Tuesday 22 March 2011

Revit 2012 underwhelming....I can't get excited

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The blogger webcast was held very, very late last night in the UK, and like Dave Baldacchino of Do you Revit? I’m taking the view that plenty of Bloggers will all ready have posted about the event, especially those that have the Lois Lane complex and need a scoop or have Revit in their DNA ;0)

David Light over at his Revit blog, as always has produced such a concise review that it’s very rare that others meet his article standard (that’s another fiver you owe me Dave)

Dave Baldacchine & David Light talk about the split between users:-

David Baldacchine saying  “there will be those that are very excited and those that are bummed. In past years, I’ve almost always been in the first camp and couldn’t understand what the rest were fussing about. However this year, I am feeling a bit disappointed about the quantity of improvements for the Architectural field.”

David Light summarising “Will Revit 2012 keep the die-hard Revit user who wants long standing items like better text tools, improved typography and site, stairs etc….happy???? hmmmmm probably not! But I would have to argue that whilst some of the improvements to big ticket modelling items have yet to appear, there is still plenty in this feature rich release to make most users content.

But a word of warning Mr Autodesk; some of these long standing requests really do need to be addressed over the next 1 to 2 releases. I see users fighting with some of the trickier tools on a day to day basis and I feel their pain. However, I have a pragmatic view on much of this now as I have come to realize that there is no utopia and Rome really wasn’t built in a day. As the Guinness Ad says, good things come to those that wait. Nevertheless, improving model quality and construction assembly by providing flexible, easy to use software tools most be the end game. Without this, there will always be an excuse by some diehards that this “BIM thing” is just not worth doing."

Like Dave Baldacchine I’m in the “feeling a bit disappointed about the quantity of improvements” Actually more in the very pissed–off, rather than the bit disappointed if I’m truthful

IMHO this year has been more about the bigger users with Bells and Whistles and not Basic fixes for all users.

Because of the NDA I can’t tell you how I’ve come to these figures yet, but one way of measuring the real improvements in Revit Structure gives me a split of:-

 58 Architecture and the All Products common platform
   5 Structure which equates to about 4%
 56 MEP
112

Should Autodesk be spending time improving MEP, yes but not at the expense of the other platforms.

Whist I applaud the improvements in the Analytical Modelling and Tools, we and many other Structural Users don’t round trip the Analytical Model backwards and Forwards like Autodesk seem to think we do. Hell, there are projects were we don’t connect the Analytical and the Revit Model for a variety of reasons.

Detailing and producing useable RC Details and UK/ Europe Bar Bending Schedules within Revit is currently a joke, It’s a 3D Toy that many Structural Engineering companies are not using, again for a variety of reasons

Dave Baldacchine  My feeling is that it’s quite light this year. That doesn’t mean however, that you won’t be thrilled with the new improvements, especially if you’re in the Engineering and Construction disciplines.”

Nope Dave…… Definitely not thrilled



7 comments:

Rob Clark said...

Hi Alan

Hope your well.

Just wanted to comment. I agree with some of what you are saying, like yourself and David Light, I would like to see some improvements to the basics in Revit - espeically things like text placement, general geometry placement etc.

That said, other than that, I'm impressed with the improvements in Revit Structure - the detaching of the anyalatical model alone should signifcantly assist in workflow. While its a general Revit improvement, the big improvements to worksharing are also of real benfiet to a lot of people, particarly large consultancys.

I'm not sure I'm convienced by the idea of Revit been an RC detailing product - but we'll see what time brings. I've been saying for a couple of years now that I don't think it is the suitable platform for detailing workflow, whereas AutoCAD based products like AutoCAD Structural Detailing, CADS-RC etc do a great job of it. There have been real improvements to RC detailing in ASD, which is where it seems ADSK is spending most of its development time for RC detailing.

I've got a webinar in May updating people on AutoCAD Structural Detailing, will keep you up to date.

All the best

Rob,
Cadassist

cadalot said...

Hi Rob

That's my point the whole development this year is focused on "large consultancys", what about the medium small and very small consultancys? Let's hope next year is "FIX THE BASICS" We are a small/medium consultancy who are working with Architects also using Revit, These developments are more for the Arups, Atkins and HOK's of the world.

Ben May said...

A couple of ideas from me, Development is slowing down, particularly for Structure. MEP is where structure was back in 2008 they are just feeling out a package which will bring on more consultants

But with that said I am very excited about 3D tagging, assembelies, the changes to hosted voids. I know, not ground breaking features, and all are platform general not structural specific, but they will definatly help my workflows

Structure is certainly next in line for some really great advancements. But 2012 will get me upgrading either way...

Jeremy Deal said...

Right on folks. We'll see how it all unfolds. However, I feel it is absolutely imperative that Autodesk fix the basics and do so immediately. Revit is really positioned to become the new standard for design. Im already all in with revit, but I have a hard time convincing people who are just getting started when some of the basic functionality is not there. I find myself constantly feeling like I have to "defend" and "justify" the transition to revit to my clients and my coworkers.

Not to mentioned, most of this stuff is eyecandy and fluff. Many of the add-ins are half baked and cause more headache than they minor "coolness" or information they provide. Not only does the core functionality and basic features need to be upgraded and fixed, they need to perfect and improve the features such as wood wall framing and importing and exporting (which it looks like there might be some of that in this release)

Sorry, rant over. I guess it is pretty obvious where I stand on it.

Unknown said...

Interesting point, but I am gonna have to argue against what you have said. :-) I think there is plenty in this release for everybody; small firms all the way through to the big ones. Whilst I agree and this was in my blog article; that there are big ticket items that really need to be fixed, its still a good release for everybody. You are wrong....its not a "large consultancy" release, although a lot of work has taken place on worksets. But even worksets can be used by small firms, if you are not, you are really missing a trick. In many case we have small teams of no more than 1 to 3 people working on the project. Worksharing is enabled by default. One for the LRUG me thinks as i have some great case studies which I can showcase. Alan it comes down to one simple thing...if you have not implemented any of the features which have been improved....then yeh you are gonna suggest that you can't benefit from the improvments. If you have used them and disguarded them from your workflow, because they don't meet your needs, then that is a totally different ballgame.

Revit Mep New Summit said...

Revit MEP 2012 New Features
Arriving in good time. I will start testing.
Greetings
lcchvacr_Luiz Carlos

Jeremy Deal said...

Don't get me wrong, Im excited. I'm sure I will get a lot out of it. Not every feature will be as beneficial to everyone, considering the differences in firm size, etc. Im just pleading for fixes to some fundamental issues and polishing the product over new features. Im not a programmer, so Im sure it's not as easy as I would like to believe.