Where does the money go?

I'm looking at a 3D model of a building in Revit right now - it is fairly impressive, especially considering that it is an existing building that some people at my firm painstakingly recreated from old documents, and field measurements.

This was the contract agreement - not just something someone decided to take on because Revit is 'Teh Bomb'.  And I can understand a facility like the one that the building is part of wanting to have a fully integrated 3D model of all of their buildings, systems, etc.


I can also guarantee that anything resembling a 'budget' for this project was decimated before one floor of this fucking building was laid out because in order to *get* the project, they had to outbid other firms and secure the contract.

If Autodesk had spent a fraction of the money developing it's software that it spent convincing everyone in the industry that they needed to start doing twelve times as much work for the same (or less) fee, then we might be looking at a functional piece of software.

Instead, they went the cheap route by buying a half-ass piece of shit, and then polishing that fucking turd until it shone a dull brown and then started vigorously hurling it at unsuspecting customers and demanding to be paid thousands of dollars a seat.

I've designed two renovated floors of this monstrosity of a building (oh - did I mention they modeled the whole goddamned thing so that most of it could be gutted and renovated?).  I did both in ACAD (because seriously - fuck Revit), and ended up getting dicked over anyway as every second that I had spent carefully attempting to gather information on all of the various pieces of equipment the owner was going to have, and which required power.

Of course they could not be troubled with providing any information - past a brochure that contained zero information, and contacting the manufacturer was pointless unless you had the exact purchase order for the exact piece of equipment they were going to order, with the exact options they were going to select (which of course, the owner won't provide you - because not even they know).


I was bitched at repeatedly for not using Revit on this project - primarily because 'omg, what if the owner finds out we're totally not Reviting it?!?' - which is a relevant concern, except that the renovations have been done using a set of 2d pieces of paper, which will then go in an archive, to be referred to, while the Revit model will sit on a server somewhere - but won't be able to be opened by anyone that doesn't have a workstation with a current copy of Revit (it probably won't be the same version it was created in) then they can have fun watching it convert for half an hour - and really have fun when Autodesk decides to make changes that won't allow it to update, and leave it completely useless.

Of course, most of the bitching was actually due to the amount of work they had to put into this model that sits before me this morning, and knowing that I was just exporting it out to ACAD so that I could make a profit - assuming Architectural didn't eat the entire budget for the project (which they most certainly did). 

Now we are renovating another floor - I have plans set up in Revit, and a stack of 'information' that someone managed to extract from the customer - .which is mostly just a layout.  Any electrical information (as usual) was purely incidental - scribbled by someone who didn't know what they were talking about (or knew just enough to be dangerous).

I am at the crossroads of Revit and ACAD right now. 

With a series of clicks, this thing can be in ACAD, and I can be laying it out, and putting together a set of construction documents.

Or - with a different series of clicks I can still be staring at the exact same thing I've been staring at all morning.  An impressive looking, but for all means and purposes, completely useless model that it gains me nothing to populate with electrical information when I already have a system and software that allows me to concentrate on the actual task at hand, instead of fighting Revit every step of the way.

Oh well - I'll be back soon with some more vicious attacks on POS Reviteers (that they absolutely deserve).

Until then, fuck Revit, fuck Autodesk, and if you don't like what I'm saying - then (with all due respect) please shut your fucks to their full upright position!!!