Wicker - Current Problems With Revit/BIM

As an Environmental Engineering major, I haven’t had a lot of experience with Revit. My co-ops have involved extensive CAD work and required me to learn and implement add-ons for the program, but I have had very little experience using Revit. To gain insight on some common problems associated with Revit I chose to speak with my friend Alex who is a 5th year Architecture major and is currently working full time at an architecture firm in Malvern. She works with Revit every day and shared with me some of the problems she has with it.

Alex feels that Revit isn’t user friendly, which makes it hard for new people to pick it up quickly. She said that she has spent many hours helping new co-ops figure out how to use basic features of the program. Alex also expressed frustrations about being restricted to orthogonal pieces unless you create a module or family. This adds to a point she made at the beginning of our conversation about AutoCAD being a better option for some tasks such as details or specs. In the end Alex did admit that she enjoys using Revit and has become efficient in it after using it for so many days at work.

Many of Alex’s comments could have been copy and pasted into a forum for multiple computer aided design programs. Every program has its flaws but the greatest problem facing them as a collective is the inability to quickly and efficiently share usable data between platforms. My group read about interoperability during week 3 and what it meant for BIM technology. This is the number 1 problem facing these types of programs. As each improves and adds more features they generate more data that is used within a drawing/model. As we read in the BIM Handbook, It is difficult for someone on a different platform to take the existing file and improve upon it to use in a model of their own. Developers must create additional translators for their programs which costs time and money that could be used to further develop the program itself. As I stated in my previous post, if developers can not create an effective way for these platforms to work together seamlessly than the overall growth of BIM technologies will suffer. However, the current market for these types of programs is unique since a single consumer could be using multiple programs created by different companies to complete a project. This could help incentivize developers to focus more on making their programs work more seamlessly with other data since a program with superior interoperability will be more valuable to consumers in the future.

Sources:

C. M. Eastman, “Chapter 5: BIM for Architects and Engineers,” in BIM Handbook: A Guide to    Building Information Modeling for Owners, Managers, Designers, Engineers, and Contractors, 2nd ed., Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2012, pp. 193–261.


Replies:

Chris,

I have worked extensively with AutoCAD over all 3 of my co-ops but never had the opportunity to learn much about Revit. My co-op was with a Civil Site Design team, so CAD was our number 1 tool. I feel that one of the advantages we have as students right now is that we are being exposed to many different computer programs right now which will help us to be able to learn how to use them more easily in the future. We already know that advancements in design technology will continue to change and improve how we as engineers work in the future, so it is critical that we are able to continue to learn an adapt as well.

Thomas,

I am not very familiar with Revit so I asked some friends who are about how they felt about the program. They echoed your posted to a degree. Even though they have been working with Revit for a few years now they are no where close to using the program to its full potential. Some blamed this on what you referred to as the “learning curve” associated with the program. They found it to not be very intuitive so even performing basic tasks could be difficult. It could be especially difficult for older engineers who didn’t grow up in a world filled with technology to quickly adopt these programs even if it would be beneficial for them to do so.

I also agree with your take on Dynamo. After what we were able to find in class it seems like it could be a great first step toward creating a more efficient program all around.

Lauren,
After reading your post I began thinking about how useful a hybrid program of AutoCAD and Revit could be. Civil site designers can easily move between site layouts that reflect the work currently being done by those designing the building its self. It could shorten the total time of projects and save money on design costs. Currently a simple issue with a building footprint or façade sizing could take days to resolve since emails or meetings must take place between multiple parties and then updated files must be transferred and translated into useable forms. Having all this design happen in one centralized place may be able to shorten these processes and make for a more efficient project.
However, the current technology isn’t there yet and having a file with all that data is impossible currently. As BIM technologies advance we may see programs with this kind of versatility become common in our field.