CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
30 September 2008
Product News
First Autodesk BIM Software for Windows 64-Bit Operating Systems Now Available
Autodesk, Inc. announced that versions of its Revit software applications for Building Information Modeling (BIM) specifically designed for personal computers using Windows 64-bit operating systems are now available. This marks the company's first venture into 64-bit BIM applications and applies to Revit Architecture 2009, Revit Structure 2009 and Revit MEP 2009.
The 64-bit versions are now available to existing Revit platform software subscribers. Customer beta testers reported that the new software applications offer significantly improved performance and stability for memory intensive tasks such as rendering, printing, model upgrading and file importing and exporting. Some examples of their experience include:
"In every single test I threw at the Revit Structure for the 64-bit system it beat the 32-bit system," said Ken Murphy, BIM manager, Thornton Tomasetti. "On average, we observed approximately a 20 percent performance gain on operations such as saving files and exporting models to other formats for outside consultants. And when it comes to rendering images of large project models, such as an American football stadium with thousands of members, we saw up to a 50 percent performance improvement over the 32-bit platform."
"With 64-bit Revit Architecture we can completely load a very large project into a session and work on it at one time; and that is something that represents a significant efficiency improvement over the 32-bit environment," said Lonnie Cumpton, Revit task force manager for the Friedmutter Group. "For example, we have a large project that consists of 2.9 gigabytes of Revit data contained in 22 individual files. With 64-bit Revit Architecture we can link all the pieces together into one big model and cut an entire building section to gain an understanding from a section elevation standpoint of the entire project at one time. Using 32-bit Revit Architecture we'd have to cut individual pieces of sections in each model and then piece them back together. It took us a day to do that. Now we can do it in less than an hour."
"We've been beta testing the 64-bit Revit Structure software and the increases in efficiency and productivity are impressive," said Jamie Richardson, Associate & CAD manager, Ericksen Roed & Associates. "Cutting sections and switching between views is much faster. Moving within the views and rotating the model in a 3D view is also noticeably faster and smoother.
With what we have seen in our beta testing, and what we're hearing from users testing the beta on their current projects, we see no reason not to go to the 64-bit version of Revit Structure."
Availability
The English language versions of new 64-bit Revit software applications are available now to existing Revit Architecture 2009, Revit Structure 2009 and Revit MEP 2009 subscribers via the online Subscription Center. The 64-bit software will release in other languages at a later date.
"We're very excited to hear our beta testers report stunning performance gains with the native 64-bit versions of the Revit software applications," said Jay Bhatt, senior vice president, Autodesk AEC Solutions. "Breaking the four gigabytes RAM barrier is an important milestone, which helps our customers experience the power of BIM in even their largest projects."
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