Likelihood to Recommend Navisworks is a key tool if doing any 3D model coordination with other trades. It will allow you to view your model content with others to know for certain that your design is accurate and can be assembled. Navisworks also comes with a lot of additional tools to make this process easy.
Read full review Newforma is a great tool to collaborate with large teams and between firms. It allows for great documentation of transfers, activities, and other procedural aspects of projects that require collaboration between disciplines, for example, MEP, electrical, architectural and technology. For internal use, Newforma has been great for communications tracking and archival, as well as for record-keeping of all the users in a team or number of teams. Many great options are features are unused due to a lack of training or exposure to them, for example, the graphical viewers that can preview CAD, Revit, and other formats, or the markup tool available with the desktop client.
Read full review Pros Model Viewing, the navigation tools are really easy to use for walking through the model, especially if viewpoints are set up for key locations. The take-offs work really well and can be very quick and easy if the model was built right. Read full review Newforma sits on top of our previous filing system (Windows Explorer). This was very important to us because we didn't have to change the project numbering system in order to fit Newforma's design. Also, if we were to decide we didn't like it, we could easily revert back to our previous methods. Newforma does a great job of indexing information, making searches much easier by being able to use keywords instead of knowing the exact file location. No more traversing through countless folders before finding what you need. Newforma keeps a read receipt for everything that you submit through it for issue tracking, and keeps an easy to read record of your workflow. Read full review Cons Need more options for clash detection, e.g. clash between only the top and bottom faces of an element For applying different appearance profiles users need to remove previous sets first. Which is not good. They should just provide an ON/OFF button The use of Section planes are bit tricky for new users, they should add options like Revizto Read full review I have found it difficult to locate audits. Some users have issues while uploading project data. Read full review Support Rating Autodesk owns Navisworks, and it seems to have a pretty good support network. A lot of the troubleshooting or support information is provided through an online database, so you most likely would not be getting any personal attention with your issues. Since there are so many users for Navisworks, there is a lot of information on the web.
Read full review While I have never asked for support myself, a Newforma representative has been in the office annually to give training seminars and info sessions on how to fully use the product. I find this essential to keep the product relevant and make sure everyone knows its full capabilities and an important part of customer support.
Read full review Alternatives Considered Navisworks is a master tool if we want to do any 3D model coordination with any trade of a building. It allows us to view our model content with all elements to visualize and understand for certain where our design stands in terms of accuracy and how all things can be assembled on site. Navisworks also comes with a lot of additional tools to make BIM process easy.
Read full review A good competitor against other similar solutions and support is excellent.
Read full review Return on Investment The software is very easy to use and quick to master, most users can navigate a building or model within a few short sessions, but there is enough depth to use it as a serious productive tool. The software cost of Navisworks Manage is a barrier to smaller companies, and has been a limitation on some of our projects that not all members could use the full functionality. However there is still enough functionality in even the free version to assist with smooth communication between team members. Read full review Newforma makes it easy to transfer, share, archive, and search extensive data sets in a single GUI For it to be effective, all users in a team must receive a basic training and use it consistently Adoption in the industry is good (A/E); many teams use it consistently. Learning to use it once produces time-saving in subsequent projects Read full review ScreenShots