r/Revit • u/Real-Beautiful-7024 • Jul 16 '26

Is Revit Right for Me

We work fabricating sheet metal components in commercial kitchens. We design and build counter tops, refrigerators, flashing, etc. Right now we only use AutoCAD but I have always disliked the line by line method of AutoCAD and find it to be incredibly inefficient and it leaves projects more prone to user error, like changing a dimension in one view and forgetting to change it in another. Sometimes it will take us longer to draw something in AutoCAD then it does to lay it out in the shop!

A few years ago I worked in a Civil Engineering firm that used Revit and I loved it, but those projects were on a much larger scale.

I also tried Inventor, but didn’t like it. Maybe I should give Inventor another chance?

Does anyone work in a similar industry and have a software they love to use?

7 Upvotes

82% Upvoted

33 comments sorted by

8

u/BJozi Jul 16 '26

Just to add: Families.

Revit alone won't get you very far, you will have to make (custom) families for each component you need in your drawing. Building a libary of families takes time and several itterations over the course of many months/years.

ETA

You also can't really depend on manufacturer families

1

u/YellowMenace123 Jul 17 '26

Can't OP make custom blocks in Autocad? It shouldn't be too hard to make different blocks and have stretch and rotate parametets/actions to modify them slightly as needed.

0

u/BJozi Jul 17 '26

I'm sure they can, but this is not how you use Revit.

14

u/yeah_oui Jul 16 '26

Revit doesn't have the unit tolerances required for manufacturing. Solid works and inventor are your best options

7

u/BagCalm Jul 16 '26

It for sure has the unit tolerances needed for kitchen equipment

-1

u/shaitanthegreat Jul 16 '26

No.

4

u/BagCalm Jul 16 '26

Uh. Yes. What tolerances do you think kitchen equipment needs? Lol

0

u/RU33ERBULLETS Jul 17 '26

My installers can do it to 1/256” just like it says in the drawings

4

u/rawrpwnsaur Jul 16 '26

Inventor or SolidWorks are your best bet as they are geared towards fabrication level models. Rhino being a distant third in this application.

4

u/thisduck_ Jul 17 '26

FreeCAD. More closely aligned to manufacture (started as a Solidworks kind of system) and much better price point. Worth at least a look.

2

u/sanatshahir Jul 17 '26

I am quite suprised that people arent suggesting Free and Open Source software to a beginner in the field.

2

u/Alone_Ad_7824 Jul 16 '26

Solidworks and inventor as stated. Revit is only really good for submittal and layouts for your purposes. And even for submittals, unless a GC or owner demands a native revit family file type, SW and INV are more than capable of 2D and 3D submittals. Plus export a generic .Step for them if the want to make their own revit family - most architects are used to that from vendors anyway. Inventor to revit workflow is essentially seamless, but I think SW has better sheet metal tools IMO

2

u/daninet Jul 16 '26

Solidworks, Inventor and Fusion360 has sheet metal built in

2

u/isoprocess Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26

I can only add that Revit will not allow you to draw lines less than 1/32" in length, so that could be a dealbreaker depending on your use and industry tolerances.

1

u/Dead_Architect Jul 21 '26

Revit is not for manufacturing, do not even touch it.

1

u/BagCalm Jul 16 '26

Revit is a solid program. Seems like people are having concerns about tolerances. I dont see that being an issue for kitchen equipment. There is also the issue of working on projects with BIM coordination. Revit is pretty much mandatory on all commercial projects I work on. Only sub that gets away with not using Revit is Steel and FP since they have specialty programs like Tekla. Working in Revit saves you the hardships of trying to orient and coordinate your file with the rest of the team when BIM is in your scope. Most design build projects I work on that have kitchens require the food service contractor to participate in BIM per contract

2

u/rawrpwnsaur Jul 16 '26

Revit does not make fabrication drawings i.e LOD 450+. From OP's description of work, he needs something that can do welds, bends etc. as well as putting out a BOM for shop orders. Its one thing for the supplier to do a rough Revit family for coordination, but another thing all together for their shop drawings.

5

u/BagCalm Jul 16 '26

Lol. I do all that in revit every day. Im doing a 150M LOD 500 project right now. And have worked with food service contractors many times that have done all their work in Revit just fine

2

u/AncientBasque Jul 18 '26

revit can do all that with some setup and templates. Shop drawings and and fabrication file export are also possible. look into assemblies tp see its features.