News, News - Members Area

In mid-March, a group from the four Nordic associations behind the Nordic letter to Autodesk flew to Boston and participated in a two-day workshop organised by Autodesk, and specifically by the Revit development team. The workshop focused on short-term goals and quick fixes for Revit, with a particular emphasis on identifying the development elements that would have the greatest impact on saving time, not only for architects, but for all Revit users in general. Prior to the workshop, the group had compiled a priority list of Revit issues and ideas, based on input from members of each of the four associations, which formed the basis and backbone of the workshop.

They divided the two days into four main topics, with various Autodesk developers participating according to the topics. The workshop ended up being a good combination of us showing or explaining the issues and ideas on the list, and the Revit development team showing what they were doing. The developers also asked questions and took notes to better understand our workflows and architectural ideas. Throughout the workshop, they also identified potential quick fixes and/or small bugs, which were placed on a kill list, so that the Revit team could potentially fix them in between the larger development tasks. We are now waiting for Autodesk to come back to us with an update on the areas and items they can commit to fixing, both in terms of the exclusion list and the larger areas and items.

Outcome
Overall, the workshop went well and the group left with a very positive feeling. Obviously, there is still a lot to do. Given the pace of development, the associations are curious about the timeline for implementing the suggested improvements in future versions of Revit. The good news is that there seems to be a willingness on both sides to address some of the current issues have been raised. 

Support the Nordic Open letter
The Architects’ Council of Europe fully endorsed the Nordic Open letter to Autodesk: “Digitalisation topics are major concerns that are shared across the industry, by both large companies and SMEs. Even the largest companies are too small to be able to significantly resist software vendors and their terms. That’s why we believe customer actions like this are necessary and important. We encourage our Members' Organisations to sign the letter”.