Autocad Application Engineer now a member

Want to design your own teardrop or tiny travel trailer. You can do that in 2D or 3D. We keep our secrets in here!

Autocad Application Engineer now a member

Postby GrumpyGrizzly » Sun Sep 30, 2018 1:44 am

So I've been using Autocad since Release 10 and have a personal copy of Autocad 2010 on my laptop I use for drawing houses for people as my home based business. My software came with the Revit Architecture Suite to include Revit Architecture, Autocad, and Autocad Architecture.

While Autocad is my primary Go-To program, I'm thinking using Revit Architecture for something like tear drop trailer would have it's place as well. The difference is mainly what I used to have as a tagline "Give a man Autocad, he'll draw you a floorplan, give a man Revit, he'll build you a house.

Revit Architecure uses things like wall types that you can freely design so you might have like a 2x2 for the main construction and whatever you have on the outside for the finishes wall, as well as any insulation you might want to put in the wall and whatever finish you want to put inside the trailer itself. That way, if want to draw a wall, you draw it in a plan view say 8' long and you select the wall style (family) you want to use and Revit puts in the interior, insulation, and exterior at the height you designate for it to be. Ohh, and it's all in 3D so you can spin everything around and get different ideas of how things are put together.

The biggest trick is to find wall types, flooring types, ceiling types, windows, doors OR create your own with a little bit of work.

If anyone is using Autocad and they're having any problems figuring out how to do anything from writing your own custom commands to pretty much anything else, drop me an email or leave me a note and I'll get back to you the next time I log on.

All these other programs are trying their best to imitate what AutoDesk has done with Autocad for over 30 years. Some come close, others, not so close.

Student versions are available along with free 30 day trials so if you have a one off design you want to get drawn up, you should (With a little help) be able to handle it.
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Re: Autocad Application Engineer now a member

Postby QueticoBill » Sun Sep 30, 2018 12:14 pm

I started using AutoCAD version 1.1 in 1982 and am now on 2017 with a link to 2018 when I find time. Like you, I have the suite with Revit, since 2009. Haven't been inclined to learn Revit yet.
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Re: Autocad Application Engineer now a member

Postby GrumpyGrizzly » Mon Nov 19, 2018 11:16 pm

The way I describe Revit is "Give a man Autocad, he'll draw you a floorplan, give him Revit he'll build you a house."
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Re: Autocad Application Engineer now a member

Postby absolutsnwbrdr » Tue Nov 20, 2018 10:01 am

I'm the BIM Manager for an architectural and structural design firm in York, PA, and use Revit to design commercial and residential projects on a daily basis, maintain our company standards and templates, and train our staff on new methods and procedures. While my AutoCAD experience doesn't quite go back as far as yours, I started learning in 1998, on release 14 I believe. I then started using Revit in 2012, primarily for rendering purposes. Fast forward a few years, and I'm an presenting member of our local Revit User Group (support group for nerds).

All my teardrops (and a Scotty) are designed and documented first in Autocad. Starting in 2D plans and elevations, and once those are figured out, I build it in 3D, still in AutoCAD.

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If I want it in Revit, I export it from CAD and then import it into Revit. As much as I LOVE Revit, its not a design tool for anything other than buildings. Because of the way things are constrained and the way the tools work, it does have its limits and difficulties.

Can a camper be designed in Revit? Absolutely, but you would not want to design it inside a Revit project using walls and floors (as you would a building). If you really wanted to build the camper in Revit, it would be much easier to design it as a 'family' component, and then insert it into the project. Things such as wheels/tires and doors would also be designed as their own 'families' and then inserted into the main camper family, which would then be inserted into a project.

The tools in the family editors work very similar to the solids editing tools in AutoCAD. Theres still a learning curve though, especially for those who have used AutoCAD all their life. Revit, although an Autodesk product, is very different from AutoCAD and some of those CAD habits are hard to break.

A long story short, if you want a camper in Revit, but you're comfortable in CAD, build it thre first and then import into Revit. Modeling in Revit isn't going to get you any further ahead in the end. If you assign materials to the 3D solids in CAD, they can be controlled in Revit.

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