Let's Try this Again

Okay, AU2012 is just around the corner which means I try to kick start my blog back up. Hopefully one of these years it sticks and I stay consistant with posting. I certainly have plenty of stuff to talk about which is why I haven't been posting, too BUSY!

If you see me at AU give me a jab and tell me to start blogging.

Let AU2011 Begin !!

Well, I am here, excited for another year at AU. Hoping to catch up with those I haven't seen since last year, meet new people, and learn about what's going on out in the industry as well as what's to come.

I am guessing that this will be like any other year, I write my first post the minute I get to the hotel room and than never have time to write again once I step foot out the door. Hope this isn't the case this year, but we will have to wait and see.

Why does Revit Structure Suck?

Well, actually it is not "Why does Revit Structure Suck?", rather "Why does Revit Structure Suck for those who use it?

Well, I will tell you. WE (at least for us) DON'T DICTATE WHAT VERSION WE WORK IN, our clients do. What does this mean? Believe it or not most of my time in the last year has been working on a project in RS2009. This project is mostly steel and its not flat or straight. The below image shows one of the images from this project. Sure would be nice to be able to use RS2012.

We still have projects that are required to be done in RS2010 and RS2011. Happy to say they are mostly in RS2011. And now finally within the last month, 5 months after release, we are just starting to see our clients move to RS2012. Several still have not moved, and if they have some will only start new projects and not upgrade existing projects or those that are in progress.

So how many of you try to keep your sanity while working and supporting 4 flavors of Revit. By the end of the day your brain is mush. RS2009 to RS2010 we have the interface change. Nothing is even close between these two as far as where the tools are located. RS2010 to RS2011, much better, but tool locations did get tweaked in RS2011 as well as become more static in their location when you are editing elements. You definitely come to appreciate the improvements with each new release when you have to work a day without one of them.

I am not going to even get into the analysis because with this workflow we are faced with, it can be difficult to count on whether or not you can use the analysis exports nor can you get a consistent workflow in place for doing it. One project you can use a new export feature, the next you can't because it is in a older version that doesn't work. Of course I realize that this is not the case for everyone, but for us it is.

So how about having to maintain 4 versions of Revit with regards to templates, families, and source files you may have created. I myself like to upgrade this stuff each time we roll out a new version. This way we are not dealing with "upgrading on the fly" with these files as we are working on them. It can definitely be a challenging environment.

What I have to question is what holds you back from not taking advantage of the latest and greatest version you are paying for. I know that there are two sides to every story and I get that, I typical like to here the other side of the story rather than make assumptions. I realize you might want to wait for the first service pack to come out. I even understand that their are firms out that are much larger than us and transitioning to a new version is a huge task. I guess my question would be, "What can Autodesk do to help make this workflow a more of a no brainer?

Anyways.... these are my comments for today, Revit Structure does not suck, it just means we have to be on our toes and ready to adapt to various situations and workflows. It makes each day a little bit more exciting.