8 Reasons

To Choose ARCHLine.XP Over Revit 

 & other traditional 3D CAD systems

We are happy to honestly compare ARCHLine.XP in detail to any other CAD system, as we know ARCHLine.XP will come out as a winner by a large margin. Revit is no exception. Using mainly traditional CAD methodology, Revit provides too much over-complexity that hinders productivity, and thus doesn’t have the same ease of use as ARCHLine.XP. Revit and AutoCAD users switching to ARCHLine.XP can expect huge productivity gains and an overall more enjoyable architectural design experience.

1. Ease of Use

 

Revit

Takes a few months to a year of significant effort to truly master. 

Takes months or even years to fully master. Revit is made for construction and engineering, not for design. Thus, its tools are highly technical and takes a lot of time to master. Using Revit can sometimes feel like pulling teeth. If you’re transitioning from AutoCAD, you will be completely overwhelmed.

ARCHLine.XP

Takes only a few days to a few weeks to master.

ARCHLine.XP is created with simplicity and flexibility in mind. It’s a tool that takes the best CAD elements from different software solutions and combines it into a single more efficient package. What takes hours to do in Revit is much easier to achieve in ARCHLine.XP. And with an all-encompassing wall to floor constraint system, you can create more accurate connections.

2. Design Tools

 

Revit

Too many construction tools, too little design tools.

Revit does not include many tools to quickly automate tasks like creating a detailed roof or editing stairs. It also doesn’t provide many automatic tools for architecture, interior design or furniture making. Creating a simple fit-out or building extension often takes a lot of manual modelling that can cost significant productivity.

ARCHLine.XP

Does the same job in half the time with automatic design tools.

ARCHLine.XP comes with a roof tool, railing tool, stair tool, cabinet tool, kitchen tool, curtain tool, window and door tool, room-maker tool, teamwork tool, point-cloud tool, ceiling tool, tiling tool, furniture tool and much more to reduce the need to manually create objects.

 

3. Interior Design

 

Revit

No specific tools dedicated to interior design. Manual tasks reduce productivity.

Doing interior designs in Revit is extremely time-consuming and tedious. Something that takes 30-40 min to achieve can be achieved in ARCHLine.XP in 5-10min. Revit is clunky, slow and difficult to navigate. Any small tasks require a level of manual input that takes away a significant level of productivity.

ARCHLine.XP

Well-suited for interior design and includes many interior design tools.

ARCHLine.XP is an economical and intuitive tool to quickly conceptualise your interior designs. It is also a great tool that balances the technical with the conceptual as you will be exposed to the best of both worlds without having to switch between external programs. An entire bathroom or kitchen design can be completed in as little as 5-10 min.

 

4. Affordability

 

Revit

Revit only caters to large corporations by charging huge and hefty subscription fees. 

With Revit you will be paying $3,245 every year for as long as you want to use their software. Over 5 years you will be paying over $16,225 in subscription costs. These sorts of overhead can prove extremely strenuous to small-medium sized design firms. Autodesk only cares about maximising profits while neglecting small-medium sized businesses.

Revit sells itself short by offering a more affordable version as Revit LT, which practically has none of the tools that initially made Revit appealing.

ARCHLine.XP

Does not price small-medium sized businesses out of the market. Affordable & flexible.

At ARCHLine.XP we realise that each client has their own sets of needs, wants and financial circumstances. Thus, we cater to a larger audience by making our pricing options more flexible to support small-medium sized businesses. We offer the following:

1. Lifetime License: $4,995

2. Payment Plan: $499/month  (12 months)

3. Rental: $349/month

5. Compatibility

 

Revit

Revit unreliably handles CAD links and is horrible at processing IFC files.

According to many software developers, it is a well-known fact that Revit handles IFC very poorly. Will your roofs become IfcRoof, or will Revit decide your roof is a slab instead? Will your building element turn up at all? Who knows. Revit does what it wants.

Read some Revit IFC complaints , more Revit IFC problems,  even more IFC and Revit issues, because Revit doesn’t support IFC.

ARCHLine.XP

Highly compatible with many other well-known CAD file formats.

Well-suited for interior design and includes many design-focussed tools.

We try not to isolate our users and make it easy to export/import from ARCHLine.XP to many well-known 3D design formats. ARCHLine.XP is also IFC 2×3 certified and is compatible with AutoCAD DWG and DXF formats.

If that’s not enough, ARCHLine.XP import/export to the following file formats: RFA and RVT (Import), IFC, SKP, DXF, DWG, PDF, OBJ, 3DS, JPG, TIFF, BMP, PNG and GBXML.

 

6. 2D to 3D

 

Revit

Revit unreliably handles CAD links such as DWG or DXF.

Revit makes everything difficult – from the inability to share coordinates, having missing geometry, lagging of the Revit file, hatch patterns going haywire, and geometry out of extents errors.

These problems do not exhibit themselves in simple vanilla CAD files, but are very common in complex projects. This means CAD files have to undergo a cleanup process where we purge, delete, explode, and sometimes copy and paste into a blank file to start again. We shouldn’t need to do this cleanup process, especially not when DWG is a native Autodesk format.

ARCHLine.XP

Easily process 2D to 3D and vice versa without headaches. 

