Complex line types

[yavork]

In Revit the  lines types you can have is really pathetic compared to AutoCADs - dashes, dots and continious lines. (And the ofcourse the Insulation that has its own button to make, and the revision cloud if that counts...). Would be very helpful to be able to make various line types with shapes in 2d - like tracks, talus and I thing that was already suggested - with text in it. Out from deperation (again) we are using detail line family with text in it to display  ELEC, HYDRO, Xs (for fence), etc... but comes a curve and there the solution stops. We are also forced to do untinkable things to a surveyors drawings in order to preserve their line types in Revit.

[jaboone]

Yea. That inliers the problem of RENTING software instead of earning a competitive business model, because there is no one better. Plus dealing with someone who doesn't care what we think. Our guys in Origan USA have a decent product ProgeCAD under ItelliCAD platform. No renting. You could BUY 2 seats for price of renting. That is your open source that doesn't have much advertising. They can import Revit, DGN and open and save to all formats. It keeps getting better all the time. They listen and I have been using it for many years.

[mhiserZFHXS]

@jaboone 

Nailed it with renting/subscription based software being the single biggest issue. There are very few BIM softwares out there, and Revit is certainly the best. People who say it sucks are living in denial. 

The problem is, they are the best, and they know they are the best. They also know we have to pay them every single year now, rather than only when we see a new version worth buying. This all means they have ZERO motivation to continue to improve and innovate. They have minimal developers dedicated to the software, just enough to get token updates a couple times a year. And those people surely do work their butts off, but there needs to be more of them. 

The only way to fix this is through government action. There needs to be an incredibly high threshold in order to justify using a subscription model rather than a one time purchase. Unfortunately, this is never going to happen in our more and more out of control "free market" system. 

Until then, we are basically stuck with whatever Autodesk gives us, and paying the price they demand. 

[ViviNyehuusAndersen]

They’re definitely not the best—just the richest. The real issue isn’t quality—but cash flow. Autodesk's sheer size and resources enable them to acquire or sideline promising competitors before they can gain traction.

For instance, Revit began as Revit Technology Corporation, a small startup, before Autodesk acquired it in 2002 for $133 million. While the acquisition helped scale Revit development, it also eliminated a potentially independent rival in BIM.

Autodesk has a long history of absorbing promising players. In recent years alone, they've snapped up a slew of companies to expand their offering—like Payapps (2025), Wonder Dynamics (2024), Golaem’s IP and team (2024), Spacemaker, Pype, Innovyze, and others autodesk.com 

Many of these could have matured into strong independent alternatives, but are now integrated into Autodesk’s ecosystem.

Their most ambitious move recently was a potential acquisition of PTC—valued at more than $20 billion. That mega-deal, if it had gone through, would have combined Autodesk’s CAD dominance with PTC’s PLM strengths to create an almost unstoppable one-stop industrial software platform.

Autodesk eventually walked away from the deal, opting instead for “tuck-in” acquisitions and organic growth.

This pattern isn’t unique to the BIM world but is particularly damaging there—fewer independent challengers means less innovation and competition. So yeah, wealth often equals dominance—and unfortunately, that dominance is sometimes stifling the emergence of better tools

[jaboone]

I agree. Renting should not be a business model because WE LOSE out on innovation as we have seen for MANY years. ADOBE started it years ago because I guess their ideas got stagnant or they hit a plateau. Sure, keep a license agreement and management, not the problem to prevent theft, but we see the many frustrations of getting ideas incorporated. Autodesk is the biggest (richest) software company in the world, no surprise. What industries use renting in order for you to stay in business? Industries that use this model include mail order book sales clubs and music sales clubs, private web mail providers, cable television, satellite television providers with pay television channels, providers with digital catalogs with downloadable music or eBooks, audiobooks, satellite radio, telephone companies, mobile network operators, internet providers, software publishers, websites (e.g., blogging websites), business solutions providers, financial firms, health clubs, lawn mowing and snowplowing services, pharmaceuticals, renting an apartment, property taxes, as well as the traditional newspapers, magazines, and academic journals. It's sort of like property taxes, isn't it? One missed payment and then you don't own anything, and you're out of business, or they come and take your home. How sad. We don't consume anything with software, and with most fair programmers, they don't require a monthly fee, either.