Newforma Project Center vs. Right-Suite Universal

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.

Incentivized

Right-suite Universal work's great for new construction projects as well as block loads for retro installations. We do not use the proposal features, but it does work well. You can not draw on top of existing PDF plans, which would be very helpful. Overall it’s an excellent software for mechanical contractors. Highly recommend it

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized

• Designing mechanical plans
• Generating load calculation reports

Incentivized

• I have found it difficult to locate audits.
• Some users have issues while uploading project data.

• Design looks outdated
• Does have a learning curve

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

We’ve reached out to support a few times, and every time they are very responsive. All our questions are always answered, and issues are worked through.

Incentivized

A good competitor against other similar solutions and support is excellent.

Incentivized

Right-Suite Universal is the leading software, so there are really no others for what it does. Coolclac also does load calculations but does not have any plan design features. Coolcalc works well but is not as feature-rich as Right-Suite Universal.

Incentivized

• 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

Incentivized

• Speeds up load calculations
• Faster than hand drawing

Incentivized