Quality of Life Update

[a_kralkay]

Can we allocate some dev resources to fixing the numerous things that have been left dysfunctional in this software for years? I'm not going to list them here. There has been MANY identified by users over the years. Just browse through the Ideas forum or any of the help forums and you'll see what I mean.

I find it incredibly frustrating to encounter a problem in the software and then google it, only to find that someone else made a post about it many years ago (often with replies from Autodesk) yet it's still an issue today. Sure, there may be some workaround that someone figured out but it feels like nearly everything requires some sort of workaround at this point. I'm sick of using workarounds. I want things to work properly and intuitively.

It just feels like nothing is being fixed and all resources are being allocated to incredibly situational new features. I can honestly say that nothing on the roadmap excites me. And I don't see any mention of anything being fixed, just new features that I'll likely never use. I'm suggesting we hit pause on these unnecessary features and spend some time on the list of issues that I'm certain Autodesk already has yet seems to just ignore year after year.

[tittlek]

I wholeheartedly agree. This has been an issue for many years. In fact, back in 2020 an open letter from major UK Architecture firms was sent to Autodesk stating that as software costs have gone up software development has stagnated.

I also feel that the Revit update that came after this letter finally fixed several of the open issues with the software.

However, as you mentioned there are still many many things that have never been fixed. If anyone hasn't seen this already you can check out this very popular Blog post by Dion Moult titled Why Revit is Sh*t, which dates from 2018. Many of the issues pointed out even back then have yet to be addressed.

Why Revit is Sh*t

[cslatteryAXGRE]

I agree, there is a lot of great ideas in Revit but there is a lot of room for improvement. It just does not make sense that many things have never been addressed. I am glad they finally added a plumbing equipment category. Now let's work on being able to put annotation families in other family views besides the ref level.

[larry1craig]

That's why my boss opposes working with Revit in our firm … 

[PaulTOB]

@a_kralkay 
I just opened a support ticket for an error I found in the Error Reporting Export dialog.

Support sent an Autodesk Expert to me. He suggested I should put it here. When this is the second post on the list, I'm not feeling very confident...

[a_kralkay]

@PaulTOB 

This is why I made this post. I have about 1 support ticket open each week on average. 99% of the time I am told "this is working as expected" because, for reasons we are never told, it was coded that way. It seems the development team will only acknowledge that there is an actual issue if the outcome isn't expected based on how it was coded. They don't think broken workflows or missing critical functionality is an issue that needs to be fixed. They just direct you to this forum so that we can waste years "gathering support" for something that should have just worked properly from day 1.

So now every time anyone wants something to work better in Revit we have to hope that enough people are frustrated enough to come to the idea forum (assuming they even know about it) and vote on the super specific thing that you also had troubles with until there is enough (however that is defined) people who vote on it, or enough time has past that they just "archive" the idea and you need to start the several year process over again...

[farzanbayat74]

@a_kralkay 

Autodesk has got management problems. when you create a software or 3 disciplines  (ARCHITECTURE - STRUCTURE - MEP) you should provide enough developers for such a huge task.

on the other hand, they try to split features between multiple softwares, so you need more subscriptions. for example in structural connections, there are many features that are needed but they are only available in "Advance Steel" software. so you have to buy both Revit and Advance software and also you lose time by multiple import/export between softwares for each project. I hope that one day I can move to bricsCAD or another software instead of Revit

[mhiserZFHXS]

@larry1craig 

Does your boss also oppose you driving a car to work, because sometimes you might get a flat? Or oppose using a computer since the power goes out sometimes?

Yea, Revit has issues. Some are understandable. Some are infuriating. But refusing to look past those issues to acknowledge the countless benefits of using Revit over AutoCAD, Sketchup, Rhino or any other program is a very poor business management decision.

[larry1craig]

@mhiserZFHXS 

Tell me this

Are you an Architect or Structural Designer?

[mhiserZFHXS]

Architect. But we've worked with structural engineers that both use and don't use Revit. Coordination issues with those using Revit are few and far between compared to those who don't. Same with any other consultants.

