Call for Revit 2.0
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I remember my first time using Revit. It was Revit 2012. It was a buggy mess, but man was it flexible as far as 3D modeling for architecture. Now, 12 years later, it seems as if Revit is where it should have been then. A bit cleaner, features like filtering names, advanced search, and other common missing features are finally in Revit. There is finally even a Dark mode! However, fundamentally, you could have packed most of the last 12 years of updates into 3 years and it still wouldn't have felt like it advanced too fast. The truth of the matter is, Revit feels dated, unintuitive and clunky, and this comes from an avid Revit user and enthusiast who is in charge of Design Software at my firm. For years I've thought about what a good replacement might look like. I even have a notebook with dozens of improvements and diagrams. However, as much as I think the AEC needs a new player and real competitor, the truth is, the industry is already so reluctant to change, that I think the only competitor for Revit will be a "Revit 2.0" from Autodesk.
I can easily write a long novel here about the many cool improvements I see it needing, but here are a few key points
- A "from the ground up" 3D modeling platform that uses all the power from a pc and maybe even the cloud and can model more efficiently.
- A blend of mesh and vector modeling that utilizes the strength of vector based modeling, and still be versatile and easy to manipulate late mesh models.
- I would really look to unreal engine for some insight into real-time rendering and it's latest features like nanite and lumen and see how something like that could help make Revit able to handle more elements smoother than ever. I feel like unreal could benefit from Revit for architectural elements, while Autodesk can benefit from unreal with more efficient and immersive modeling.
- An open format, something easier for moving between software and building other tools upon.
- A from the ground up underlying visual scripting system, (dynamo meets unreal blueprints basically) that allows for BIM managers to really customize the experience and designers to really have ultimate flexibility. There is a lot of efficiency lost by not allowing this, as most firms will rather spend time finding workarounds every project, then try and do things how Autodesk thinks they should be done.
- Easier manipulation tools, for example, rotating, scaling, moving, and copying should be easy and intuitive (probably having multiple ways to do each is good). Most 3D software has a contextual handle that lets you easily work in 2D or 3D and move, or rotate elements locked to an axis or freely.
- More contextual menus close to the mouse pointer, less greyed out elements. More ways to customize the layouts and add things.
- Smarter families, like way smarter. I would honestly like to see this be a collaboration between epic and Autodesk because I think both industries could significantly benefit off a more universal set of assets that are more flexible. I'll dig into that later.
- Ability to have an object have changeable parts more intuitively (natively). Currently the 'Family Type" option is too open ended and not intuitive. There needs to be ways to contain what parts can be changed and a way for Revit to recognize what family is being used as the type so it can be better used in formulas. For example, a door could have multiple panels, hardware, and accessories, and Revit should have a way to only allow a user to choose a door panel in the door panel dropdown, and not just anything with the category. Additionally, shared families tend to complicate this further when brining something into a project.
- A way to see each type's images so you can have a visual of any differences, especially when a family has changeable parts.
- A visual way to manipulate parameters. (an image of the door for example, where a user can click on the frame or door panel in the properties Dialogue and choose options for it like changing panels or adding accessories.
- Powerful LOD tools that don't require you to make several versions of a family to dumb it down, instead, maybe AI can do it. In 2D drawings, an object shouldn't be heavy and should render all 3D elements as 2D in the view so masking regions and lines don't need to be added to a family just to make it run better in these types of drawings.
- Built in, clear to use and understand maintenance tools. While some functions may remain to only be for BIM managers, they should still be quick and easy to use and relay.
- Reports should be easy to modify and explain to users. They should help paint a clear picture why it's an issue and what would be better for the software. There is still disparity on what issues are really important issues and what are simply best practice issues. The software should have a good diagnostics toolset to help make it as clear as possible what is going wrong, where it is, what is the recommended action and if there is a recommended limit, what that is.
- Reports should also have customizable rules and checks for company best practices and this should be easy enough to edit and modify quickly by BIM managers.
- Issues in the model that may cause performance issues, should be marked as such,
- elements with duplicates overlapping should have an easier way of fixing them
- "showing" an issue shouldn't require a specific view to be open. other tools do this much better.
- built in visibility finder. I believe there is an ideate tool that already does this somewhat, but it really should be built in for as much as this software costs.
- A ground up platform that integrates tools across the AEC, including review tools, concept design tools, and analytical tools. Issues and markups should live inside the project in a way easy to see and track collaboratively. Standards and templates should live in a layer that makes it easier to transfer across projects.
- More insight from firms, maybe always having some form of communication between BIM managers at firms, and teams that actually make or determine changes. This is the front I think would be too hard for a small newcomer to compete. Autodesk has scale, It just needs to have a more clear line of involvement from firms interested. (they have gotten better over years)
- More Accessibility options like glowing highlights, semi-transparent focus modes (ability to pick an area to focus on and make everything us temporarily fade, similar to how a design option works), text sizing for more elements across the board, visual cues and popups for elements that help find things easier or see more about them without having to search through menus.
- New interactive elements that can be placed in views or on sheets. These can be used by reviewers, BIM managers and designers to help communicate or coordinate in a variety of ways, or make changes easier, but can easily be hidden from printing (or shown if desired). I have several examples of how this might be useful if anyone's interested!
- much better text, including the ability to constrain, stretch with constraints, and add smart data that can change automatically (sheets, spec references, links etc.)
- a way to track and highlight changes, so that users can still be aware of them whether they are since last login, added by a manager, or changed automatically based on other changes.
Sorry for the book, I have a giant list of many more things I could add. Might find a better place to be more thorugh and organized and link that in here at some point, but I tried to keep to overarching things. Ultimately something from the ground up that is more intuitive and runs smooth would be a big start. I find it near impossible to keep designers constantly thinking about "best practices" when modeling as "Time" always ends up being the reason things get ignored. However, if issues are quicker to find and the software was more intuitive and able to handle more while also accounting for the fact that many designers aren't here for the technology aspect of the job, then it would much better! Obviously there needs to be more effort from designers to try and better follow practices to reduce performance and size issues, but to be fair, most design software outside of Revit there isn't nearly as much of a concern about major performance or stability issues based on "modeling" correctly. Maybe more day to day designers can chime in, but I think the software needs to get more out of the way for designers, and be more customizable and easier to manage for BIM managers. Ways for other teams to work behind the scenes too (like managers reviewing sheets and marking them up in semi-Realtime would be helpful too, especially if some quick things could simply be edited on the fly).
