::shudder::

LOL! that was exactly my first thought too...I've been working on Facebook projects for the last 3 years or so. Architect is Gehry Partners whom of course developed Digital Project. All modeling and detailing in the past has come from Revit. But since they (IMO) can't figure out how to leverage Revit to their advantage (and that's being kind) they are insisting that all modeling in the next FB building be done with DP. It's a huge project but I'm bailing out. Life's to short to have to put up with a new software for a complex project like this one will be. There, I feel better already

Something sounds odd to me, about that whole deal. Several YEARS ago i thought i heard that Digital Project wasnt being sold as Software anymore, and that Gehry Technologies was now doing As Service Only. But, that is obviously wrong, since they still have a website up, and you can still download the software and email them for a license.

Interesting to me that the demo screen shots are V1 R5. DP was on V1 R2 when i used it last... Back 2005. So in 12 years they have only released three updates?

Anyway, it was pretty fun (and extremely capable) software, back in the day. But i wouldnt EVER recommend learning a piece of software ON the first job you have to deliver in that software. I know many a firm that have done that in Revit, and cant figure out why they sucked at it. LOL.

Good for you, knowing where your priorities lay!


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Didn't Gehry Tech get acquired by Trimble?

The whole thing is built on Catia, right?

All of the web pages for the Gehry stuff look pretty stale.

I keep hoping that somehow, somewhere that Adesk will have a competitor again. Monopolies NEED to be challenged, otherwise the prices go up (or get turned into rental payments) and the product never improves.

Dave Jones, I know that one project in particular was done with Revit, and Digital Project its the Dr Chau Chak Wing building (you can Google it)
I linked it earlier in another thread, but here it is again.

this link has some info a little ways down after the central park info.


Frank Gehry | UTS — LRAINE

Gehry Partners and Gehry Tech are two different entities, however they are intertwined. On the projects that I've worked on GP is the Architect and GT is a consultant to the General Contractor. And, the Digital Project software was sold to Trimble. There was not acquisition of any Gehry entity by Trimble that I know of...

thanks for that info K10! I'll check it out and see if I can glean any ray of hope for me ;-P

edit: nope, still no hope, and that's probably a good thing! When one has the "bad feeling" in the back of their head it's probably time to get on to something else in life

Actually Gehry Technologies was purchased by Trimble for the service arm as well as for Gteam, the collaboration platform that became Trimble Connect. Gehry Technologies retains the name but now has a large group working on projects for many companies using a range of tools from DP and Rhino to Revit, etc. They maintain a small presence in the Gehry Partners office to aid in BIM rationalization, coordination and management.

The Digital Project software was not included in the transaction and is now an independent company owned by Gehry and some investors. Trimble could not acquire Digital Project because they would need to be approved as a third party developer by Dassault, which was problematic since they are competitors.

The reason that the next Facebook project is not being done in Revit is twofold. One: internally there is a lot of resistance to using Revit. This is because it is seen as not as capable as the DP and AutoCAD combination, and for many years they have been fighting against the Revit train and there is prejudice against it. Second: When it came time to start the project there were not enough Revit capable staff on the team and the decision was made to use our resources to implement Revit on two other projects that had more management support for Revit use behind them.

One of the difficulties is that we deliver the model as a contractual deliverable for dimensions, which meant that on the second Facebook project (that used Revit) we had to run custom API scripts to extract the underlying master geometry from the Revit solids. This was a complicated and lengthly process. Our process has now developed further to using adaptive families that can host surfaces and wires so that our elements have the master geometry "built in."