Text features

[jwilhelm]

its a shame that Revit chose not to provide better text editing features
such as multiple text sizes/bold etc in a paragraph. This is a little disappointing, I would really like to see the ability to import or link Word files for specs. I personally requested this one a couple years ago. This is pretty basic if you ask me. I think I have figured out autodesks strategy with Revit 6.0s somewhat meager feature set. I suspect they have held back features for the next release, I bet the next release will have a lot more features, and of course most of us will need to purchase the upgrade by then. I suppose I can understand it from a business perspective but I think its kinda short sighted, at this point I think they should be more concerned with gaining converts.

just an opinion

[adegnan]

We could ask the same question about the spell checker, IMO. It took a long time for it to be implemented.

If they can integrate the spell checker with Office dictionary, is it that hard to import a DOC?

Of course, speculation also. I'm still impressed with their upgrades and speed of upgrades. But I dont use the software every day, so I probably don't get as frustrated as most of you!

[gregcashen]

Not to jump on you guys, but I think you need to look at this from a more rational view point. It is certainly not in Revit's best interest to hold back new functionality just to save it for the upgrade. Autodesk doesn't think so, I am sure, and I know the Revit developers are not sitting around saying, "gee, I have a ton of time on my hands, but we really can't add anything more or there'll be nothing left to do next time!" These guys are working hard; they have an feature/bug/issue tracking database with something like 100,000 separate requests in it, and accoridng to some, 6.0 brings them up to request 1,000.

I believe that they are trying to focus on the most crucial features to make Revit useful to the most number of people. That is why, for instance, not too many people care that you can't do elliptical walls. Not too many people need to, and if they do, I am sure they will figure out a way. Same for a hundred (or, more precisely, 99,000) other things. I think this release goes a long way toward improving workflow primarily. I would not call it the "structural" release or the "freeform objects" release, but the "productivity" release. Organizing the browser, improved scheduling capabilities, better stair and railing tools all make everyone's (or at least most people's) life easier.

As for the .doc thing, there is no correlation as far as I know between integrating the spell checker, which is a separate third-party spell checker technology not developed by Microsoft, and being able to import a .doc into a project. The dictionary itself is nothing more than a text file that the spell checker references. You could conceiveably use any dictionary from any program, so long as you formatted it the same as the Revit dictionaries.