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Kerry Thompson · March 16th, 2004

Hi Richard

I do see "Lightscape" product trends with Revit - as I have seen is a number of AutoDesk "buy, strip and dump" acquisitions over the last 15 years. It is the nature of the business, which is driven by market culture rather than a innovative technical culture. I see Revit and ADT being merged but the resulting product may not be called ADT or Revit. BUT there will still be an AutoCAD in the mix somewhere - from a market perspective, AutoDesk cannot afford to dump the brand.

The AEC industry is very fragmented and the parties (architects, engineers, QS, project managers, interior designers, builders, interior fit out, kitchen fit out - the list can go on, ) involved are doing very well from this fragmentation - i.e. as information is copied to these parties through the project delivery process, every one gets a cut in terms of fees, margins etc. Rationalizing the process would completely change the nature of this culture.

In the manufacturing area, the link between the designer and the product production is a lot closer and there have been major productivity benefits and payoffs from using parametric technology. In AEC, these relationships are tenuous at best, which is why I think that the MDT-Inventor paradigm will not work in the AEC industry.

The AEC industry will slowly change but will be driven by the changing relationships between the parties involved, rather than a technology being driven by “AutoDesk” or who ever.

March 16th, 2004	#10 (permalink)
Kerry Thompson Moderator Join Date: May 2002 Location: New Zealand Age: 53 Posts: 151 Name: Kerry Thompson	Re: Revit Hi Richard I do see "Lightscape" product trends with Revit - as I have seen is a number of AutoDesk "buy, strip and dump" acquisitions over the last 15 years. It is the nature of the business, which is driven by market culture rather than a innovative technical culture. I see Revit and ADT being merged but the resulting product may not be called ADT or Revit. BUT there will still be an AutoCAD in the mix somewhere - from a market perspective, AutoDesk cannot afford to dump the brand. The AEC industry is very fragmented and the parties (architects, engineers, QS, project managers, interior designers, builders, interior fit out, kitchen fit out - the list can go on, ) involved are doing very well from this fragmentation - i.e. as information is copied to these parties through the project delivery process, every one gets a cut in terms of fees, margins etc. Rationalizing the process would completely change the nature of this culture. In the manufacturing area, the link between the designer and the product production is a lot closer and there have been major productivity benefits and payoffs from using parametric technology. In AEC, these relationships are tenuous at best, which is why I think that the MDT-Inventor paradigm will not work in the AEC industry. The AEC industry will slowly change but will be driven by the changing relationships between the parties involved, rather than a technology being driven by “AutoDesk” or who ever.