Autodesk and Architectural Desktop - On Again

LAS VEGAS, Nevada (Autodesk University) - Is Autodesk going to kill AD? Not on Jay Bhatt's watch. Jay is Autodesk's VP of Autodesk's Building Solutions, the division in charge of architectural products including Autodesk Building Systems, Architectural Desktop as well as its BIM products (aka Revit and Revit-based products). "People always ask me that," says Jay says wearily. Far from getting rid of ADT, Jay tells us that Autodesk remains quite committed to ADT. "We spent more on R&D on ADT last year than we spent on our BIM products."

These words should console ADT users, who have probably felt as if they have fallen out of favor ever since Autodesk paid a whopping $133 million to acquire Revit back in 2002. They may have seen their fate unfolding as Autodesk's manufacturing division aggressively worked to phase out Mechanical Desktop, another AutoCAD-based vertical application, in favor of Inventor. But the stubbornness of of ADT users seems to be paying off. How could Autodesk ignore the sheer mass of their numbers? By Autodesk's own estimates, there are 450,000 to 475,000 ADT users out there and most of them have trouble letting go. This is Autodesk 3rd biggest installed base (behind AutoCAD/AutoCAD LT and Inventor) -- and no doubt a healthy market to sell ADT upgrades to.

But will Autodesk now have to work to win back ADT users? One person who is vocal on the subject is Martyn Day, editor of UK's AECmag.com. Martyn told of complaints from ADT users who have felt deprived of innovation--especially in the area of 3D. Autodesk at first wanted to argue this point but conceded that improvements to ADT were mostly in the area of ease of use. It was clear that 3D users would be steered towards Revit, a product built from the ground up with 3D in mind.

To emphasize how ADT is still a going concern, Autodesk staged a little demo comparing ADT to AutoCAD in the basic tasks of taking a floor plan, adding windows and doors, measuring rooms, making elevations, etc. Of course, ADT won hands down. Though greeted by a 'ho hum' by the informed among us (we had seen ADT do this for years now), it still served to show that the company was once again on a path to sell ADT to it's millions of AutoCAD users, rather than try to convert them all the way to Revit in one step.

Other highlights:

• Revit is experiencing 94% year yer to year growth
• There are a total of 140,000 seats
• 18,000 Revit seats were sold last quarter, compared to 8,000 ADT seats in the same period

Comments

[Robin Capper]

"Revit has a sexy interface"?
I think the interface, and user interaction, with Revit is dated and clunky at best - in fact it's worst aspect.
What is sexy is the results you get having clicked all those dialogs :-)

[Ed Goldberg AIA, NCARB]

I was sitting next to Martin Day at the press briefing with Jay Bhatt. I write the Architectural Desktop books, and use Revit as well as ADT. I disagree with Martin that ADT has not had major innovations and evolutions. As a practicing Architect, I am very thankfull for the improvements in ADT 2007. Things such as the ability to convert Mass elements to intelligent objects Roof slabs, improvements to the AEC dimensions, etc may not seem revolutionary at first, but they really make my job easier and more productive. I like Martin a lot, but I suggest that he use ADT for creating a professional project before he condems this excellent piece of software.

Ed Goldberg AIA, NCARB
Contributing Editor, CADALYST magazine

[Martyn Day]

There two key questions that remain unanswered, and they are:

1) If you are using ADT, or buying ADT for the first time and mainly intend to use it in 2D, that's ok. But when the time comes to think about moving to 3D, is there any point in investing in learning the 3D aspects of the ADT. The products 3D will no longer be aggresively developed in that area...but Revit is.

2) If you are a serious 3D user of ADT, (of which there are few I admit), what does this decision mean to you?

[Wes Macaulay]

Revit requires a committment to switch, no doubt. But for those who do commit, there is no comparison. Revit's bidirectional capabilities, superior 3D and better coordination make ADT look feeble in comparison. But ADT is safe in that you can revert to CAD, though this is not a strategic solution in the long term.

[Rick Yeates]

I hope AutoDesk renews it's committment to ADT. I like the product. So much so that I recommended two of my clients purchase more copies. That equaled 12 more copies in the past 6 months. With more to come in the new year!

Revit has a sexy interface, but, I still like working with the dwg file. I drew with AutoCAD for many years before moving to IT. ADT allows me to ease users into BIM. I also have the benefit of "if you can't do it in ADT fall back on your AutoCAD commands.

I have a client who has at least 17 Revit licenses and most of them sit unused! The users grab the fast Revit machines with the understanding they will work in Revit. They take the Revit training and then they go back to AutoCAD! The only good thing about it all is having AutoCAD and Revit licenses bundled together.

I suspect it wouldn't take much to make ADT a bi-directional BIM application. Most of the pieces seem to be there now.