CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
1 December 2004
Product News
Architecture and Design Firms Increase Client Satisfaction and Competitive Advantage With Building Information Modeling
Autodesk, Inc. launched Autodesk® Revit® 7 software, the latest version of Autodesk's building design and documentation system. Autodesk Revit 7 affords the deepest insight yet into the relationships between complex concepts and their built forms, with powerful new features that expand conceptual and precision design capabilities. Architects and other building industry professionals can use Autodesk Revit 7 to better create, manage, and share designs-and incorporate state-of-the-art building information modeling into their practices for higher-quality designs and documents, more productive collaboration, effective design coordination, greater profitability, stronger client relationships, and an edge in winning new commissions.
Based on parametric modeling technology, Autodesk Revit 7 serves as a platform for building information modeling, a design approach that transcends conventional, manual compilation of drawings and documents with concurrent, real-time coordination of data, as well as simultaneous access by multiple users.
The new features and functions in Autodesk Revit 7 respond to challenges posed by some of the world's most closely watched projects. Renowned for its expertise in designing skyscrapers, Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill LLP (SOM) is the design architect of the Freedom Tower on the World Trade Center site, and is currently employing a variety of Autodesk solutions, including Autodesk Revit, AutoCAD®, and Autodesk® Buzzsaw® on this highly complex project. Revit software has become primary design tool for the Freedom Tower, enabling SOM and its engineering consultants Jaros Baum & Boles, Inc., and Cantor Seinuk Group, to model the tower's complex, expressive form while managing aspects of the design where stringent technical requirements make coordination not only critical but especially challenging.
"SOM is committed to excellence in architecture including its technical elements and has always embraced innovations that elevate the quality of our work," said Carl Galioto, FAIA, partner at SOM's New York office. "We chose to implement the Autodesk Revit platform on the Freedom Tower project because we believe that this building information modeling approach will enable us to design and construct a better building for our client. The new Building Maker tools in Autodesk Revit 7 are providing our designers with a deeper understanding of the relationship between the tower's expressive and built forms so they can work more fluidly from design concept to construction detail."
Autodesk Revit 7 includes new features that support the creative process and deliver greater levels of productivity and enhanced document coordination, including advances in conceptual design development linked to a single building model. The latest version of the software includes:
• Autodesk Revit Building Maker: a powerful conceptual modeling and design environment that takes the description of any building form and maps it to real-world elements, for a cumulative understanding of the relationship between expressive and built form.
• Enhanced Parametric Components: An open, graphical system for design thinking and form-making now includes more powerful capabilities for parametric modular design, so elements such as hotel rooms or residential units can be altered and replicated quickly and easily throughout the design model.
• Tools to streamline core drawing tasks: From revision tables and legends for tracking changes in construction documents to vectorial shadows in elevation views, new tools in Autodesk Revit 7 help project teams validate design concepts and create compelling and intuitive presentations for clients.
Autodesk Revit 7 helps boost the productivity of larger design teams. Autodesk Revit Worksharing functionality distributes the power of the Autodesk Revit parametric building modeling environment across the project team, for a complete range of collaboration modes. These include entirely ad hoc, simultaneous access, and shared models such as formal project division into discrete shared units, and complete separation of project elements or systems into individually managed, linked models or graphic file formats. Autodesk Revit Worksharing allows the team to choose the best way to collaborate and interact based on its preferred work style and the project requirements.
New capabilities include:
• Autodesk® VIZ 2005 Interoperablity for Autodesk Revit 7: Import Autodesk Revit-produced 3D DWG files created in AutoCAD software into Autodesk VIZ 2005, complete with Autodesk Revit materials or VIZ materials, to create stunning photorealistic interior and exterior renderings.
• DWG Enhancements: ACIS solids can be imported from AutoCAD to aid visual interference detection with engineers and enhance collaboration. Tools for identifying layer names, types, and block names right in Autodesk Revit 7 enable seamless integration of DWG files.
Autodesk Revit 7 allows building professionals to work within the framework of a single building model. This approach, called building information modeling (BIM), is changing the way architects and builders around the world apply technology to their work. By supporting the continuous and immediate availability of the best possible information for making design decisions, building information modeling tools such as Autodesk Revit 7 provide significant advantages over traditional drafting software or object-oriented CAD. Greater productivity and fewer errors reduce design costs; projects are delivered more quickly; and higher quality work is produced.
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