Hello Scott and other Adesk staffers working on Project Spark (RevitLT).
I thought you might appreciate my perspective. I have spent the last 2 months trying trial versions of Chief Architect, SoftPlan, ArchiCad, Envisioneer and SketchUp, and now Adesk Spark.
Are you interested in my viewpoint? I am a sole practioner, licensed architect specializing in the design of custom homes.
ROBUST AND DETAILED AND EASY 3D ROOF TOOLS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY:
I agree with everything said on this forum about you needing robust roof creation tools, otherwise, programs like Chief and SoftPlan will kick the stuffing out of you.
However, most of the other softwares out there have several severe limitations and you should know about these so that perhaps you can deal with them better and allow you to provide a better program for less money and thereby enjoy greater market share and garner the appreciation of architects across the world.
CONCERNS ABOUT FULL-BLOWN REVIT:
First: Revit scares a lot of us small practioners. It is percieved as too complicated, not tuned to house design and very expensive, with demanding subscriptions. It appears that you are trying to address these issues, and for that I thank you!
DIRECTIONS FOR SPARK/REVITLT THAT YOUR USERS WOULD GREATLY APPRECIATE:
If you can produce a program like Spark for perhaps $1,200 to $1,500+/- and we own the license, and it be our choice whether we want to upgrade it or not, when we choose (based on simple and brilliant new features you and your staff add to the program rather that just rearranging menus and calling it "new"), and provide forever support and building an extensive, free online video tutorial library, you are going to solve much of the discontent with full blown Revit, and improve Adesk's market share exponentially with small practitioners like me, and perhaps even with others, like builders, educational institutions and others. Simpler is good! Easier ways of doing things is good! Less expensive is good! Free training is good! You will establish a loyal base of users who will love you willingly, rather than being worried about what you are going to do them next year.
THE CURRENT SITUATION FOR ARCHITECTS:
Architects are still reeling from the worst economic holocaust in our profession since the Great Depression. The AIA reports that in about 2008 there were around 221,000+/- architects in the USA and that now there are only about 180,000 remaining. That's over 18% attrition during this bleak time for our nation and World. I have known some architects who have committed suicide. This is no joke. Fees are not what they used to be and clients are fewer than apple trees in the desert. We are having a very difficult time, financially, so I was delighted to hear about your Spark/RevitLT project today! Good thinking! Whoever came up with that (you, Scott?) deserve a big "attaboy" from AutoDesk: you are responding to a very real market need.
COMPARISONS WITH CHIEF ARCHITECT, SOFTPLAN, ARCHICAD, SKETCHUP:
Okay: the biggest concern I have with programs like Chief and SoftPlan are their apparent inability (or limited ability) to allow us architects to add surface detail (and 3D detail) to elevations and section models. Chief and SoftPlan are highly automated for floor plans, roofs, dormers, framing, cabinets, and other features, which is good, but unfortunately with that automation, you have some limitations: for instance, there are over 10,000 dialog boxes on Chief Architect (one of their senior programmers told me so). According to my family's longevity history, that's about how many days I have left to live. I don't want to take that long to learn how to use them. Chief is a powerful program that probably satisifes builders and mainstream home designers for most typical housing appearance needs (that's what some of their senior people told me). However, for architectural designs having lots of 3D surface detail, all those dialog boxes really don't do much to allow for that expression, although they do have "pony walls" addressed in one of those dialog boxes (allowing for varying materials to be over each other in one wall type at different heights, which is really nice to have).
The main salesperson for SoftPlan contacted the owner of the company regarding my desire to be able to create timber roof trusses and bracing and bracketry and he said that the Owner said that their program cannot do this. I actually recieved a subsequent e-mail from one of their most experienced users and he did illustrate to me that He knew how to do this and displayed this to me in a step by step process that was cumbersome, but doable. But having the owner of the company reporting that such architectural processes were not possible concerned me. Once again, it is likely a product for 90% of the mainstream housing in America, not necessarily for robust and detailed architectural projects with lots of surface and 3D detail.
SketchUp is a nifty program that handles 3D extrusions about as simply as any program I have used. Their Push-Pull tool should serve as a Global model for the world in how to create a 3D object out of a 2D flat plane perimeter. However, I could not imagine actually trying to do a full-blown architectural project of say, 3 stories in SketchUp. It is too easy to accidentally connect objects and lines from one level to another, because, there is no embedded mechanism for managing one floor or another. It is Not called "SketchUp Architect: with good reason. It is the Wild West: you are drawing in 3D, period. Nothing constrains anything to any particular level, other than your own organizational skills at categorizing a series of objects into certain names that you create. And the built-in stickiness of objects, while helpful, can also result in creating a mess. And no Mirror tool or extend, and no BIM database keeping tabs on whatever you are creating.
ArchiCad is a big competitor for you. And it may continue to be. They invented 3D/BIM. I have been trying to duplicate much in their tutorials and quite frankly, am having great difficulty in getting tools to operate Exactly as indicated, like their dimension tool. Also, I have yet to be able to precisely locate internal composite walls exactly into the positions I want. And their reference line controls mysify me, especially when I try to use predefined walls and have them correctly located from the get-go. I am sure that these issues are no doubt my own lack of familiarity with the program. But learning can be frustrating. And it is expensive, but not quite as costly as Revit. There may be reasons for this.
NEED FOR EASY ABILITY FOR ARCHITECTS TO EMBELLISH ELEVATION SURFACES WITH 3D DETAILS:
I am hoping that Spark/RevitLT does allow for extensive surface detail and 3D objects to be created and attached to the Model being created in Spark, complete with hotgrips and BIM connectivity. Architects need that Easy ability. We want to be able to create 3D objects, right in the program, then attach these architectural objects to various posts, beams, walls, ceiling and other 3D surfaces with a minimum of effort. I hope Spark can do this!
HUGE NEED FOR 3D/BIM ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN SIMPLICITY & EASE OF USE:
Even though many of us architects grew up on drawings with pencils and high-tech was a Mayline parallel bar and vinyl over a drawing board, most of us have learned 2D CAD during the last 25 years and know it well, typically with software through your parent company. 3D/BIM can be and is confusing and frustrating for many, if not most of us. I have talked to several other heads of architectural firms lately and although their companies are using 3D/BIM software, they, themselves are not, or have not yet mastered it. This tells us volumes about the learning curve of 3D/BIM software. It is not easy. Is should be! The architects that run most small firms have been the main designers of those firms and they feel great frustration at not being able to actually be the person operating the 3D program that is composing the design. This role often is given to a CAD person and that is not the ideal situation for many small practicing architects. I want to do it myself! I hope the learning curve is short and nearly level with Spark. If it is: please keep it that way. If it is not: please work to continue to simplify how things are accomplished. Eliminate unnecessary steps. Automate everything you can, or at least allow us users to chose the automated operation or to go it manually. Check out Chief Architect and SoftPlan and Envisioneer and learn how well they do some things for house design, and go them one better! You are AutoDesk! You should be able to make it even better And simpler! This is a huge market segment. Keep walking down this path and you will see these things that are obvious.
Oh, and hey: THANK YOU! Your efforts are greatly appreciated.
------USAARCHITECT
