Hello everyone, thank you for clicking on my post. It’s gonna be pretty long, so I appreciate your time and help;
I’m a relatively young independent contractor and graduate engineer. I’m trying to steer my life in a direction that will have me designing and building one-off, small but beautiful homes/cottages for clients.
The funding and feasibility of this type of project is beyond the scope of this discussion. Please assume that it’s going to happen, even if you feel it’s a ridiculous idea. You may very well be right, but my concern at this time is in choosing which Architectural design program would be best.
I have put together a Pinterest board to illustrate the type of architecture I’d be aiming for. I t’s stuff like this: https://pin.it/2Cau3MUoE
I’m aiming for modern cottages. They will be fairly simple from a structural perspective – I won’t be doing any crazy cantilevers or suspended buildings, for example, but will contain some more exotic decorative design elements.
These include things like pillars or piers holding half of the building aloft, unique roof designs with large overhangs, large curtain walls, “architectural” or “exotic” exterior wall and roof claddings, and other design elements like rooflines which blend seamlessly with walls. Additionally, the framing of the structure will involve multiple materials, with some walls being ICF, while others are timber-framed, and with a floor assembly maybe involving some steel beams, depending on structural requirements.
The buildings would be small, maxing out at around 1500 Sq ft.
Now, the reason for my post is because although I have an educational background in computer-aided design, and am quite familiar with CAD programs like Solidworks, Solidedge, AutoCAD, and even Revit.
I’ve taken about 40-50 hours of guided tutorials on Revit through Udemy. I can now easily handle all the basics, and create finished projects for simple buildings. What I’ve started to notice, however, both first-hand, and from forum discussions, is that Revit really isn’t geared towards residential, timber-framed, highly-architectural construction.
I tried my hand at designing a simple wood-framed garden shed, and, compared to building a “normal” building in Revit with the pre-existing wall families, designing this shed on a stud-by-stud basis was like pulling teeth. Wood-framing add-ons exist, but are phenomenally expensive, and heaven forbid you go to change the length of a wall after… That’s why I’m considering SketchUp.
The reason I need to design these buildings on a stud-by-stud level is because I will be the one building them. I have been working as a general contractor and fine craftsman for several years now, and my intention is to build these places myself, with my hands, and my tools. Doing this stud-by-stud level design is my opportunity to plan things out, make sure my joinery works, figure out dimensions and conflicts, etc.
Of course, the tasks that are beyond what a single person can do, will be sub-contracted out. The foundation pour, the sceptic install, electrical, plumbing, etc., is all going to be hired out to the respective professionals. Everything else , though, like the framing, roofing, sheathing, etc., will be me. The projects will take several years each. Once again, the feasibility or financial reality of these projects is beyond the scope of this discussion.
I know that Revit is the “powerful but cumbersome” program. I know that everything IS possible in it, but sometimes at so high of a time-cost, that it simply isn’t worth it… This has lead me to reconsider if Revit is the best program for me, or if there are programs better suited to the style of buildings I want to make.
As far as I can tell, there are five options that may serve me: 1) Revit 2) ArchiCAD 3) Chief Architect 4) Google Sketchup 5) Solidworks
What I’m needing from the program is the following:
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The ability to design the entire structural framing of the building on an element-by-element basis. That means every stud, every floor joist, every roof rafter, and, most importantly, for these elements to have “mates” or other kinds of relationships, such that if I decided to raise the ceiling in a room, for example, the studs move with it. It would be extremely painful to need to go in and manually change the height of every stud, should I make a change to the layout.
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The ability to design the joinery and construction details of building elements. That means the birdmouth cuts in the rafters, the miters on the ends of the rafters, and so on.
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The ability to design the entire building envelope on an element-by-element basis. That means modelling every 4x8 sheet of plywood sheathing on the exterior walls, ever 4x8 panel of drywall on the interior ones, all the floor sheathing, insulation panels, etc. Being able to model detail elements like joist hangers, electrical outlet boxes, etc., would also be fantastic.
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The ability to model different types of wall and floor assemblies, such as using a few steel beams in a floor assembly if needed, or vertical steel beams for architectural reasons, or a random concrete wall in the middle of the structure, or even slanted wall assemblies .
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The ability to do some basic landscape modelling. I don’t need full terrain mapping or terrain elevations, but at least being able to draw out a stand-in green slab for the ground, and model a basic patio or a driveway would be great.
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The ability to do some very basic modelling of MEP systems through the use of basic geometric shapes. I do NOT need a full MEP side to the program, but being able to model a basic cylinder passing through my floor assembly as a stand-in for an HVAC duct or something would be very useful.
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The ability to generate lots of diagrams and drawings. Elevation views, cross-section views, and, most importantly, construction diagrams of the wall, roof, and floor assemblies, with dimensions and annotations.
Based on these needs, and what I’ve seen of each program, my thinking is as follows:
Revit: It can handle them all, but it’s extremely cumbersome. I have to place studs and joists by using column and beam families in the structural side of the program, but first I need to manually create all of the different columns and beams I’ll need, and then these structural elements don’t play well with the architectural side of the program, and, and, and, it’s all very cumbersome.
ArchiCAD : This program seems like it could be a good choice, but I’m basing that entirely on this video. This video was where I first learned about ArchiCAD. It seems very similar to Revit, but a bit more intuitive to use, and like it handles element-by-element construction better than Revit.
Chief Architect: By FAR the best program to use for timber-framed construction, but only if you’re keeping to relatively tame suburban design. I made a post on Chief Architect forums that generated great discussion, and the consensus seems to be that although Chief excels as the framing and diagram part, it can’t handle the unique architectural features AT ALL . Even something like a simple slanted wall will completely break it.
Google Sketchup: Correct me if I’m wrong, but Sketchup is not a parametric design program, it is a “push and pull” program, more akin to Blender. Quite frankly, I don’t know how I would efficiently design a building in this program, if I have to take many steps just to assign a fixed length to a specific beam, for example. Admittedly, though, this is the program I know the least about. My understanding is also that the program does not have a means to create elevation views, or shop drawings, or any kinds of diagrams, without first needing to find or purchase add-on programs to gain this functionality.
Solidworks: This is the program I have the most experience in, with a few hundred hours, and a university course in it. However, it’s designed more for mechanical engineering and small parts, and so its workflow of needing to design elements individually as separate files, then save and assemble them manually in an assembly by assigning mates, is extremely time-consuming, and performance-heavy. It also cares a LOT about minutia, spitting out errors and screaming at you if you forget to assign a coordinate origin for a given part, for example.
And so that’s where I’m at. Five different programs, and no sense of which one would be best for me.
Any help, insight, or suggestions is greatly appreciated. Thank you for taking the time to read this.
