Revit vs Bentley BIM Software

[stuart.hood447743]

I work for a multi-discplinary Practice of architects, engineers, project managers and cost consultants in the UK. We are currently discussing how to adopt and implement BIM into our standard working practices - currently, we use traditional 2D CAD but want to make the transition in the next few months. The Practice is currently split between MicroStation users and AutoCAD LT users (who switched to Autodesk a few years ago for various reasons). We are trying to decide whether we should adopt Revit or Bentley BIM software. Considering our current mixed Bentley/Autodesk CAD provision, there appear to be pros and cons for going either way.

At present, having completed lots of reading and web-based research, my view is that we should adopt Revit instead of Bentley, mainly due to its popularity, short/shallow learning curve and ease of use, abundance of training literature, number of trained users etc. In the short term at least, Revit appears to be the most expensive option but I am thinking more long term. However, we have a number of conerns about Revit - large file size (too big to email and filling up network storage space), slow operation, hardware requirements etc. Some of our MicroStation users believe that Revit is not as good/powerful as Bentley at 3D modelling.

Having already asked the 'Revit or Bentley' question on the Bentley BE Communities forum (and receiving some surprisingly negative feedback on Bentley Architecture), I thought I should ask the same question on the Autodesk forum....so, after all that text, here goes....

When your company was considering which BIM software (Revit vs Bentley) to adopt, which one did it choose and why?

As this is an Autodesk forum I'm guessing that the answer is Revit, but if you discounted Bentley (especially if you were MicroStation users) it would be good to know why. Another one....

Do you consider that you made the right choice with your BIM software?

All views and opinions would be appreciated. Thanks in anticipation.

Regards,

Stuart Hood

[ppirtle]

We are a structural and civil consulting firm, and have primarily been a MicroStation house for 23 years (and used Intergraph before that). As we began to work with BIM, of course we started with Bentley Structural. We struggled through its growing pains with our clients--had people from Bentley fly in to resolve project issues, etc.

Over the last few years, although we still use MicroStation for any non-BIM projects, we've switched all of our BIM projects to Revit Structure.

Here are a couple of scattered thoughts to think about:

Revit is a database-centric product. Therefore, everything anybody does has to get coordinated with the database. This is the primary reason for the complaints about slow response and BIG hardward requirements.

MicroStation's Structural for Triforma is file-centric. Your project is divided up into many files, and the coordination takes place when YOU choose to "push the button." Consequently, while you're working, the response is as instantaneous as drawing in 2D. We felt, though, that Structural for Triforma always felt like an addon--like an extensive workaround.

And that is because MicroStation has done an EXCELLENT job of being all-things-to-all-people software. If you want to draw or model a building's structural system, it'll do that. The architectural? Yup. The MEP? Sure. How about a car, a spaceship, people, coffee pots, flowers, flow charts, create a christmas card, etc., etc. MicroStation will do all of that. That's certainly a PRO. However, when it comes to structural BIM, this breadth of scope has also worked against MicroStation, as it wasn't designed to be as focused on structural engineering as we would have liked.

Revit Structure is focused on producing structural BIMs. We feel they've done an excellent job of making the program "think" like a structural engineer. Over and over, when we were learning Revit and thought, "Now, I need a tool to do <whatever>," we were happy to find that tool right at our fingertips.

The Revit product line is young, in fact I'd say it's still immature. We just deployed new 64-bit Windows 7 machines to the CAD Department because "although Revit doesn't run any faster, it crashes less often." And, reading the forums makes it clear that people feel the developers should fix problems rather than add features.

The core MicroStation is rock-solid. It's been years since I've experienced a bug in the software. When we were using Structural for Triforma, we also found it to be virtually unbreakable.

The projects we consult on are becoming more and more organic in shape. There are many times when we need to model some super complex volume in MicroStation or McNeel's Rhino because we can't figure out how to do it in Revit.

We have had good experiences with using Ramsteel in conjunction with Revit. At first, there was a lot of back-and-forth with Bentley to iron our bugs, but we haven't had any problems in the last couple of years.

Like I said...scattered thoughts. Hope they give you some food for thought.

[stuart.hood447743]

Thanks for the advice - all helpful!

We also have RAM Structural System, so its good to hear that that works OK with Revit Structure (one would presume that it also works with Bentley Structural Modeller!).

Can you advise on a recommended PC spec, compared to what the Autodesk website recommends. Also, have you found that you needed to upgrade to a bigger screen (or twin screen) than you needed when working in 2D?

Ideally, we would like to keep MicroStation for 2D work and use Revit for the BIM stuff - how well do you find MS works with revit?

[ppirtle]

Here's how our machines are spec'd:

Quad Core Intel Xeon Processor
12GB DDR3 ECC SDRAM Memory
512MB PCIe x16 ATI FirePro V5700 Dual Monitor DVI + 2DP Video Cards
250GB SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drives
Windows 7 Professional, Media, 64-bit OS

We've always relied on dual monitors. After doing an in-house study in the 90's that indicated dual monitors would save us about 6000 man-hours per year, it was a no-brainer. This is, however, one of Revit's CONs--although you can stretch it across two monitors, it doesn't remember your windows settings, so you find yourself adjusting windows all the time. Most of my users just keep the project browser and the properties box on the 2nd monitor.

We've found that, with both MicroStation and Revit, spending a lot of money on the video card didn't provide a big return. So, we typically go with a good middle-of-the-road card.

MicroStation plays OK with Revit through translations to DWG or saving drawings down to MicroStation/J Remember 64 maximum levels? (Well, 128 if you threw the undocumented switch. Still not enough. Hehe.)

[nadafsalim6747772]

Most of softwares has it's own advantages & Disadvantages.