Revit Modelers is there a market for them?

[Sketchrender]

Hi

 

I would like to know if there is a market at the moment or will there in your opinion for Revit Modelers.

I am presuming ( based on nothing of course) that Revit will the be the future drawing programme and not Autocad Architecture ?

 

I have a Architectural technician background but moved to 3D modeling a good few years ago.

Work in ireland is very quite and I am thinking about the future and where the work will be, and keep up the Visualisation end , but move into Revit as future work flow.

This has been discussed before I know, but opinions from people who are working with Clients on a daily basis might help.

 

I am finding the perfect photorealistic work clients are not willing to wait for and just want 80% of your highest quality and as quick and as cheap as you can do it, but that could just be a reflection of the market we have here at the moment.

I have received one Revit model in the last year all be it very big, and great to have as model to render too.

But I was only given it as the client had to buy into Revit to get the job, seems people have to be pushed into the package to use it.

 

Is it worth the investment?

Is there a market for it?

Are you investing or thinking about it?

 

Every opinion good bad or indifferent is worth listening too.

As they say open your mind before you make it up.

 

Thank you

 

phil

[Macer]

The cost to architectural firms (training and hardware and reduced productivity for the first few projects) is the reason why it hasn't been adopted by everyone already, but several firms in my area have been using it exclusively for a number of years. For bigger firms (such as the one I'm at) they are waiting until it is demanded by the client.

 

A government report out a month or two ago is likely to change things though, as it recommends that BIM and IPD is adopted, and it may lead to all government construction work demanding BIM. This would result in a massive increase in BIM use (if it happens)!

 

I don't think there will be a big demand for stand alone modellers though, I think architctural firms will need BIM model managers to control large projects that several technicians (and ME & Structures input) are working on at the same time. May lead to more firms taking M&E in house (especially when you consider the new demands for calcs at the early design stage).

 

But there will be a need for advanced BIM users/managers in any architectural firm that adopts BIM.

Just my thoughts...

[Sketchrender]

Mark

 

Thank you for the reply.

Were did you read about the implementation or possible of BIM and IPD ?

 

If this happen, could be a new role for Revit modeler and managers.

The manger will have to know revit backwards.

 

Thank you again.

 

Phil

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

I work at a very large architecture firm. All of our projects are in Revit, with the exception of a few legacy projects that started before we instituted the BIM effort we have now. We employee BIM Managers that control the process and quality of the Revit work as a whole, but also each individual project has a BIM Coordinator that assists the team with quality control, and makes sure things are on track.

 

As for individual BIM modelers. We have contracted people in the past to build custom families, but this was geared more towards our firm getting our libraries built up as we needed. It is/was not an ongoing trend that we were planning on continuing.

 

Many of the furniture reps have began building families of their own that can be inserted into our models. The only draw back of that is that they need to be adapted to our firm standards. You may be able to market to them, and see if they need families built for them so that they can offer that as an added bonus to their customers.

 

I think their could be an oppurtunity for contract BIM modelers at smaller to mid range firms as the need for BIM becomes both requested by the government, and needed by the contractors.

 

...the contractors may also present an opportunity. It is my understanding that there is often 2 BIM models on our projects. One for the designers and architects to coordinate what is going on, and a second, independent model for the contractors to coordinate what is happening in the field. Yes in a perfect world they would be the same model, but we don't live in a perfect world.

[anejo]

Recently i've had a few construction companies contact me for Revit contract work, not for modeling, but more for Revit knowledge and communication. My understanding was that they were bidding on projects and were trying to put together a small team of contractors with revit experience.

I'm sure it helps to in the bidding process when a construction firm include in their bid that have people with revit experience.

[TheAllusionisst]

Unless things have changed drastically in the last few years, I would think the transmittal of the huge files and team coordination issues on medium sized projects and up would make it not very practical. Smaller projects might work of course.

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

Unless things have changed drastically in the last few years, I would think the transmittal of the huge files and team coordination issues on medium sized projects and up would make it not very practical. Smaller projects might work of course.

 

Note : This post is more or less a side note.

 

I am not sure this would work with consultants, but when we are working with other offices in our firm, we often set up a local dedicated machine that the remote user logs into. The model lives on the servers in the office, and the remote user simply works via remote desktop. This way the only thing being transmitted back and forth are the graphics to display the model, and not the actual model itself.

 

There was an interesting session at AU last year that someone from Perkins+Will gave on the methods they are implementing. Unfortunately you can only download the session information and video if you have a valid AU registration.

http://au.autodesk.com/?nd=class&session_id=6670

 

So, ...I guess you can say that Revit modeling will more or less live in the cloud in the future. The limiting factor will be your connection because it needs to be fast enough to transmit the screen back and forth without a lot of lag.

