A provider of software and services in the building industry, Constellation HomeBuilder Systems has two goals: to empower builders with information to drive business objectives and to simplify the process of building homes and condos.
$199
per year per user
Revit
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
Autodesk’s Revit is a Building Information Modelling (BIM) tool. It enables architectural, MEP, structural, and engineering design, and provides analysis to support iterative workflows
$350
per month
Pricing
Constellation HomeBuilder Systems
Revit
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Monthly
$350
per month
1-Year
$2805
per year
3-Year
$8415
per 3 years
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Constellation HomeBuilder Systems
Revit
Free Trial
No
Yes
Free/Freemium Version
No
No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Yes
No
Entry-level Setup Fee
Required
No setup fee
Additional Details
—
Pricing available for monthly, annual, or 3-year subscriptions. Longer subscriptions offer greater discounts.
NEWSTAR and its ecosystem are well-suited for any homebuilder looking to manage end-to-end operations with software they can rely on. It is a powerful tool supported by many modern integrations to benefit the entire homebuilding business. It would be less applicable for businesses like trades or commercial builders
Revit is well suited for creating collaborative projects that are fully integrated into the design and construction document process. We work a lot with engineering firms who also use Revit and the program allows us to fully integrate and coordinate our models together to make sure that everything is correct. I can see where my electrical engineer has placed lighting into the model and same with my mechanical engineer and their HVAC equipment
BuildTopia excels at contract management. Every part of the contract process is able to be managed electronically from initial signing to closing, and can even handle more special cases like contingencies.
BuildTopia manages all of our construction efforts well. All of our floorplans are pre-build in the system, so all we have to do is go in an build out the construction schedule from a pre-made template, and make any alterations from there.
The selections process is always a headache, but BuildTopia makes it pretty painless. Everything is loaded right in to the system while making selections with the client, and more detailed things, like non-standard options, are easy to load in and process.
3D Models - It's kind of a no brainer, but the key benefit of Revit is its ability to model in 3D. It's a somewhat complex modeling environment, however, it's not impossible to learn and I have seen users from a range of abilities to effectively model content in Revit.
Schedules - 3D is great, but the ability to quantify your geometry is contains valuable data if modeled correctly. If you model how you will build it, Revit has the ability to give very accurate schedules which includes quantities, and any data you would like to incorporate into your model.
Industry Standard - Revit is the industry standard. With that being said, it really help to use software that is compatible with other agencies for collaborative model review.
Requests for platform enhancements, while easy to submit and get approved, are slow to be turned around...often a year or more passes before they're implemented.
BuiltTopia, while good for sales and construction, is missing one large thing...a CRM component. The system allows you to manage clients and prospects, but options for email marketing and other CRM-related efforts are lacking.
There are often several ways to draw certain things, but the object will have different capabilities based on the way it is drawn. This can be confusing when trying to use the object.
The way objects are drawn is not always user-friendly. This program would be difficult for someone to figure out on their own without having any Autodesk background.
There should be a better way to track changes in the model. Often times the architect will not share a model during construction to avoid sending changes that aren't finalized or complete.
We will almost certainly be renewing all of our current seats of Revit and will likely be adding seats as we look to get more and more of our staff trained and using Revit. The software is starting to become the standard for our projects as we move forward as more and more of our clients are requesting or accepting use of it
The implementations for Constellation’s products are very well-organized and help make the learning curve as simple as can be. NEWSTAR is an incredibly powerful platform and the integrations we are using are modern and easy to adopt.
It is a professional environment, but far from easy and overly complex in many places. The system is often too deep in settings and overrides (see Visibility/Graphics in combination with linked files, filters, color overrides and view templates). I don't really like the dialog-in-dialog interface and its spartan looks. But it works well overall if you know what you are doing.
Revit seems to always be available when I need it. I have not experiences an outage. There are occasions where we need our internal IT department to trouble shoot a file on our Revit dedicated server and that sometimes causes a delay however that is not a software access issue
Revit is a fairly graphics heavy piece of software. It is powerful in its capabilities but as a result it takes a lot of the graphics card, the memory, etc. For all that it can do and the specs of my computer I find it pretty good from a performance standpoint
Autodesk has always had a good support system in place. There is a massive user base for Revit, and there are thousands of forum threads and other discussions online about any and every problem that you could ever run into. For being such a large program with so many different options, there aren't many roadblocks or pitfalls that users can fall into.
The training was Revit Essentials and it was very beneficial. I would say that it is best to get the training right before you know you will be using Revit as learning the basis then applying what you learned immediately is the most effective and best value for your money.
The online training is hit or miss. I feel that its better to be live to be able to pace and ask questions to a live person as you are learning hwo to do things. Its not natural to learn Revit especially if you know AutoCAD so my suggestion is the live training
Implementing Revit as your main drafting software (i.e. moving to BIM from CAD) may be a tough decision if you have learned drafting. It is a different way to approach and think about developing a project. However, if you are able to adapt to a new way of thinking and get used to it by working through a few projects than it is as efficient as CAD in most areas in general and will also be both better/worse in some areas
Revit like AutoCAD can produce both a 3d model & 2 dimensional drawings such as plans, elevations & sections which are required for any design project to be communicated on paper for construction. But unlike AutoCAD, Revit's focus is to build a 3d model that contain smart information for construction. So for Revit the 2 dimensional drawings becomes a byproduct. In addition to the required drawings needed on paper to communicate the design, Revit offers so much more information in the model for all engineering disciplines.
While I am not directly involved with the deployment of Revit, it seems that our internal IT department has appreciated the ability to increase or decrease the number of seats. I have never had an issue with the deployment if and when needed, especially regarding the availability of a set
Overall, our company has saved money by being able to shut down all the various platforms we were using for different departments and transition to just BuildTopia.
Company efforts are more efficient, with all pertinent information being in one place and able to be viewed by everyone as needed.
Efforts of the sales team are better able to be managed and reviewed from afar whereas we only had physical paper trails before.
It's positive. It saves quite a bit of field time when used correctly, and lets us make sure we have proper room for all equipment and ductwork.
Helping minimize field 'thinking' time is an immediate add to the bottom line. 1 guy designing on the front side saves down time of 5-10 guys waiting in the field. Cost savings on labor is apparent.
Coordination time is also cut down, saving on office time. It's easy to spell out what your plan of attack is. All these savings directly add to bottom line profit by not expending labor.
