program to load up. And I've noticed the text editor features could be enhanced as they are quite limited which can affect outlining documents, for example. Revit isn't exactly backwards compatible which you should be aware of before investing. The program itself is not inexpensive and this will be a deterrent for small companies or start ups. There is a large learning curve with this software and it takes a serious time investment to master it's complete functionality but is well worth it for the control possible on all levels of your project. There's a lot of room for errors in the real world in designs and because of the sheer amount of multidimensional components involved with this software you really must become very comfortable with it in order to utilize it safely in the real world, and do well to have a Revit expert verify your designs before taking your project to the next level.

Revit is considered an industry standard because it brings so much functionality together into one software. This software increases efficiency of build design and construction projects through a streamlined workflow and saves time by creating floor plans from your model. But there is a substantial learning curve involved with this program. And while I recommend it I would also recommend taking ongoing courses in order to truly take advantage of all of the power and control made available within it. Or hiring an expert when you start using it because it will be a challenge to jump onboard and expect to become efficient quickly.