The materials interface in Revit 2013 is, without a doubt, the worst dialogue box in the history of Revit. The mistakes of the 2012 version have been magnified exponentially here in 2013. There is no logical hierarchy to this counter intuitiuve matrix of ambiguouse material categories, names, appearances, and “assets” that appear in redundant lists without any explanation or evidence of their actual appearance or application in the model. Asset? Seriously?
I have heard that this was a cut and paste from AutoCAD to support material interoperability, but the reality is more like criminal negligance.
Materials are tricky, and of extreme importance in a BIM. Adding multiple tiers of vague nomenclature (to something that everyone already understood intuitively), into incoherent dialogue boxes is exactly the kind of nonsense that has made AutoCAD Architecture unusable to millions of very smart people. This "infection" needs to be cured quickly.
Is Autodesk blind or indiferent to the millions of furrowed brows, and the burden re-training people to something so stupid? Revit 2013 is a weak release, and the materials debacle gives reason enough to skip it. The sky may not be falling yet, but this is a big red flag to me that the product is losing momentum in the middle of a long race.
If you need experienced people to help you, I'm available. Please take some of the marketing budget and re-direct it into development. The whole world is waiting.
Thanks!
Eric
