I'm looking at picking up BIM Revit and was quoted $5695 ($5000 for new license + $695 annual subscription). For a current one-man shop surviving on teaching gigs and side jobs, that's a pretty hefty price.
Looking for suggestions for someone without $6000 sitting in my pockets. Thx!
well in the legal category you could get Rhino, which runs about $1000 and then download the Grasshopper plug in (which is free). I don't know how Revit-like it is.
Grasshopper and Rhino, while awesome, are not revit-like at all.
ArchiCAD start : More info Here is a pretty affordable BIM package.
That said... in my opinion, working with Revit is a better choice as far as interoperability and the future of the BIM goes, though the price is absolutely ridiculous and the learning curve will body slam your productivity.
This will be legitimate. After a few more phone calls, I've found a $4285 license & $625 annual subscription (for stand alone Revit Architecture, no suite) totalling $4910 + tax. Now time to come up with the 5k.
Since you mentioned that you have done teaching gigs - if you still have your .edu email you can download Revit plus about 100 other Autodesk softwares for free from autodesk.com with a one year faculty or student license.
has anyone looked into the cost of subbing out 2D construction docs to a consultant to provide a BIM? just trying to figure out if it would be more cost-effective than making the leap to BIM, purchase of software, lost productivity/learning curve, etc...
we have a lot of great designers on autocad that are extremely proficient, but after making the leap to Revit almost two years ago it's like they're swimming in wet concrete with boxing gloves on and the graphic quality of the drawings coming out of Revit is still not up to par with what we were producing in CAD (even after much fiddling with settings, templated, lightweights, text, etc)
still waiting for the payoff. trying to maintain an open mind and agree that BIM is the future, but frustration and doubt are creeping in...
dml - I think you're losing out on a benefit of BIM if you're thinking of it as producing the same deliverables as 2D CAD documentation. If you are getting the BIM model AFTER the documentation, you're losing out on the process of using the model during schematics, design development and documentation.
To get back to the original topic, I didn't realize one license cost that much, and hopefully there is a way to get that cost down because that seems ridiculous for a one man shop. However, I will say that, conceptually BIM (not necessarily Revit) should create better deliverables and should be worth the bump in price (although that seems a bit extreme); and it should be reflected in the use of our time and billing. Just curious, OP, what were you quoted for a new license for AutoCAD?
Technically, if you set up your layers right, group everything as components and script out smart components... you can get SketchUp to act pretty BIM-like.
As in, it will do parametrics, tell you the number of objects, tell you the various measurements (volume, linear feet, area) for each component. There's also a "model entity" info box that will give you the numbers of all the things in the model.
Hi. This is a topic that I am passionate about and have a major (commercial-obsessive) interest in. Here is a comparison I have made between Revit and SketchUp: link
I have written a course that shows an intermediate SketchUp user to create Construction Documentation using SketchUp Pro:
Course outline: link
Course material sample: link
Construction Documents (and photo evidence that this is real working tech): link
Video: link
Blog: link
Website: link
Today I just talked to Eyal Nir of Paracloud today. What they are doing to interact with SketchUp (and other platforms) in terms of BIM is unbelievable: link
Approx cost of purchasing SU Pro plus online training (Basics to Advanced): Less than $1200
SU Pro alone costs: €500- No licensing costs. There's also the free version!
Note: This technology does two things (at the moment): (a) 3D model and (b) Full CAD type Construction Documents. If that's not part of what you call "BIM", then its not BIM. .... In the meantime we are busy finding out what else SketchUp can do....
BIM Software
I'm looking at picking up BIM Revit and was quoted $5695 ($5000 for new license + $695 annual subscription). For a current one-man shop surviving on teaching gigs and side jobs, that's a pretty hefty price.
Looking for suggestions for someone without $6000 sitting in my pockets. Thx!
well in the legal category you could get Rhino, which runs about $1000 and then download the Grasshopper plug in (which is free). I don't know how Revit-like it is.
Grasshopper and Rhino, while awesome, are not revit-like at all.
ArchiCAD start : More info Here is a pretty affordable BIM package.
That said... in my opinion, working with Revit is a better choice as far as interoperability and the future of the BIM goes, though the price is absolutely ridiculous and the learning curve will body slam your productivity.
then there's the non-legal category...
Oh yes and the VisualARC tools for Rhino are BIM-like, may be worth looking into but I cannot vouch for it's ability to produce effective CDs.
This will be legitimate. After a few more phone calls, I've found a $4285 license & $625 annual subscription (for stand alone Revit Architecture, no suite) totalling $4910 + tax. Now time to come up with the 5k.
Since you mentioned that you have done teaching gigs - if you still have your .edu email you can download Revit plus about 100 other Autodesk softwares for free from autodesk.com with a one year faculty or student license.
has anyone looked into the cost of subbing out 2D construction docs to a consultant to provide a BIM? just trying to figure out if it would be more cost-effective than making the leap to BIM, purchase of software, lost productivity/learning curve, etc...
we have a lot of great designers on autocad that are extremely proficient, but after making the leap to Revit almost two years ago it's like they're swimming in wet concrete with boxing gloves on and the graphic quality of the drawings coming out of Revit is still not up to par with what we were producing in CAD (even after much fiddling with settings, templated, lightweights, text, etc)
still waiting for the payoff. trying to maintain an open mind and agree that BIM is the future, but frustration and doubt are creeping in...
I've been using my faculty copy of Revit & AutoCAD for the past 2 years. Note I use these educational copies for course work.
I'll look to add the software cost into professional fees and pay for a commercial license & subscription once that $ avail.
dml - I think you're losing out on a benefit of BIM if you're thinking of it as producing the same deliverables as 2D CAD documentation. If you are getting the BIM model AFTER the documentation, you're losing out on the process of using the model during schematics, design development and documentation.
To get back to the original topic, I didn't realize one license cost that much, and hopefully there is a way to get that cost down because that seems ridiculous for a one man shop. However, I will say that, conceptually BIM (not necessarily Revit) should create better deliverables and should be worth the bump in price (although that seems a bit extreme); and it should be reflected in the use of our time and billing. Just curious, OP, what were you quoted for a new license for AutoCAD?
Technically, if you set up your layers right, group everything as components and script out smart components... you can get SketchUp to act pretty BIM-like.
As in, it will do parametrics, tell you the number of objects, tell you the various measurements (volume, linear feet, area) for each component. There's also a "model entity" info box that will give you the numbers of all the things in the model.
wakeNbuild -
Which rep did you receive the $4285 quote from? contact info? thanks in advance.
todd
Hi. This is a topic that I am passionate about and have a major (commercial-obsessive) interest in. Here is a comparison I have made between Revit and SketchUp: link
I have written a course that shows an intermediate SketchUp user to create Construction Documentation using SketchUp Pro:
Course outline: link
Course material sample: link
Construction Documents (and photo evidence that this is real working tech): link
Video: link
Blog: link
Website: link
Today I just talked to Eyal Nir of Paracloud today. What they are doing to interact with SketchUp (and other platforms) in terms of BIM is unbelievable: link
Approx cost of purchasing SU Pro plus online training (Basics to Advanced): Less than $1200
SU Pro alone costs: €500- No licensing costs. There's also the free version!
Note: This technology does two things (at the moment): (a) 3D model and (b) Full CAD type Construction Documents. If that's not part of what you call "BIM", then its not BIM. .... In the meantime we are busy finding out what else SketchUp can do....
Free online 3D collaboration: link
Further info: link
Cheers,
Paul Lee
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