Survey for Revit family creators

[mbousquet]

TurboSquid.com is opening up its marketplace very soon to accommodate Revit families. We are conducting a short survey to determine the best way to arrange the marketplace to be most useful to you. Survey participants will be eligible for our Beta program, to be launched in a few weeks.

Please click the link below to participate in the survey. We appreciate your input, and invite you to help us make the TurboSquid Revit marketplace as successful as possible.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=oUMaitK9_2fKgGuKYJsknlpw_3d_3d

Michele Bousquet
TurboSquid.com

[jsteinhauer]

TurboSquid.com is opening up its marketplace very soon to accommodate Revit families. We are conducting a short survey to determine the best way to arrange the marketplace to be most useful to you. Survey participants will be eligible for our Beta program, to be launched in a few weeks.

Please click the link below to participate in the survey. We appreciate your input, and invite you to help us make the TurboSquid Revit marketplace as successful as possible.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=oUMaitK9_2fKgGuKYJsknlpw_3d_3d

Michele Bousquet
TurboSquid.com

I don't know if I could upload files for compensation, without risking termination by my employer. I'm not sure I could get authorization to download families, if there was a charge involved. Besides, I would only want to download families of high standards, not just imported 3-D from Sketchup or CADD.

Just my thoughts,
Jeff S.

p.s. survey is broken near the end. It doesn't allow you to 'Check' more then bullet per column

[ajayholland]

Revit content available on the Internet has always been free. Anyone charging for it, whatever the medium of exchange is violating that principal. We already have an easy (and free) method of sharing content: AUGI.com.

~AJH

[chodosh]

Revit content available on the Internet has always been free. Anyone charging for it, whatever the medium of exchange is violating that principal. We already have an easy (and free) method of sharing content: AUGI.com.

~AJH


Bravo, AJ!

I couldn't agree more and could not be more surprised to see a charge service as the very real theme in the TurboSquid survey.

Michele, you may be surprised at the reaction you will receive here.

I would love to know what you're bringing to the table besides a place to make money for content developers, which really for most of us is part of our jobs as AEC professionals and consultants. Not to mention some very real ethical questions running through my head as Jeff also mentioned.

'Definitely hit a few nerves with me.

-LC

[Scott D Davis]

And at a time when manufacturers are building content for Seek. seek.autodesk.com Manufacturers see the value in building their content, making it available for free to the public, knowing that it could bring in more business as thier products get spec'd because they have Revit families available.

[JoelLondenberg]

Revit content available on the Internet has always been free. Anyone charging for it, whatever the medium of exchange is violating that principal. We already have an easy (and free) method of sharing content: AUGI.com.

~AJH

Is selling content really that much different from selling your time (http://bim-mentors.com/6.html)?

[mbousquet]

Thanks for the lively discussion!

Our early surveys (a small focus group, before this survey was launched) indicated that quality was an issue with the current exchange-for-free setups. This concern has been re-iterated in the survey responses we've gotten so far.

A substantial percentage of respondents indicated that they would pay or exchange more for a family that was guaranteed to meet certain quality standards. Enforcing or maintaining standards requires manpower, which means there would need to be some kind of money changing hands somewhere, so we could pay the maintainer.

We are working on the best way to serve this industry with quality families for a reasonable exchange, while rewarding those that provide quality families in the first place.

<survey is broken near the end. It doesn't allow you to 'Check' more then bullet per column> Thanks. I fixed question #10, and await further survey responses. If you filled it out already and want to do it again so you can respond to #10 appropriately, just go in and fill out #10, and fill in your contact info so I can match it with your previous responses.

Michele

[armbarsalot]

i will share a site soon that will have quality families & has a way to submit for custom content.

All free.

This business would be much more efficient if people learned how to truly share. Perhaps that will be one of the better things that comes out of the economic slowdown.

[chodosh]

Is selling content really that much different from selling your time (http://bim-mentors.com/6.html)?

Yes. Because...


Manufacturers see the value in building their content, making it available for free to the public, knowing that it could bring in more business as their products get spec'd because they have Revit families available.

And, because we're in the business of making buildings, not content...

JMHO,

LC

[d11sunshine]

Part of the fun of Revit (and CAD) is learning how to customize things yourself, asking peers for guidance and learning more about the product we're using. Most of us understand the beauty of learning and gaining without someone else doing it for us. If you're handed something already done, how do you learn and grow???
We help each other ... for FREE. :) because it's the good and right thing to do.

[Mr Spot]

Personally I don't think families should be charged for individually. I can see the worth in purchasing a comprehensive base library at a cost as there is a lot of work involved in piecing it together. And I really don't think it would work either on an individual basis. You are always going to get someone in the office who copies all the content to their USB stick and takes it home and then its only a matter of time before your see the same families that cost money located on a free server...

Selling content is very different to selling services. Whilst offering support online through such fantastic forums as AUGI is helpful. For larger firms that don't have the in house expertise it cannot substitute for contracting a qualified Revit Expert to help design and setup and effective system so that the efficiencies in Revit are maximised. There is no quicker way to get up and running than having someone who already knows things to avoid, best practices etc.

My 2 cents.

[DoTheBIM]

a family that was guaranteed to meet certain quality standards I'd be very curious if these "standards" meet my standards as well as any other companies standards.

Honestly, this content debate has been around for quite some time and there are a few companies that are really driving these content providing services and custom programs to manage content... I believe these are great for companies that are just starting out in Revit/BIM, but once a company matures with it's adoption and use of BIM, I personally see little value in the services/content currently offered due the need to integrate content with systems outside of the design model. That value to me is reduced to merely a good starting point. JMHO

[hand471037]

I'd be very curious if these "standards" meet my standards as well as any other companies standards.

That would be my big pause. I've found the quality off of Turbosquid (and sites like it) to be uneven at times.

If I need something really simple and basic that I can't find for free (like a decent model of a football helmet) I'm willing to buy it for a few bucks to save some time.

Or, on the other hand, I've bought some texture packs that have turned out to be great. However I was able to see that the people making them did it for a living, offered many different types, and obviously knew their stuff. But again, this is simple stuff that's hard to go wrong with.

It's everything else. Unless I knew that it was going to work, and knew that it was going to save me time, and knew that the information was 'right', I wouldn't spend money on it. I've downloaded a few things from Turbosquid that were a little lackluster honestly. Sure, rendering stuffs where it doesn't matter too much I wouldn't worry about too much. But when it comes to 'real' content, where if it's wrong there could be real problems? I'd much more trust Families I've made myself or that I've gotten from a manufacturer directly.

Not to mention the content I've seen on Turbosquid that was obviously someone reposting free content to make a buck. You can download decent models of most of the Eames furniture from Herman Miller for free, and yet I see what look like the very same models posted up on Turbosquid for money...