AEC bytes are normally impartial, but do have a leaning toward autodesk. with this article - which was based on a survey commissioned by bentley - autodesk and bentley are pushed heavily despite archicad/graphiosft being the second most popular BIM app with 32% of the vote.

i would much rather see some figures that break down the 'BIM solutions being used or evaluated...' into two separate categories for those being used AND those being evaluated. i'm sure that might be more revealing . . .

~/archiben

I think whole purpose of this Bentley survey was to compare Bentley's ego with 'the Autodesk' (as oppose to some 'petty' East-European company).
Clearly the article was supposed to target the flatlands readers as they associate Revit (and therefore Autodesk) with BIM. I believe that Bentley's proud label 'we are BIM application' goes as far as a nice print on the box for majority of its users, knowing some members of Microstation community (including my boss who I am trying to convert and accept AC and ironically - BIM!!) they use Microstation in a sort of ADT fashion.

~/archiben wrote:
i would much rather see some figures that break down the 'BIM solutions being used or evaluated...' into two separate categories for those being used AND those being evaluated. i'm sure that might be more revealing . . .

~/archiben

Yes, I thought the same thing.
Maybe the whole market is flooded with Revit so the "evaluate" it but do not actually use it. Would be interesting to know.

For me, one of the results of reading this survey was that ArchiCAD is actually pretty competitive and that AC11 was addressing practically the most important criteria these guy came up with, which is a good thing.

laszlonagy wrote:
For me, one of the results of reading this survey was that ArchiCAD is actually pretty competitive and that AC11 was addressing practically the most important criteria these guy came up with, which is a good thing.

I normally find Lachmi Khemlani's articles and reviews pretty informative and well-balanced, but this "evaluation" seemed like one of the most ridiculous things I've seen her write in quite a while. For one thing, I'm not entirely certain if I've ever come across a less subtle Revit ad, but this was just weird. The article starts out by setting what it considers BIM criteria, then then sets out statistics and results of surveys conducted - wherein ArchiCAD's 2nd place in that "graph" appears; there's an obligatory note of this, before she proceeds comparing Revit with 3rd place Bentley for a huge chunk of the article and then the remainder of the article gushing over the virtues of Revit. ArchiCAD never gets a mention beyond the graph comparison - what? is ArchiCAD no longer considered a BIM application. I understand the North American bias and the AECbytes "sold-their-soul-to-the-devil mortgage payments to Autotable and all, but I mean, come on!! just call it a Revit evaluation and be done with it.

The other thing I had an issue with is the fact that she never bothers to mention the fact that a large reason for the fact that Revit is scoring so high in that survey despite the fact that it doesn't even have nearly half the same number of users as ADT does in their own barn, is due to the fact that Autodesk have for the longest time been bundling it with AutoCAD where it then proceeds to sit on the shelves of firms collecting dust after they've "evaluated" it and after they've installed the program they really wanted in the first place - AutoCAD. Or the fact that this article is also heavily North American, or rather US-centric, thus ignoring the fact that ArchiCAD, and for that matter Bentley, outsell Revit virtually everywhere else in the world.

In any event its a tidy piece of Autodesk subterfuge marketing, as it's meant to be, I suppose. Ridiculous nonetheless.

~/archiben wrote:
AEC bytes are normally impartial, but do have a leaning toward autodesk. with this article - which was based on a survey commissioned by bentley - autodesk and bentley are pushed heavily despite archicad/graphiosft being the second most popular BIM app with 32% of the vote.

My first reaction to the article.

Bricklyne wrote:
I normally find Lachmi Khemlani's articles and reviews pretty informative and well-balanced, but this "evaluation" seemed like one of the most ridiculous things I've seen her write in quite a while. For one thing, I'm not entirely certain if I've ever come across a less subtle Revit ad, but this was just weird. The article starts out by setting what it considers BIM criteria, then then sets out statistics and results of surveys conducted - wherein ArchiCAD's 2nd place in that "graph" appears; there's an obligatory note of this, before she proceeds comparing Revit with 3rd place Bentley for a huge chunk of the article and then the remainder of the article gushing over the virtues of Revit. ArchiCAD never gets a mention beyond the graph comparison - what? is ArchiCAD no longer considered a BIM application. I understand the North American bias and the AECbytes "sold-their-soul-to-the-devil mortgage payments to Autotable and all, but I mean, come on!! just call it a Revit evaluation and be done with it.

My overall impression of the article.

Well put guys.

I most cases I would defend the AECBytes articles, but this one is strange...

- it is well structured and detailed
- it seems to have asked pertinent questions
- it also reflects the Bentley vs. Revit comparison, which IMHO was a mistake (although she can blame Bentley for it).

All in all, interesting to read, but the survey can be critisized...