I believe that Robot for another 2-4 years will be with us with untouched look and feel. It will not introduce too much of new capabilities as all the resources from Autodesk will most likely be focused on deploying engine of Robot into massive Quantum Project. React Structures was only first step. Autodesk has already showed their path and this is not a path where there are separated programs like Robot, Advance Steel or even Revit. The future of BIM is not to have BIM in the way as we see it – meaning co-operation between different programs. The future is to have one service which can be extended by adding new capabilities. You wish to have steel fabrication – here it is, just check the box and pay for next month, do your job in interface for steel detailing. You wish to have structural design – mark another box and do you design in another interface. Buy a service, not the product. We already see it when Robot can be bought only as part of large collection of products. Autodesk has showed us how it works already – you buy bunch of different programs, but soon we will be buying bunch of services. This is already in the way how subscription works in Autodesk. This is very long way for Autodesk, but they are focused on this. It may be huge success as they will be first in these shoes. But being first has also big risks. They cannot do that within one day or by introducing brand new interface. This must take some years so people like us will get up to speed with new engine. I doubt that Robot will be on sell as one program – this is not in line with Quantum methodology.
You remember when Microsoft introduced Ribbon in Office 2007? That was 10 years ago and most of the people were moaning how hard it is to use it. And then they had no choice but to switch their perspective and simply use it. Ribbon is great, but it was kind of revolution back then. And guess what – it is now identical in web based engine and interface. I guess that this is what will happen in near future with Robot. The good part is that it will be very, very innovative. It will blend in Autodesk philosophy, but it will be hard for guys like me with decade of Robot experience to switch to. I hope that we are in the middle of this switch. We did not see anything new in Robot 2018 and there were not too much new things in previous versions. However there was React Structures which most likely did not disappeared in wardrobe, but it is rather in preparation for big cloud based service. Whether we like it or not, Autodesk wants to be first in those shoes. It takes years for company like Autodesk to plan such massive thing as project Quantum and in the meantime they need to keep clients happy. They are not always good in this second part, but hope it will take some profits in future.
I do not use BIM a lot, and I am still considering if I should wait so long for Robot to see the switch to new engine for cost of lack of demanded futures. However if Robot (or actually Quantum) becomes a service with good API, the competitors may be far behind.
Have a look at this: https://www.aecmag.com/59-features/1241-autodesk-project-quantum-revit-bim
