Revit Evaluation Form

[jweitzel3847]

I'm a contractor for the City and County of San Francisco and we are in the process of evaluating a number of 3D modeling, presentation, and building software programs and Revit is one of four that we are evalutating.

What we would like is an evaluation form that the evaluators can use during this process; like a check list of features and or items that they could check off if the products met certain criteria. Does anyone know if a evaluation form exists and if not what would one consist of?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Steve_Stafford]

I doubt such a form exists. If one does, assuming a similar organization with needs like yours created one, I'm not sure we can expect that they are also members of the forum. Glad to see that you are though!

What are you evaluating the software for? I'm not trying to be flippant, I mean how do you use cadd software now and what are you hoping to accomplish with the software you are evaluating. What are the weakness of the software you use now, your firm's processes. What kinds of projects do you do for the City?

Answers to these few questions will help our members offer advice. This will help you build your list.

[Andre Baros]

I'm not sure exactly what you're end goal is, but simply evaluating software based on a list of features could be misleading. I think that the usability and the training curve of software are hug factors which can't be quantified on a list. I say this because I have tried other software before Revit which had more "features" but which was too complicated to implement and therefor is still sitting in the back of drawer somewhere.

Having said that, if you do find a list, please share because it would be interesting to read what others consider critical features.

[JamesVan]

At the very beginning of our firm's BIM evaluation, we put such a list together and submitted it to the major BIM software companies. As you may have assumed, they mostly responded "yes" to almost all questions.

As andrebaros stated, it is dangerous to choose software based solely on a checklist of features...especially if the providers themselves are checking the boxes. How they are implemented is a crucial component of each product's usability.

That said, I'll try to post an edited version of our preliminary request for information.