Edited May 11, 2011 by Crazy Homeless Guy

[TheAllusionisst]

Cool, I hadn't seen this done, but I haven't had to use Revit for four years so I figured I was out of touch a bit.

[kris McIsaac]

I am starting to see more and more Requests from clients, especially in the health sector asking for Revit. I also teach Revit part time at a University and many of my students are finding it hard to get work without Revit knowledge. I know in Australia there is a lot of momentum and the government is starting to take notice. There is work being done on official standards for Revit content creation and I am sure standards for collaboration will follow. The company I work for has been developing our Revit systems for nearly 4 years. I think the ones waiting until it is a request will then have to play catch up and possibly miss out on a lot of work

[Sketchrender]

Thank you for all the replies.

I worked for six months in house with a companies doing a very large Hospital in Revit

I was the 3D viz person to take the model and make it beautiful.

Watching the process was interesting.

A hugh team all in about 20 people spread over Ireland England and America, all linked in to a server where the model was kept in London, and everybody using a remote desktop set up and loging in every morning and working away.

Slowish but workable, the job got done but amazing to see everybody taking their package of work external skin , interiors ect all in different offices.

I am coming at this from a job point of view.

A revit modeler seems to be a job for the future.

I don't want to manage, i like to work hands on, and it seems like a sound investment to be a revit modeler.

I have technical back ground, and at the end of the day it is just another piece of software to learn and get paid to use it.

 

 

Phil

[Macer]

Hi Philip,

 

Links to report info I mentioned early:

http://www.autodesk.co.uk/adsk/servlet/index?id=15283736&siteID=452932

Half way down and at the bottom.

 

and:

http://cadsetterout.com/bim/bim-recommended-for-uk-government-procurement/

 

 

If you do go ahead with it, it may be worth getting certified:

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=14238657

 

Those in the know say it is a bit worthless, but to inexperienced clients it will be a major positive!

 

Good luck.

[ezb]

Just like Crazy Homeless guy, I work at a large architectural firm. 100% of our work is completed using Revit. We've used it on all sizes of projects, from interior retrofits to large regional hospitals. The larger projects take greater BIM model management, but Revit is more than capable. Furthermore, it's parametric databases make it an even more powerful tool on the larger more complicated projects. So I would argue that larger projects benefit more from Revit than smaller projects.

 

We are also utilizing Revit in all aspects of design and construction documentation. It is replacing Sketchup as a concept modeling tool. We generate 3D imagery from Revit at any time within the project. Revit is an extremely powerful tool. I've done architectural modeling with straight out AutoCAD, Architectural Desktop, ArchiCAD, Sketchup and 3DS Max. Even if I were to never use Revit it to create architectural construction documents, it would still be my architectural modeling software of choice.

 

I see a time coming when larger office firms may have dedicated family creators on staff, and that in order to compete, firms without that specialty in-house, will be looking for outside help or resources to aid their Revit process. I think that Revit still has a fairly small market share, but it's growing and I don't see it slowing down any time soon. I also think that firms using Revit will still be seeking out-of-house visulization, but it will be imparitive for the people/companies that they choose to use and understand Revit.

Edited May 21, 2011 by ezb

[Sketchrender]

Thank you for the replies

 

I am sold on it, I have invested in The design suite premium, I got a good upgarde deal from Max to it .

 

So I am going to train in it and start using it.

I am still getting drawings off clients , and they should be proving models with all the work thats has gone in to the drawings.

 

Phil

[harryhood]

...the contractors may also present an opportunity. It is my understanding that there is often 2 BIM models on our projects. One for the designers and architects to coordinate what is going on, and a second, independent model for the contractors to coordinate what is happening in the field. Yes in a perfect world they would be the same model, but we don't live in a perfect world.

I'm a little late to the party but figured I'd throw my 2 cents in. I work for a general contractor, and we implement Revit on nearly every project (among other 3D software). We typically have modeled our own architectural model off the 2D CD's (either the architect didn't model or they modeled only a design model for their internal use). But there are a handful of projects where the architect has modeled, and shared, their Revit models as well as maintained them through the life of the project. I can't tell you how much I prefer the latter .

 

There are still other separate models for construction and coordination such as civil, steel, foundations, and M&E. Those aren't all done in Revit though. Steel might be Revit for CD's but not for fabrication, that's usually done in Tekla. Our M&E subs prefer AutoCad MEP vs Revit MEP. We tend to use Revit along with several other programs for a multitude of purposes.