Pro Con List for Buying Revit

[3dway]

We work in a small firm. We have a client who may be interested in using Revit for a large project. Housing, so it's not a single large project it's really many small projects which cohesively make it a large amount of work. The investment to everyone using revit to a professional level is huge for a firm of our size. A failed attempt at implementing it and a loss of money on the job would have a severe impact on the firm's wellbeing. It is such a huge risk for us to try and do this that it's creating a lot of hesitation about making the purchase.

 

If you have implemented Revit, would you mind contributing to a Pro/Con list about the purchase. As a user I value the change it everywhere aspect. Coordination is the hardest thing for me. Some of the opposition to Revit brings up points like, for every one thing it improves on over CAD, does it create two new problems of it's own?

 

My Pro

-improved coordination of the architectural elements

 

My Con

-uncertain if there is still coordination to do beyond the architectural model. Our consultants will not be using revit. Does this mean the if I change the window size, fine, the schedule updates, but now I still have to manually coordinat the lintel, post locations, if the window interferes with the millwork... etc.

 

thanks for contributing.

[mbowers]

Mark,

 

What is the size of your firm? My firm is considered small and we have 3 offices with 50 people. We have implemented Revit and we have had our pros and cons as well. We have a bunch of talented people who can design in 3D as apposed to 2D Autocad and that has made the transition easier.

 

Certainly the biggest aspect is the amount of money that is involved. Revit can't run on your run-of-the-mill home computer. It needs at least a dual core with 2 gigs of ram. The software itself is around 4K per license. If your on a network you may need to upgrade it to a gigabit or else you'll be pulling your hair out to access a file. If your a multi-office firm you'll need a fat pipe ISP and perhaps a WAN acellerator.

 

The drawings/design can be coordinated better but you'll still need to have a watchful eye. Constraints in Revit can be a blessing or a nightmare.

 

This obviously is not an easy decision to make. You will have your ups and downs but you must be prepared for a bit of a learning curve and some headaches. And God-forbid unbillable learning time. (our payroll/billing department was really sweating for the first few months from all the indirect time)

 

Long story short. It's similar to having your first kid. You'll hardly be prepare for it, but after a while you'll get the hang of it and you won't look back. I refuse to work in any other document software other than Revit. If your financially strapped and cant afford lost time to learning software its going to be very hard for you to use Revit. If things lighten up and you can use it on a smaller not-as-complex project then you may be able to start learning the software finding out of it's something you can implement. I hope this helps.

[Antisthenes]

i would say don't do it, but that's just me as a BOM guy

 

i have seen another small firm take this risk after i left and fail

 

as far as coordination if you do Revit projects it is best if your consultants use the model too that is the purpose or BIM. when your MPE and structural use the Revit versions of that and your contractor is using the model for takeoffs and cost estimation that is where your benefit are at beyond not having to just redraw changes threw a set.

 

other than that what works is still being widely used, the old way.

 

if you do make the choice to the BIM way and have success at it, more power to you.

[RAYMOND]

interesting comments

 

I will be learning Revit for the very first time today.

I sense a steep cliff to climb...

 

I came from ADT which I hope did help... concept wise perhaps..

 

Ray:D

[3dway]

We're one office and six people kind of small, and that includes the office administrator.