Revit - ROI (Return On Investment)

[Alex Cunningham]

Disclaimer: This is a rough overview of the costs associated with Revit, this is by no means complete or all inclusive. It is purely here as a starting point for people beginning the Revit transition.

One thing that has management hesitant on Revit is the investment in the infrastructure to support Revit and BIM. This is twofold.

1. The cost of purchasing new software.
At a per license cost over $8,000 Revit is not cheap by any means and not being able to downgrade to previous versions means you will have to make that purchase every year to keep up to date. This adds costs that, let's face it, most people/firms never had. Many find that changing to a Autodesk Subscription is the way to alleviate this huge cost. You can find more information on Autodesk Subscriptions here: http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet...5177#section11

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=613372

2. The cost of purchasing new hardware.
Remember back in the day when you had to purchase a $5,000 piece of RAM to run AutoCAD. Well now a day's RAM is cheap, and the whole computer is less than 5k. Still there is a great deal of investment in computer hardware to use Revit. One solution is to use RDC (Remote Desktop Connection) The idea behind this is, buy one server that can facilitate many Revit users at once. This works very well and brings the cost per workstation way down. You can read about more "cloud" computing here: http://www.aecbytes.com/feature/2010/BIM_Cloud.html

[Alfredo Medina]

...1. The cost of purchasing new software.
At a per license cost over $8,000 Revit is not cheap by any means and not being able to downgrade to previous versions means you will have to make that purchase every year to keep up to date.

Alex, please allow me to make some precisions on that paragraph. I have to confirm this, but the last time I heard, the cost a new license of the Revit Arch Suite was more than a couple of thousands less than that, and it´s not true that you will have to make that purchase every year to keep up to date. The cost of a renewal is about $700+ a year.

[Alex Cunningham]

please feel free to correct any mistakes, you can edit it directly if you wish. the purpose of this is just as a resource for people looking at the ROI. I noticed we didnt have any info on it.

thanks

[echo]

Quick comment: Chris France's AEC Bytes Article is an outline of one of many solutions, and not all of them the same genre or lexicon. There are limitations to "multi-user PC's" that are not outlined in his article that Revit users should be aware of, specifically that Worksharing Monitor is non-functional in a shared-PC environment (or on a Terminal Server) except as a first-come, first-serve utility (rendering it fairly useless if a team of three is on the same "box" and project together, but only one user can run Worksharing Monitor at a time). While Bluestreak provides some alternative features to replace some of the reporting that the Worksharing Monitor does, there is nothing yet to replace the real-time status of who is working, when they are saving, and the progress on their saves (unless everyone is within arm's length, which is the opposite of why many "clouds" exist to bring people together from disparate locations). There are other strategic and/or logistical concerns with "cloud" or shared PC's when it comes to Revit.

Specific problems lie in settings contained in INI files (templates, units, username, external plugins) and permissions. Revit itself will place a Local file on a shared PC into MyDocuments under the user's profile, for example, if permissions are restricted. My advice would be to tread with caution and get a Revit specialists to weigh in on the logistics before putting multiple users on shared PC's together: you need an organized standard operating procedure, strategy, and collaborative implementation. Sometimes "cost" is higher for all the added intangibles a new infrastructure brings with it than is realized when managing the hard cost of the hardware investment itself.

[sdbrownaia]

Does anyone know who best to speak with regarding setting up an in-house cloud, vs. out of house?

[snowyweston]

One thing that has management hesitant on Revit is the investment in the infrastructure to support Revit and BIM. This is twofold.

Make that threefold.

3. Training & Development.
Migration to a Revit workflow/mindset/delivery/etc is by no means painless. Beyond basic infrastructure there needs to be :

a. Introductory (& continued) training for all-levels-of staff, to help :
i. company fronts who might confuse Revit for "BIM" and go singing to all and sundry about their company being able to do "BIM"
ii. project directors who might get ensnared/hoodwinked by protocol zealots clutching at unworkable BEP agreements come agreeing fee
iii. project leaders who might find they promised the world, and all in less time, not fully understanding the front-end loading nature of Revit.
and of course,
iv. those poor project lackies, who will have to do the work regardless, that have just been given a tool they've probably never even heard about. (if they went to an English University)

b. Company investment in Revit (or "BIM" as a whole)
i. Time/money resourcing assigned "off-job" to reviewing, creating, testing & establishing templates, standards, protocols, etc.
ii. Time/money resourced toward the continued exploration of "BIM" as a means toward delivering better architecture.


Being architectural first, BIM lead second; I am all too aware of the failing to acknowledge this third category. In my eyes, it is more important than the first 2 combined.


It being the end of March, we're polishing off our budgets - and as ever IT and our AEC software "pressure groups" are leading with the big guns - but this year is the first time we've insisted on the CPD and R&D teams to step up their game - as we're stagnating a little... which is never good.