Thursday 22 October 2015

More than 25 Updates and New Features to Revit Released Today


Great news for Autodesk Revit software subscribers.  Autodesk have released a major update for Revit today to both Maintenance Subscription and Desktop Subscription customers*.

Autodesk Revit 2016 R2 builds on the speed and project performance improvements that distinguish Revit 2016 and includes more than 25 updates, many requested by users. With further improved software performance and scalability, plus new features, the family of  Revit 2016 R2 releases enables subscribers to more effectively and efficiently capture design intent. 
Revit 2016 R2 is fully compatible with the existing Revit 2016 releases and has no file format changes so users can install the update without disrupting existing ongoing work in Revit 2016.

Autodesk state that "this Revit 2016 R2 represents significant incremental value for Autodesk Maintenance and Desktop Subscription customers who get immediate access to the most current Revit capabilities."

At the moment there are lots of questionnaires regarding the value of  Autodesk Maintenance and Desktop Subscription being asked on the Autodesk Advisors portal and Autodesk and their Dealerships have been warning of the impending end maintenance subscriptions and migrate to a total "rental-based" model. Autodesk are not the first to do this Microsoft have already gone there with Office and I really don't know why they keep asking for users opinions as they are going to do it anyway.

The real problem as I see it, is the burden it places on Autodesk to actually perform.  When we were all herded to jump on the subscription wagon rather than upgrade when significant improvement warranted such an upgrade we were enticed with Subscription Advantage packs half way through the year.

That worked fine for the first couple of years and then the quality and return in investment dropped significantly and many users and bloggers were wondering was Revit dead. No it's very much alive but still has a crap text editor which has been high on the users wish list for some time.  

Can Autodesk keep up the quantity and quality of improvements to Revit on a regular basis, and actually give the users what they need rather than fluffy stuff, who knows but they have set themselves one hell of a target to perform, and this time they really have.     
 
Here is a view into just some of what the Revit R2 update delivers:     

Faster: Revit 2016 R2 features continued improvements to software performance and scalability: 

o    Orbit, pan and zoom more quickly with the new Draw Visible Elements Only option. Revit improves navigation speed by working only on displaying the visible elements of a view. This occlusion culling is especially beneficial with complex files and views in which regeneration of a significant amount of content is suppressed.  
     
We Bloggers had a preview of the before and after versions side by side and the speed increase is significant, especially on large models



 
o    Keep working during update of color schemes and the associated color fills with Color Fill Background Processing. Revit 2016 R2 updates room, space, HVAC zone, duct, and pipe color fills using multiple CPUs, which alleviates model interaction delays associated with these computations.

 

Revit 2016 R2 updates room, space, HVAC zone, duct, and pipe color fills using multiple CPUs. Image courtesy of Autodesk.

Smarter: Revit 2016 R2 has new and improved tools to help users better-capture and embed design intent in a model.

o    Embed design intent in a model by using project-wide parameters to drive dimension and element instance parameters with the Global Parameters feature.  A global parameter can measure dimensions and calculate formulas to drive dimensions and parameter values in other elements in the project.

Embed design intent in a model by using project-wide parameters to drive dimension and element


 
o    With Family Visibility Preview, get a better view of design intent by filtering out geometries that are not viewed. Work more quickly by previewing geometries and making adjustments before loading a Family into a project.

Better:  We’re always striving to improve Revit based on user feedback. Over 20 user-requested enhancements include:

o    Unload links per user to increase performance and improve memory usage without affecting other project team members

o    Copy/Paste commands in perspective views

o    Cancel print or export of multiple views and sheets with one click

o    Filter solids/voids in separate entries to more easily multi-select the geometries to make bulk changes

o    Enhanced rotation controls and insert part option in fabrication part modelling


Unload links per user to increase performance and improve memory usage without affecting other project team members. Image courtesy of Autodesk.
Autodesk state "As an incremental install, Revit R2 can be less disruptive for users and administrators by spacing out changes vs. incorporating larger annual updates. Any downtime or disruption to work processes can be more easily out-weighed by the gains in performance, usability and stability." 

Availability
Autodesk Revit 2016 R2 is available to Maintenance and Desktop Subscription customers worldwide starting today, October 22, in the following languages: Brazilian Portuguese, Czech, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish and Traditional Chinese.

*Autodesk Revit 2016 R2 is available to current Subscription customers of Autodesk Building Design Suite Premium and Ultimate, Autodesk Infrastructure Design Suite Ultimate, Autodesk Revit Collaboration Suite, Autodesk Revit Architecture, Autodesk Revit Structure, Autodesk Revit MEP, Autodesk Revit LT and Autodesk AutoCAD Revit LT Suite software

For more details and videos showing the features on an Autodesk web page follow this Link

UPDATE

The Autodesk Revit team has posted the Revit 2016 R2 videos to YouTube. Use this link to see the set of 20 short videos organized with what the team feels are the most important features listed at the top of the set: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLY-ggSrSwbZrEna9aQFiQxXSrWuqACNUD

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