Revit 2015 Release Update 5 and Terminology

Autodesk released another update for Revit 2015 yesterday, it was formally announced via The Revit Clinic and tweeted. THIS PDF is the published list of things that this update, as well as past updates, have dealt with. I hesitated to post this yesterday because I was a bit confused by what I read at the links below.

Revit 2015 UR5
Revit Arch 2015 UR5
Revit MEP 2015 UR5
Revit Struct 2015 UR5
Revit LT 2015 UR5

For many years an update meant a fresh installation, replacing the previous installed version. This eventually changed in favor of updates that could be applied to an existing installation of Revit. That meant a smaller file to download (usually) and it could be installed (or deployed) more easily. For many of those earlier years we just referred to these updates by their build number, as in, "What build do you have?" We still have a build number to reference.

More recently they began including the phrase Update Release and a number. For Revit 2015 it was easy, through Update Releases 1-3, until Revit 2015 R2 became available, introducing new terminology. The R2 release, which delivers brand new features, is only available to customers who have active subscription accounts. As it happens R2 also includes things that an Update Release would include, as such installing R2 meant we were technically installing Update Release 4 at the same time. For customers that don't have an active subscription it is necessary to make Update Release 4 available to them too.

Distinctly different from R2, an Update Release fixes things within the existing product. It does not provide new features. These shouldn't be confused with a Hotfix, though having a similar intention, which tends to repair a relatively tiny part of the software. They are both delivered via a download from the Autodesk site too. We should be alerted to them becoming available via the Communication Center and/or the Autodesk Application Manager (if deployed/enabled).

In contrast, the R2 release does provide new features that we might normally expect to be delivered as part of a brand new yearly release. In this case it was delivered as part of our subscription benefits, only to those with valid subscriptions in place. It also does not incur a file format change as we see with the yearly releases. As we've seen in the past it could have been delivered as Revit 2015.1 instead. Language and terminology is fun!

Such was the confusion initially that The Revit Clinic offered up a post called What is the Difference between Revit 2015 R2 and Revit 2015 UR2? As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I found myself confused when I visited the download pages for Update Release 5. This section seems to suggest there is a separate update to download via the Subscription site?

Note: If you are an Autodesk Subscription Customer and have installed Autodesk Revit 2015 R2, please install Autodesk Revit 2015 Update Release 5 for R2. Refer to the Autodesk Revit 2015 R2 subscription download page.

If you follow the link they provide it brings you (if you log in) to the original Revit 2015 R2 subscription download page. There is no mention of a special Release 5 update for R2. I wouldn't have been as confused if it said what I now believe it really meant: "If you haven't installed Revit 2015 R2 yet you can download it via this link".

I gambled and downloaded the update for Revit 2015 (first link above). My Revit is delivered as part of the Building Design Suite and I was able to apply this update successfully. In the past it was necessary to download a unique BDS delivered version of Revit 2015 updates. In this case they appear to have dispensed with that subtlety.

To summarize I believe this is accurate - see if you can stay with me:

• Original release of Revit 2015 for which they have provided Update Releases 1-5.
• New Release of Revit 2015 R2 which is available to subscription customers only, to which Update Release 5 also applies.
• Update Release 4 became available at the same time as R2 was introduced but it was necessary to provide a separate update for customers that were not eligible for Revit 2015 R2.
• If you installed R2 you also received Update Release 4.
• If you install Update Release 5 today you also incorporate all previous Update Releases.

It is not clear to me at the moment if there is a different build number when Revit 2015 R2 and Update Release 5 are installed as compared with Revit 2015 installed and Update Release 5 applied. I'd expect a different build number since Revit 2015 R2 has features that are not part of Revit 2015. Shall we compare build numbers? Mine is in the image above, R2 installed with Update Release 5.

As always, be sure to carefully read through the Readme documentation provided at each download page. Clear as mud? I sure hope so!