by Lachmi Khemlani
Link: Revit Architecture 2008 Review
>Revit Architecture 2008 is the renamed new version of Autodesk's BIM application for architectural design that integrates elements, views, and annotations into a single, coordinated building information model. It was formerly known as Autodesk Revit Building.
Pros: Ease of use remains unmatched, despite the continued addition of features enhancing the power and sophistication of the application; critical improvements in groups and linked files, and the ability to split views, which make it easier to model and document large projects; several display enhancements that allow views to be customized as required; revamped color fill capabilities for creating color-coded plans; improved export of materials to 3ds Max; API expanded to provide access to more Revit functionality for developing supporting tools; tutorials have been expanded to cover most aspects of the application.
Cons: The room element introduced in the last release is still problematic and not fully developed; some illegal operations such as overlapping elements continue to be allowed, making it difficult to guarantee model integrity; limited capabilities for conceptual modeling or the detailed modeling of complex forms; built-in rendering capabilities not on par with those in other modeling and BIM application; only marginal improvements made to the main documentation; tutorials are good but need to be separately downloaded and installed.<