[larry1craig]

@mhiserZFHXS 

Ok. I want you to do a very simple thing which is the most fundamental part of steel structure modelling. please weld two simple plates to each other (in the steel tab) and take a screenshot of that weld in any view and send it here. then we can discuss.

[mhiserZFHXS]

@larry1craig 

https://help.autodesk.com/view/RVT/2024/ENU/?guid=GUID-69025293-04E9-404C-8B88-82BECACCCEA6

[larry1craig]

@mhiserZFHXS 

ok, good.

In the very first step of steel detailing, We encountered a problem. The link you mentioned above is talking about annotations. What's the problem with that? The problem is that you have to specify weld start and end in your drawings before sending that drawing to the field. So now you have no choice but to return to 2D drawing tools in Revit or AutoCAD and draw hatches for each connection detail in a +5000 m2 project or buy another software (like Advance Steel). When you draw this manually for a couple of projects, believe me you go nuts.

This problem could have been prevented if we had parametric 3D welds in Revit Connection Families. 2024 version is out and we still lose our time for drawing welds.

[mhiserZFHXS]

You are getting into territory that I am not familiar with, but why does each of those need to be actually modeled? I have never seen this in our consultant drawings. And I don't model every door jamb or or floor-to-wall connection. I use detail drawings and tags or callouts. The line for model vs drawing obviously varies from firm to firm, but that just seems like too much. To help your workflow, why not develop a standard detail library so you don't have to draw every single connection in every single project.

[larry1craig]

@mhiserZFHXS 

We have a 2D library of details and we used to work like this before buying Revit, but if you had a parametric weld, after a Revision all the views and callouts could be updated in a few clicks compared to the traditional approach.

I hope Autodesk hear me. Engineers turned Autodesk into a big corporation, Now it's not fair to beg for such basic features...

Thanks

[roziilopez]

add rebar cranking

[a_kralkay]

Here's one example of what I'm talking about in the main post...

Plan regions have a bug where changing the plan region's view depth can effect things outside of the drawn region. Here is a forum post from 2006 where the OP mentions reporting it to Autodesk and them confirming that is a bug. THAT WAS 17 YEARS AGO!!! I just encountered the same issue today. Why hasn't this been fixed yet??

[ankofl]

This is because Avtodesk is a monopolist on the world market. They have too much money to be customer-oriented

[Evalucia]

I was just about to post a similar request : stop rushing new versions full of bugs and work on a version that would be efficient, for once.

Than, when we'll be able to work efficiently, they could add features that nobody care about.

We need to do so much unnecessary steps to achieve a simple task, due to software shortcomings, that it make it really frustrating to work with. It's like they don't use their own software.

They must have a team of peoples who work with Revit "in real life" and point all flaws ? They don't take them seriously or they just don't care of the satisfaction of their customers ?

There is so many small things that could be implemented to help make our work smoother.

If I could vote for your idea a thousand times, I would!

[chrisF633G]

Can I vote 100 times for this? Day-to-day functionality and work flow needs to take priority over adding, as OP noted "situational" content. Sloped walls? Don't care. In the very few times I need this I can model it. Software at this price point shouldn't require work arounds, or worse yet, 3rd party software to make seemingly normal things like basic BIM management work.

[dennis_collin]

Legends, legends and legends, I know I have said it 3 times, but it is relevant to all disciplines and the current functionality is so bad, and manual, it contradicts the principles of what Revit is supposedly about.

Was terrible back in the early noughties and has not received any improvement since.

I have been told to wait and be patient, unfortunately all that has happened in the past 15 years or so is that I have less hair and got older.. Yes steel detailing could and should be so much better, as could MEP modelling... still no trunking!

The steel detailing interface is clunky and slow and inconsistent with the families environment, problem is there is no carrying through seemingly of new functionality, and features as left 'part baked' with Dynamo and the developer community suggested as the answer for any feature shortcomings. MEP fabrication workflow equally clunky and problematic and incomplete as the steel detailing tools unfortunately.