M.I.A. (Missing In Announcements)
Autodesk's big three CAD packages are AutoCAD (general design work), Inventor (mechanical design), and Revit (architectural design). Autodesk's executives have repeatedly stated their plan to eventually become all-cloud all the time. Two of the big three have nascent cloud versions:
- AutoCAD -> AutoCAD 360
- Inventor -> Fusion 360
- Revit -> ??? 360
Never has Autodesk talked about Revit 360. The cloud version of Revit is missing from announcements. The reason is, I believe, that Autodesk is having a tough time converting this particular Windows-based desktop-bound program with a poorly constructed API to run on a remote server and display its screen on local Web browsers.
During last week's conference call with financial analysts, Autodesk was finally asked bluntly why the software is MIA:
Jay Vleeschhouwer (Griffin Securities): "One almost obviously missing brand in your portfolio is -- let's call it -- Revit 360. You've got all kinds of other [server-based] 360s, but you don't have a [server-based] Revit 360. Is that something that would make sense for you?"
Scott Herren (Autodesk CFO): "There's a bunch of work going on online stuff for the AEC industry... You'll see more of the design and analysis for AEC coming online during the next year."
So, it sounds like no Revit 360 until 2017 at the earliest, with more feeder products like BIM 360 in the meantime.
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