I have been sort of sitting on this post for sometime now to give myself a chance to think, research, and form an opinion about the release of Revit LT from Autodesk.
This product launch appeared to create much debate in the past week or so between those for and those against it... The epitome of these debates can be found in the contrasting blog posts at the Revit Forum Blog and at Revit Fact Check. I urge you to read both of those posts entirely after reading the features list (or "non-features" list) and try to forge your own opinion.
My opinion, you ask? Personally, I just don't get it. I understand both the for and against arguments but I don't understand the value Revit LT will add to Revit itself. A perfect example can be seen in the Revit Wiki.... Carefully read this workflow Autodesk published... Your thoughts? My thought's were "WTF?".
Having started using Revit in a "small firm" (we started with 5 people and when I left there were 3). The type of work we did was similar to what Autodesk claims Revit LT would cater towards. Well, guess what.... We used Revit Architecture! We used plenty of the features that don't fully exist in Revit LT (worksharing being one of the main components... It was great! We couldn't "overwrite" each others CAD files.. WOOHOO). I will stop there because I did not want this post to be a list of features that should or should not exist in Revit LT.
I don't have the numbers, and maybe one my readers do, but how many AutoCAD LT users ended up buying full blown AutoCAD? Any AutoCAD LT users I know have been using it for years... It is great to make Revit more "affordable" but at what cost? Will these users actually become Revit users!? Will the lack of worksharing and other features create a CAD workflow in a Revit package??
With the right amount of Revit knowledge and workflow implemented on a project (even a little addition to a house) I know for a fact that the ROI of using Revit will pay for a full version very quickly... So what is Revit LT actually doing? What will it become? What good or evil will it create? We will have to wait and see...
This product launch appeared to create much debate in the past week or so between those for and those against it... The epitome of these debates can be found in the contrasting blog posts at the Revit Forum Blog and at Revit Fact Check. I urge you to read both of those posts entirely after reading the features list (or "non-features" list) and try to forge your own opinion.
My opinion, you ask? Personally, I just don't get it. I understand both the for and against arguments but I don't understand the value Revit LT will add to Revit itself. A perfect example can be seen in the Revit Wiki.... Carefully read this workflow Autodesk published... Your thoughts? My thought's were "WTF?".
Having started using Revit in a "small firm" (we started with 5 people and when I left there were 3). The type of work we did was similar to what Autodesk claims Revit LT would cater towards. Well, guess what.... We used Revit Architecture! We used plenty of the features that don't fully exist in Revit LT (worksharing being one of the main components... It was great! We couldn't "overwrite" each others CAD files.. WOOHOO). I will stop there because I did not want this post to be a list of features that should or should not exist in Revit LT.
I don't have the numbers, and maybe one my readers do, but how many AutoCAD LT users ended up buying full blown AutoCAD? Any AutoCAD LT users I know have been using it for years... It is great to make Revit more "affordable" but at what cost? Will these users actually become Revit users!? Will the lack of worksharing and other features create a CAD workflow in a Revit package??
With the right amount of Revit knowledge and workflow implemented on a project (even a little addition to a house) I know for a fact that the ROI of using Revit will pay for a full version very quickly... So what is Revit LT actually doing? What will it become? What good or evil will it create? We will have to wait and see...
