Revit Architecture installation options

[Anonymous]

I'm in the process of purchasing new hardware for 8-10 Revit users and I have a few questions about which direction to take. Should I go with new, 64bit Win7workstations with lots of RAM and fast processors and have each user run the program on their local machine? Or should I buy a powerful server with 8-10GB of RAM and one processor per user, and have them run Revit on the server through remote desktop from their existing 32bit XP machines? What are the pros and cons of these 2 different scenarios? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[TravisNave]

The way I saw it demonstrated at AU 2010 this year is that you'd benefit from running it on a server as it would be a better use of resources and ultimately cheaper in the long run.  You'd have to have network activated seats of course, to comply with the EULA. 

[DarrenP]

i think you have to buy a license for every user right?

[TravisNave]

So long as every user accessing it has a network seat available.  Right now this method only supports NLM seats.  It's a very new process.  Personally I am not a big fan of the licensing of this method.  At AU, I kept shaking my head and saying to myself that this violates the EULA, but apparently Autodesk is okay with this for network seats only. 

[DarrenP]

was autodesk the one doing the demo or was it a customer?

[TravisNave]

It was an Autodesk partner doing the demo.  Trust me, you know I am as strict as a widowed grammar teacher when it comes to licensing.  I was impressed with the demo, but had my reservations on licensing.  But I was assured that this is acceptable with network seats.  Take it for what it is... but I defintely voiced my concerns.  Perhaps this is a preview of things to come?

[DarrenP]

hopefully