Revit -vs- Bently

[rfitzpatrick]

My company is exploring their options in the BIM world. The two programs they are looking in to are Revit & Bently.

Does anybody have any opions they'd like to share? Which one is better? Which one is easier to learn?

[mwiggins121466]

My company used Bentley for +10 yrs. We have switched to Revit last year (full service firm). I believe that Revit is a better product. Bentley to me is 3D not BIM.

[Wes Macaulay]

Bentley Architecture is arguably (?!) more scalable, and a better modeler, at least now in 2008. Revit Architecture is much easier to learn and use, and "does" a lot more -- schedules and the like.

If your projects are hundreds of thousands of square feet and/or feature radical geometry, Revit may not be for you. Yes, you can link files and all that in Revit, but it requires experience and planning. Linking is becoming more full featured with each release, and it may work for you.

Having sold BA in times past, I was appalled at its complexity, and as a result there is not one BA user in western Canada, as far as I know. Bentley BIM just has too steep a learning curve.

[AP23]

My firms is also looking into BA, but more for the use of Generative Components. Some firms are using it together with Revit, however, it might be a bit more productive to use BA as GC is built on top of it.

As Wes said, it all boils down to what type of projects you are doing, what projects you are planning to do in the future, local projects or international, your location, what is your competition using.

[Scott D Davis]

With that in mind, Dr. Robert Aish, the "father" of Generative Components, now works for Autodesk.

http://www.aecmag.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=224&Itemid=36

[jyoungner]

With Aish coming on board, it is exciting to dream that in the future, one could create native revit data in the way that GC works!

[AP23]

With that in mind, Dr. Robert Aish, the "father" of Generative Components, now works for Autodesk.

http://www.aecmag.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=224&Itemid=36

However, the same aecmag has stated the following ..."It’s a fair assumption that Autodesk wants and needs some Form generation capability, this may be based on Maya or Max (not Revit), as I have reports of ‘Aish sightings’ at Autodesk’s Toronto offices, which is where Alias used to reside".......http://www.aecmag.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=227


Scott, can you shed some light on this?

[Scott D Davis]

He's also been spotted in the Waltham office where Revit's development team is located.

Funny, these magazines are starting to sound like the tabloids tracking down celebs and speculating about their lives!

[Wes Macaulay]

He's also been spotted in the Waltham office where Revit's development team is located.
See, that news just sends shivers down my spine. How cool could the possibility of something akin to Generative Components being in Revit? Hello, architecture thesis in Revit! :mrgreen:

[rfitzpatrick]

The company ended up deciding on Revit - thank goodness, because I've been training on it a lot lately. Wouldn't want to think I'd sacrificed all those brain cells for nothing!

We will have one copy of Bentley set up in the office, for those contracts requiring it. This means, of course, that at least one person will have to know how to use it.

For now, though - I will continue down the Revit path and see where it takes me...