Scheduling a Survey

Please respond to the new survey regarding schedules for Revit if you have any notion that they could be better.

David Conant wrote something that appeared on Inside the Factory today called, "Revit Schedules, A Love Hate Relationship". He also wrote the following text at the user forums Revitforum.org and AUGI.

To ensure that Revit can meet current needs and has the capacity for future ones, the Revit team periodically revisits basic features. We are currently gathering information about schedules and similar data reports. This is part of an effort to understand the full range of needs you, the users, have both for the data you want to present and how you want to present it.

If you are willing to help us, please use the link below. It leads to a short survey recording basic demographic and usage information and a link to share samples of your work. I know that many of you have expressed your needs here and in other forums so this may seem redundant. We follow those discussions closely. The survey method is very helpful to us as it provides information in an organized and analyzable form. All work collected will be used by Autodesk for internal research only and will never be shared without your permission. ~ Thanks in advance for your help.

CLICK TO RESPOND to the SURVEY

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?

Pipe Fitting Naming - Survey Says

If you've read my earlier post about surveys you know how I feel about them. That said, Kyle Bernhardt with Autodesk Revit MEP's team is requesting participation in a survey to help them define how best to name Pipe Fittings. Exciting I know but they are a pain...to name.

Kyle writes on his blog (Inside the System):

I wanted to solicit your participation in a survey we have developed involving Pipe Fittings, and how you as users think about them.

Pipe Fittings are a complex beast when it comes to describing them in a short concise manner. Many aspects about them, such as Material, Class, Type, Connection Type, etc., are factors for selection in a design.

We'd like to know more about what is important to you as users, so we can define a convention that best reflects that feedback.

With that in mind, I ask that you please fill out the following survey to provide us your perspective on this matter. It shouldn't take more than 5 minutes.

For those of you who are CAD Managers, I would request that you ask your end-users to fill out the survey, as they will most likely be the folks most directly impacted by choices that we make.

Thanks in advance to all of you.

Survey Says?

There seems, to me, to be an epidemic of surveys. I must be wearing some secret Post-It note on my back saying, "Send this guy surveys". I can't go more than a couple of days without getting a request to complete a survey. Today I got one from Autodesk asking me to rate my relationship with my reseller. Last night I got two from the last two hotels I stayed in. Last week our car received its routine maintenance and sure enough we received both an email request to complete a survey and a follow up phone survey.

When I visit my car dealer or visit a hotel they seem intent on letting you know that you'll be getting a survey, as if that's a great thing for me, and that they really want to make sure I give them the highest score. So the conversation goes something like this, "Mr. Stafford we want you to know that you'll get a survey via email and it is really important to us that you give us all "Fives". If there is any reason you can't do that please let us know right away so we can fix the problem."

Maybe I'm old fashioned but isn't asking for praise a bit awkward? If I were to ask my past bosses, "Hey! I need you to fill out a survey and give me all fives!" I'd probably have been laughed at (nevermind what that says about me). What sort of reliable data is a survey that is first foisted upon the recipient and then the added emphasis on providing a perfect score?

The hotel cleaning person last night put a nice card on the center of my desk, XYZ Hotel's "Caught a person doing their best" form. I suppose this meant I was supposed to fill out that this person was doing an excellent job at doing their job? Are we supposed to catch someone we never see doing a great job? If my room looked just like it did for the last three times I was there is that excellent or above the call of duty? How many of these forms do I have to fill out? What about the poor person(s) I haven't encountered? Do I need to fill out generic forms saying, "I'm really sorry that I didn't catch "xxx" doing his/her job well today. I'm sure they are really doing their best and I was just preoccupied and missed it!"

Last week I needed help tracking someone down at the hotel and I couldn't remember their last name. The person at the front desk was awesome at helping me figure out how he could find them and still not divulge any private information. He also was really helpful all week for a variety of reasons. He deserved a card because I interacted with him and he did something out of the ordinary, more than his job description might actually say he needed to do.

Six months or so ago I even got a call from a woman in Berlin wanting me to do a survey. I agreed because her German accent was so strong that I couldn't help wonder how we'd manage get through the survey. I literally had to ask her to repeat every question and I wasn't trying to be a jerk either.

So I'm not replying to surveys anymore, I'm protesting. Call me obstinate. Leave me alone! I want my car company to leave me alone to enjoy the car. I don't want to get telephone calls to conduct a survey that won't, under any circumstance, give up. They call and call and call and call. They call at all hours. I programmed a special ring on my phone for their number just so I'd know it was them calling. So far I haven't given in but they are calling from another number now!

So would you mind taking a brief survey on what you think of surveys?

David posted this at his blog about working in a Central File (a little reference back to Revit) and it describes my feelings so well that I thought I'd steal it and use it here! Thanks for reading!

No Surveys!!