Friday, September 05, 2008

Revit Building or Revit "Sweet" - A Survey

Hi...as you probably know already, I don't like surveys...unless they are mine.

We currently have three versions of Revit; Architecture, Structure and MEP. You all know this unless you've just found about this new Revit thing recently. Glad you've been jarred out of your current software doldrums (uh oh, getting dangerously close to picking on other software and its users).

This is my point! Do you want a single complete version of Revit to purchase, install and use? If so how much will you pay?

I realize that this is not a simple question and there are potentially many permutations this could devolve into. Consider that Autodesk is a big corporation and every "product" iteration requires effort, planning, legal considerations, committees and ...well you get the idea.

Chad Smith at AUGI has been lobbying for this issue at AUGI (and Autodesk) for quite some time now. He has described the issue pretty well so let me paraphrase him.

We buy RAC 2009, we pay for "Revit" and get Architectural features. Now we buy RST 2009 and we pay for "Revit" (AGAIN) as well as get Structural features. Now we buy RME 2009 and we pay for...yes "Revit" (AGAIN yes AGAIN) as well as get mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire protection tools. This does not begin to address subscription fees.

Personally I'd like to see a Revit Building or Suite (the Sweet combo) offered at "such a deal". I know many of the firms I meet feel the same way. Let's say we buy two and get the third for free. Put another way two thirds (2/3) of the full price of three separate versions.

The key is to deliver a single product that the "EyeTee" folks can install once per computer and the user can access any tool they need at any time. This is great for small shops, it is great for AEC firms, it is great for contractors, and it is great for Autodesk, only they don't seem to realize it. If you agree, show them, tell them!!

I'd like to know whether this concept matters to you or not. If it does...how $$much$$ does it matter? I've added a poll that asks if you want a "Sweet" Revit. I've posted second one that asks you how much you'd pay. I've limited the answers to what I "want" to ask or suggest but feel free use comments here to explain other ideas.

For example Dick Barath (at AUGI too) posted that he thought it might make sense to give us access to the other tools for a limited number of hours per month for the same purchase price. More and we'd have to pony up some more money. Bentley offers any single "flavor" of their verticals on top of Microstation included in the price of Microstation (at least they used to last time I checked) as part of their "Maintenance" program (think Autodesk's Subscription program).

I think it would be an excellent way to buy "Revit", the proverbial "win win" for everyone or nearly everyone. Well, what do YOU say?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yep, the idea that an Autodesk Product Manager decides this person needs a certain subset of tools to do their job is just wrong.

I think there would be a huge demand for "Revit All".

Anonymous said...

I may be wrong, but I think that Structural and MEP firm would, pretty much, stay with the "one" flavor appropriate to their trade. It's the architects, designers, and contractors - small and large - that would benefit most from, and be the largest adoptors of a single package. They are the "conductor/composers", if you will of the built environment. Small shops, like mine, would be among the first in line.

Go Revit Building!!

blads said...

Being a small consultancy service I relish the day when I could acccess all products in one package

C'mon on Autodesk, get with the program & make it happen!!!

Spinnacre said...

As a general contractor using all three programs regularly, I would certainly love to see a single Revit that does it all. I'd be willing to pay almost the price of buying all three (less due to reduced flexibility using network licenses). Managing the IT is unnecessarily burdensome with three separate packages (NLM setup/upgrade for each along with updates, add-ons, etc.).

saso said...

It is an older post that I found only now, so my comment is a bit late but still...

I agree with the above, but will try to look at it from a bit different perspective. When you Install different flavors of Revit now, you basically install the same program several times. While it doesn't really matter that much since we all have huge hard drives, so who cares if several gigs are used for nothing but copies of the same thing...

Well Revit is a precision drawing tool and if that is the best level of precision the developers at Autodesk are able to deliver then it does matter. This is actually an issue for another topic, how much slower any new release of different Autodesk product is... I am really worried about that, but lets get back to the "Sweet" Revit.

Personally I like the way Allplan is doing it. They have a basic version that has all the basic tools for different disciplines and is mostly focused on architecture. Then however you are able to get additional "modules" for different disciplines that extend the avaiable tools for that discipline. So you don't need to Install an extra copy of the main program, you just extend the existing installation, very much like the existing subscription plus packages work in Revit.

Opening all the time three different (but still the same) programs to do some inter-discipline work on one project is also a bit dumb from Revit...