!Restored: Success = getting new customers

[Anonymous]

I saw some documents to compare between Revit and AC.
I study Revit from own website.
It is just copy from AC!!

I used to work with AC (and very satisfied, and like many friends from AC-forum).
As AC-user I hope, AC must be better than Revit for Architects.

I have not used Revit, but just seen from Website.
The web-site from Revit is so nice, that I must believe, Revit should be better than AC.

I like to know your opinions and also opinions from GS.

Thanks

[Ignacio Azpiazu]

jdk wrote:
Ignacio, do not confuse Revit with AutoCAD, as they are different applications. Further, Revit is a BIM, developed independently from AutoCAD. Autodesk has acquired the Revit company due to the failure with Architectural Desktop; it wanted a BIM, to compete head to head with ArchiCAD. In addition to this strategic move, Autodesk is now moving its clients to Revit via a sweet 60% off; if you have a recent version of AutoCAD, you get both Revit-9 and AutoCad 2007 for 1100$. This also allows Autodesk to keep those clients that were about to move to ArchiCAD 10.

That is precisely what I am saying. Autocad has become a Stone Age product and they want you to 'upgrade' to Revit before you become someone else's client. Autocad goes for free.

When you compare that cost relative to switching to some other vendor's product, you should also add the capital value you already have in your current license (like: the total is the price you would get for selling your Autocad 2007 and Revit licenses at full value once you got both for $1100 as an Autocad client).

Switching always involves 'switching costs', and there must always be a very good justification for switching. In this specific case, though, the huge hidden costs in going both Revit and ArchiCAD will be the learning curve, which is what I am saying you need to measure against the returns (which will be huge in both cases, and you need to figure out which will be huger for you).

[Anonymous]

Locally, Revit is gaining huge momentum. We did the homework over a year ago before switching, and ArchiCAD was superior in many ways. However, the upgrade for a small firm was too much. From ADT to Revit, it was $400 bucks (subscriptions is a whole other can of worms). We could not honestly justify that ArchiCAD was superior by $4k.

The reality of US market, is that Graphisoft HAS to provide a cross upgrade price, or they are totally going to lose whatever small part of the commercial market they have at the moment.

It's a tough reality (ala Netscape/Microsoft) that they need to understand. I don't want to see it go down this way as competition is what keeps AutoDesk as least appearing like they give a hoot for their customers.

Angelo

[Anonymous]

What is interesting about the strategy of Autodesk, with it's roll out of Revit is that they are selling revit as a bundle with AutoCAD upgrades.

Who wouldn't upgrade their AutoCAD package and get Revit on the cheap. It is an easy of increasing Revit licenses by stealth....

How many practices that have upgraded with this method are actually use Revit for their real work???

Or the the Revit packages just sitting on the shelf, because they know they need to look at BIM but are to scared to tip their toe into the pool.

I think it is foolish for Autodesk to market Revit this way, has it is not pushing Revit or BIM by giving people the choice of the status quo (flat CAD).

My two cents..

[Anonymous]

Who knows, there might be some of the stealth you talk of in their marketing schemes, but from the six or so local firms who have switched to Revit, it has been to use it! Admittedly there were a lot of ADT boxes sitting on shelves, but from my experience, the move to Revit has been a complete shift and not the baby steps that failed so miserably with ADT.

We are getting near the point where ACAD/ADT will only be installed on a few desktops for cleaning up consultant files. It will be fully eradicated everywhere else!

[Anonymous]

Could those $1,000 Revit licenses be resold.
This may be a very inexpensive way of acquiring a license ...

In any case it is painful to see this happening. GS's greed was and is enormous, they keep sacrificing Archicad for some momentary gain. For (20) years they refused any attempt to widen the base or get some large financial backing and this just to keep it milking.

GS's real base is its MAC community and the real blow will come when Revit and Microstation will be ported to OSX and this is sure to pass.

[Scott Davis]

Domenic wrote:
How many practices that have upgraded with this method are actually use Revit for their real work???.

<raises hand> We are! All 100 seats....

[TomWaltz]

Scott wrote:

Domenic wrote:
How many practices that have upgraded with this method are actually use Revit for their real work???.

<raises hand> We are! All 100 seats....

We have the California vote, how about the rest of the world?

[Anonymous]

Adalbert wrote:
...GS's real base is its MAC community...

What makes you think so???? Maybe this was the case 10 years ago, But I bet the majority of the user base is PC.

Dan K

[TomWaltz]

Adalbert wrote:
GS's real base is its MAC community and the real blow will come when Revit and Microstation will be ported to OSX and this is sure to pass.

I wouldn't hold my breath. I don't see MS Visual Studio (the major development system for Windows XP nd Vista) running on OS X any time soon... or ever.

[Anonymous]

Dan wrote:
Maybe this was the case 10 years ago, But I bet the majority of the user base is PC.Dan K

Afgaik, this is true. That is why GS develops the PC version first, and then translates it to Mac.