Budgetized Revitization

Alright, so you've heard me bitch about people not having any concept of budgets - especially when it comes to the amount of extra time that it takes to develop even a basic floor plan in Revit.  Well I recently found out something interesting.

We just finished a project where the entire budget was blown by the Architects (and I don't mean the Architectural budget - I mean the entire budget for the entire job - well over $70K) before they even had an approved floor plan!!!

That's right - every cent blown, while still in the Schematic Design stage.

What that says to me is that they sat down and Revited the shit out of it, while still not knowing exactly what the owner wanted, and then proceeded to Revit the shit out of it over and over until they had it right - instead of simply putting together a 2D floor plan for the owner to sign off on.

Putting all of their elevations, details, etc. together - only to find out that half of their work had to be redone was a waste of fucking time, money, and effort.  The lead Architect on this particular project is an excellent designer and coordinator (mainly because he is old-school - I've had the guy bring me more than one hand-sketched drawing to explain something), however he has been saddled with a team of Reviteers since it is the 'office standard' now.

This would be the equivalent of a mechanic deciding to completely rebuild every engine that comes in for an oil change.

Or a dentist performing a root-canal and putting a crown on every single tooth in a guys head who comes in for a routine cleaning.

They wouldn't make any fucking profit, it would take waaaaaaay longer than the customer has to do it, and while the customer might think they were getting a pretty good value, assuming neither adjusted their fees accordingly (which if they did, they wouldn't have any customers anymore - 'why is an oil change $5000?", the reality would be that it is unsustainable.

The theory was that at some point we would figure out how to use Revit more efficiently, eliminating some vague redundancies that nobody could ever really say what they were (pun intended).  Instead, it has taken longer, cost more, and that's before you even get to the $5K a seat cost for the software.


They kept telling me 'it might take longer at first' (meaning: 'you get to stay here for as long as necessary to complete the job, since the schedule stays the same, and do it free of charge, because there is no extra budget to cover overtime), but that I could start identifying things that took less time, and eventually reach the point where it was as fast or faster than my previous methods (i.e. ACAD).


We reached a point where the Architects actually started to believe their own bullshit - and no amount of grabbing them by the face and forcing them to look at the reality on the ground could sway their faith.  Some of them prefer working in Revit now - which would be all fine and good if they could do it in a timely manner, and not drag everyone else into their hell (hint: they can't).

Then to have the balls to start trying to shame me into joining them on their sinking ship since the software couldn't stand on it's own merit and required insulting, threatening, or otherwise demeaning anyone who would dare speak against it, or refuse to use it.

Reading various blogs/posts shows that this attitude is systematic.  Someone will post a question about how to do something, and then get excoriated by Revitbots (most of whom you can tell don't actually work in the design field).

Here's an example from last year: http://www.revitcity.com/forums.php?action=viewthread&thread_id=27690

The person who posted was obviously extremely frustrated with Revit, may have not had any training, or been as experienced in design (they were coming from ArchiCAD) - but holy motherfucking god, listen to the self-absorbed egotistical fucks that respond to it:

"Wow you're a true dork in all senses of the word.  As in clueless and ignorant. LMAO"

"In fact my advise (sic) to your customers is to fire you and get a real designer who knows what they are doing."

"all you're actually accomplishing with your rediculous (sic) blog and these silly posts is "MAKING YOURSELF LOOK STUPID"

Now, those pale in comparison to the bitch-slapping that I would give 'dgcad' (which I believe is actually an acronym for 'D.ick G.ushing C.um A.ss D.iet') once I got done fucking his mom - if you keep scrolling down it turns into a Revit circle-jerk-athon of epic proportions.  

They've got these over-simplified 'solutions' for every one of his concerns, ignoring the important fact that THEY KNOW FULL WELL THAT NOT EVERYTHING WORKS IN REVIT.  Shit that is completely out of your control can fuck you into a hole in the ground.

I'm sure every single one of them has burned entire mornings or afternoons (or days/weeks/months/years/budgets/schedules/etc.) trying to figure out a workaround or solution to what should be a simple problem, only to have to end up faking it in, and yet to listen to them - there is no way it's the software or lack of concern on the part of its 'developers'.

The aforementioned project that the Architects burned the entire budget on had a clusterfuck of referenced models (not Revit's fault - but not mine either) and while I was on vacation they moved the electrical room.  Another electrical designer moved the panels, but two of them (that were hosted into a wall in the shell building) absolutely refused to move.

They brought all of the Revit 'gurus' down to try to figure it out - and finally had to resort to simply hiding the panels, and faking the new ones in (to prevent having to delete them and start from fucking scratch).

That is one small example - one that 'might' have had a solution, but we've got projects to get out the door - we can't be hunting down solutions every time this piece of shit decides to hiccup, so we 'fake it in' again.  It's all fine and good - unless we have to revisit that project in the future, and remember what all was faked.

I'm going to do a little bit of hunting around for the next couple of posts - I've called out a few Revitbots and Autodesk shills in the past, but I've really only scratched the surface.  Oh - and before anyone tries to call me out on how insulting and degrading I am to Revit users, Autodesk, and Revit in general, keep in mind - I'm not the one trying to tell people how to do their jobs.

I am going to try to be impartial, fair, and productive (hahaha - who am I kidding I'm going to tear these faggot fucks new assholes with the steel toe of my size 14 Doc Martins!!!)

As always, if you don't like it - go fuck yourself.