Renting Revit Software

Whereas architectural projects and deadlines come and go, being able to add software licensing as needed seems like a really good thing. Autodesk has started to offer methods to rent Revit within their Building Design Suites.

Standard Building Design Suite
 Monthly
$360 Suggested Retail Price (SRP)
 Quarterly
$1085
 Annually
$2890

Premium Building Design Suite
 Monthly
$425
 Quarterly
$1280
 Annually
$3415

Ultimate Building Design Suite
 Monthly
$755
 Quarterly
$2265
 Annually
$6040

Monthly plans can be purchased only through the online store and quarterly/annual plans can be purchased only through a reseller.

I haven't found any mention of just the individual flavors of Revit (Architectural, Structural, MEP) being able to be rented, yet. There is AutoCAD Revit LT Suite at $95/month, but its Revit files are not compatible with the full version of Revit as far as I know. (Please correct me if I am wrong.)

Here is the chart of what software is included in the Building Design Suites: http://www.autodesk.com/suites/building-design-suite/included-software . Mainly, the Standard one does not have Max or Navisworks with it.

This is the Autodesk page with the rental prices: http://www.autodesk.com/suites/building-design-suite/buy . They use the term "PAY AS YOU GO" and don't write "RENT" on that page.

UPDATE: The latest page for renting and buying Autodesk software is at http://www.autodesk.com/store/suites . At Autodesk University 2014, they announced their plans to enable a "Subscribe to Autodesk" way of paying for everything at once.

I will be presenting about Revit Families Thursday, October 17, 2013 for Boston Revit Users Group at Autodesk, Waltham. http://www.meetup.com/Boston-Revit-Users-Group/events/142198972/

The event will also be webcast.

New Point Cloud Manipulation Videos Posted -- ReCap / Revit / AutoCAD

• ReCap demonstration with a mechanical room scan 
• Revit and point clouds demonstration 
• AutoCAD and point clouds demonstration 

See https://www.youtube.com/user/LTC3D

Revit 2013 Update Release 2

Recently, one my client's computers did not have the latest update of Revit and was experiencing crashes when using a workshared project. It is optimal that people use the same version of software when working on the same projects.

To check one’s Revit version, click the little down-arrow next to the question mark in the upper-right corner of Revit:

Click “About…”

The dialog should look say “Update Release 2” like this:

If you need to download the update for Revit MEP, its URL is http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=20679258&linkID=12828318 then select the appropriate download e.g., “Revit MEP 2013 UR2 (64-bit) (exe - 83079Kb)”

Revit Architecture:
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=20679231&linkID=9273944

Revit Structure:
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=20679170&linkID=9280927

Cleaning Up The Disks

Just found an open-source utility that maps out disk usage: WinDirStat <http://windirstat.info>

You let it run and it shows an overview of all of your disk usage. It also lets you delete selected files -- nice!

The largest rectangles in the drive map are the largest files, click on one and it shows you its info and lets you manipulate it.

I have been working with laser scan point clouds recently. We fill up disk space very quickly; I think this will come in handy.