Today everyone in the office has at least one project underway in Archicad, while projects started in Revit will continue through completion. “There’s a level of design very evident in the work that we do.” Archicad was a perfect fit for their portfolio.Īnd with integrated construction services, Archicad provides a software platform from concept through completion for design-build. “Design is the motto of our firm, you can look around the Santa Cruz area and tell which projects are Fuse projects,” said Jerrod. Initial hand sketching is still a critical tool but design moves into the computer sooner with Archicad.įluid capabilities to explore design through massing iterations and studies supports the firm’s design focus. “You really have to sketch out a lot of ideas and need a better understanding of the design before you bring it into Revit,” said Jerrod. Engineering coordination is not a major factor in these projects. Two key factors in their final decision were their project types and the firm’s design focus.ĩ0% of projects designed and built by Fuse Architecture are high-end custom residential. It was clearly silly to have both systems in an office of ten users.

The partners at Fuse saw that too, and so began a six month debate over whether to fully switch to Archicad. “Very early on using Archicad, I recognized it had SketchUp qualities,” said Jerrod. It became clear to everyone that Archicad was a more powerful design tool than Revit. Jerrod’s colleagues had questions as they watched him work. While a leap beyond computer aided drafting (CAD) programs, Revit’s history as an engineering tool meant it was more focused on documentation than design. What everyone knows about Revit is BIM, parametrically coordinated information drawn in 2D to create a 3D model. Instead, Jerrod’s dilemma became a side by side comparison between Archicad and Revit at this small architect-led design-build firm in Santa Cruz, California.

“Rather than refresh my memory on Revit I’d last used 8 years before in school, I used Archicad and committed to taking Revit classes on-line to catch up,” said Jerrod. He’d been working in Archicad and there was no time to re-learn Revit on the job. When Jerrod Nicholls joined Fuse Architecture, he immediately jumped in as PM on three different projects.

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