Revit - Documentation King
Updated November 29, 2021

Revit - Documentation King

Andrew Huss | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Revit

Revit is being used as a firm wide standard for every project. In general it acts as the primary location for storing empirical information about each project. We have been using Revit for many years and we see a lot of repeat business so in many cases we end up upgrading and re-using Revit models from over a decade ago. As we get into documentation, Revit also acts as our collaborative platform where architects, MEP engineers, and structural engineers are able to see each others up to date work and coordinate accordingly. Also to state the obvious, everything is BIM and makes it really great to be able to document three dimensional buildings from two dimensional points of view.

Pros

  • associates parameters with elements in the model that can be shared, scheduled, measured, and referred to.
  • leverages BIM elements for smart tagging (material tags, keynotes, glass types, etc.)
  • construction documents. it is the king of documentation in my opinion.

Cons

  • Revit has room for improvement in the modeling area. everything you model is "workplane based" meaning it needs to have some origin on a workplane. while workplanes can be at obscure angles and such it makes it difficult to sometimes quickly model things that other, more geometric based software can hammer out in 5 minutes. One example i can think of is a simple handrail that is curved in both elevation and plan simultaneously. this would be very easy to do in Rhino via sweeping, but in Revit not so much because the curving geometry passes through and transcends multiple "workplanes"
  • i think the site components could use an overhaul. it would be great to be able to add sidewalks and stuff to toposurfaces easier.
  • one of the biggest ROI's i have seen is that we can recycle really old Revit models. our firm made the switch a long time ago so we have them handy as a reference when we start a new project on an old job site.
  • another nice thing is that since we all use Revit in the firm, everything that needs to be "standardized" for efficiency is already in a new project template when we start it up.
Revit is great for documentation. I also use Rhino 3D for rapid prototype scenarios that can be imported in, but in the end everything should be documented in Revit because it really is easy.

Do you think Revit delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Revit's feature set?

Yes

Did Revit live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Revit go as expected?

I wasn't involved with the implementation phase

Would you buy Revit again?

Yes

Revit is king of documentation. it allows collaboration via cloud or server and holds a high level of efficiency for those who master it. While it may lack in modeling, other software can help out and easily be imported into the Revit model space to be documented in Revit. Over the past few years I have seen a dramatic interoperability jump for Revit, meaning it reads imported geometry quite well. It also is really nice for the CA phase of design because it has a built in smart revision system.

Revit Feature Ratings

Plan distribution & viewing
2
As-built drawings
4
Not Rated
Takeoff tools
Not Rated

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