Wanting to ask the Architecture community if Revit really is the best program for me to use, or if another would be better for small-home residential design. : architecture

Hello everyone,

I’m an independent contractor, and I’m trying to steer my life in a direction that will have me designing and building small homes. Think high-end, ultra-stylish small cottages, like the ones in this gallery. They typically feature unconventional design elements (at least, for residential buildings): sloped walls, piers supporting them off the ground, a variety of wall types and materials, large curtain walls, etc.

I’ve got about 130 hours in 3D parametric CAD programs like Solidworks, and I’ve put about 35 hours of online course learning into Revit, and am competent with all the basics. I can draft a house, create section views and callouts, add tags and parametric data, do windows and doors, annotate and create sheet views, create renderings and walkthroughs, etc. But, given that it’s only been 35 hours, I certainly haven’t invested my life into it, yet, and can easily pivot to another program if it would suit me more. Despite only being familiar with the program for a few dozen hours, though, I’ve already started to notice how it’s really not geared towards small-home, timber-frame construction. I’ve looked into add-ons like AGACAD’s wood framer software, but simply can’t afford them at this time, so my only option for design seems to be manually placing every stud, beam, and joist. I also need to be able to do MEP layouts in whatever program I use, as I will be building all those systems myself, with my own two hands (Although this I can obviously do in Revit just fine)

This, along with some other shortcomings, has made me start to question whether Revit is the best possible CAD program for my use-case. One friendly user on the sub recommended Chief Architect, and it looks promising, but before I switch over to it, and invest dozens of hours into learning that program, I’m wanting to ask the community-at-large here what your thoughts are.

For small-scale, ultra-stylized residential builds, where I need to be able to create wood framing in-program... is Revit the best program out there, or are others better suited to that use-case?