Today Autodesk announced a new addition to the Revit Platform: Revit LT.
LT from a Spark?
Remember Autodesk Labs Project Spark? An experimental simplified Revit aimed at individual users wanting to migrate from 2D drafting to Building Information Modelling. I tried Spark and found the feature set pretty complete for modelling and documentation. It didn’t offer conceptual massing, a bit of a pity, or the complication of work-sharing/worksets. That’s not a problem for the single user who doesn’t need to support multi-user, multi-discipline projects.
Autodesk Revit LT, Building Information Modelling for everyone?
Revit LT is a Windows desktop application with subscription access to the Autodesk 360 cloud service extending its capabilities. On the desktop you can:
- Design, Visualize and document in a Single, Coordinated Building Information Model
- Create coordinated documentation with 3D Views, 2D Plans, Sections, Elevations, Details, Schedules and material take-offs.
- Create parametric content, families, and use existing Revit families. Revit LT will ship with a large content library and access to Autodesk Seek.
- Import or link: Revit, CAD, DWF Mark-up, and Image formats
- Export: DWG, DXF™, DGN, DWF/DWFx, BMP, JPEG, PNG, TIFF, TARGA, FBX®, and NWC formats files for collaboration
For subscription users, during their contract term, the Autodesk 360 cloud service adds web hosted Photorealistic Rendering.
Image source: Autodesk Revit LT Video
So, what is missing compared to Revit?
Autodesk Revit LT is built on the Revit platform and uses the same database format. There is a comprehensive comparison on the Revit LT site but the notable omissions from the full Revit platform include:
| Modelling:
Visualisation:
Collaboration:
| Links:
Exports:
External Services:
Other Disciplines:
|
While that seems quite a bit the list of what Revit LT includes is far longer!
Protect your legacy with AutoCAD Revit LT Suite 2013
Existing AutoCAD LT users should consider AutoCAD Revit LT Suite 2013. It includes both Autodesk Revit LT 2013 and AutoCAD LT 2013. As Revit LT is aimed at migrating 2D users to BIM having the old platform available for legacy projects makes the move painless.
Although it is considered heresy by many Revit users I regard AutoCAD as an essential companion. The amount of legacy data in dwg format is vast and it often needs processing, clean up, to be useful as a reference in Revit.
But not, at launch anyway, for everyone
“Autodesk Revit LT 2013 is scheduled to be available within the month in North America and in select countries worldwide”. Unfortunately for my Kiwi and Aussie readers I found this currently does not include us!
- Launch Territories: North America, Northern Europe, UK, Central Europe, and Japan
- Launch Languages: English, German, Japanese
The 30 day free trial for Autodesk Revit LT will be available on September 18, 2012
Details at: www.autodesk.com/revitlt
UPDATE 2012-09-07:
Good news about Design Options in Revit LT
One feature missing from Project Spark, and not mentioned in the initial Revit LT info, was Design options:
The omission [from Spark] which most troubles me is Design Options. Even for “Lonely BIM’ers” they are a powerful tool to evaluate alternative schemes in a single model.
According to Steve Stafford’s tweet today design options will feature in Revit LT:
Adsk says Revit LT is going to include Design Options, wasn't in Project Spark but it's going to be added to Revit LT.
— Steve Stafford (@Steve_Stafford) September 7, 2012