Easily import coordinates for a terrain from .text or .dat data or translate imported dwg contours to 3D. Easily import DWG onto a floor plan as a seperate layer that can be turned on or off. DWG drawings acts as a group of geometry which can be edited and objects can be snepped to a line. Geometry can also be converted to 3D walls with the “wall from geometry” tool.

7. BIM Capability

 

Revit

Revit unreliably handles BIM data in a way that creates more problems than it solves.

Revit does not know what a “building” is. It can sort of categorise walls, floors, roofs, but not a building? Revit does not recognise if a wall belongs to Building A or Building B. Imagine having a mixed-use project with two merging buildings and you’ve got yourself a maintenance nightmare.

Any BIM program works through the concept of relationships between elements. For example, for an IFC to be categorised properly, a storey most belong in a building. However, Revit has many problems with this as it does not recognise that elements have relationships. 

In addition, the most widely-used file format of BIM is more or less terrible in Revit. The simplest IFC of a few kB will take 15 seconds to import and in the process Revit will multiply the filesize by at least 10. Forget IFC 4, Revit can’t even do IFC2x3 properly. 

ARCHLine.XP

Simple and reliable way of handling BIM data. 

ARCHLine.XP recognises BIM data from a building and allows you to create seperate buildings with seperate storeys. Every object, whether a wall, floor or roof, can contain important BIM data that makes it easy for engineers to do their calculations. The IFC file handling in ARCHLine.XP is systematic and simple and BIM data is managed in a way that doesn’t cause more problems than it solves. 

8. Viewpoint

Renderer/

Navigation

 

Revit

Navigating in the 3D environment in Revit is slow and laggy.

Revit manages spectacularly bad at both 2D and 3D. You will experience incredibly slow panning on complicated 3D backgrounds as well as slow orbit/pan/zoom. Generally at a certain point, most users usually hit cancel when Revit asks if it should attempt to show you where the broken element is.

ARCHLine.XP

Very easy and super fast viewpoint navigation.

Easily navigate in and out of a building with absolute ease. File handling is fast and you can see where see where your viewpoint is located in the 2D live. You can essentially work with 2D and 3D at the same time. No lag. No warning popups. 

Hear from our happy customers.

“I have used the software since 2009 and over the years has helped win some very important clients. It allows me to present my work in a very high standard, easily and efficiently. The Cadline team is also there to support me creating High Res CGI when my time is limited. The quality is exceptional and I cannot recommend this enough and I am happy to discuss with anyone who wishes to know more. My recent presentations at Grand Designs featured the latest designs using Cadline and was applauded in its detail. Many thought they were photographs of the project.”

Nicholas Sunderland, NS Interior Designs

*Award-Winning Interior Design Firm

“The idea to design something for ourselves was very intriguing. As we are about to start our own family, it was much fun to play with the idea of imagining our future home. 

I have prepared the documentation – demolition, construction, suspended ceiling, electrical plans, wall elevations and mood boards with ARCHLine.XP, a platform I got to know around the beginning of this year, and which I have been using for my work ever since. Before I used to draw by hand, which was very time consuming, but ever since I started using this software, my work has become much faster and far more accurate..“

Monika Bona, Bomo Interiors

*Award-Winning Interior Design Firm

“I think it’s quite a challenge for any designer to design their own homes, because the end result will reflect their own personality, style, values and professional skills. I dreamed up a home for our family, the space to which it’s a pleasure to return, and which can be a suitable meeting ground for friends and family alike.

I was going for an elegant, sophisticated and modest contemporary style. I like to apply the “less is more” principle in my work – and this is what motivated me here as well...”

Krisztina Szilagyine, Kriszta Art Interior Design

*Award-Winning Interior Design Firm

“I quickly found that it was extremely user friendly and a joy to learn but also because it comes with a built in facility to easily create exceptionally good renders, you can quickly see your ideas come to life.

ARCHLineXP’s amazing features have totally transformed our business and would likely continue to bring new opportunities.“

Dóró Judit, Doro Design Studio

“I get the feeling quite often that I have the most beautiful and amazing job in the world, because it is an uplifting feeling to design the living environment of a family. I did not use the expression “house” on purpose, I’d rather call it environment, which entails the house just as much as its effect on nature, the neighborhood, the living tissue of the settlement itself, or on the people who live in it. The architect, therefore, can simultaneously be a creative artist, and an engineer who seeks logical solutions...”

Gabor Scholtz, Architect 

“ARCHLine.XP has certainly made a lot of things easier for me. For example, if you want to design a kitchen, there’s a tool for that; if you want to do a bathroom fit-out there’s a tool for that; and the stair, railing and roof tool are also incredibly useful. It has allowed me to add a higher level of detail that I wouldn’t otherwise be able to add in other CAD programs. It’s both a great architecture and interior design tool.“

Hendrik Boshoff, Architecture (Honours) Student

What are you waiting for?

ARCHLine.XP likely presents the opportunity to significantly increase efficiency and therefore the profitability of your company. All for just a few days’ training. Get over that first roadblock – the sooner you start the sooner you’ll see the benefits.

We are confident in the capabilities of ARCHLine.XP to outperform its competitors. Spending more time on design and less time on overly comlex and outdated tools and expensive subscriptions is bound to leave you more productive and with more time on your hands.

Give ARCHLine.XP a spin

Free fully featured 30-day trial