Personally, I never purchase software based on price but rather capabilities and ease of use.įrom a schematic and design development standpoint, each of these applications can be used to tackle an interior design project, but all suitors are not equal if you consider construction documentation. It seems that SketchUp Pro is the least expensive, while both Revit and Revit LT are more competitively priced per month as compared to Chief Architect.
Solo practitioners should purchase Revit LT, while Revit can be used by multiple people simultaneously and better suited for larger offices. Revit takes the approach of an annual subscription since the word “license” is now considered taboo. Tack on another $14.95 if you want a CD backup. SketchUp Pro is a one-time $695 perpetual license which includes Layout, its sheet layout tool.Ĭhief Architect X9 'rents' (AKA subscription) for $199 per month or $2695 purchased. Besides that, simple drafting in SketchUp remains its weakest feature.Īt the time of this blog post, SketchUp is offered for free and accessed only as an online tool which is still in Beta testing (SketchUp Free). Personally, I don’t know a single person that does not import drawings into SketchUp in order to create 3D models.
Don’t get me wrong it is still offered for free as a purely online tool but you can no longer import drawings into SketchUp. Historically, Trimble’s SketchUp was offered as a free tool.
