Landscape BIM & Revit now 900% more efficient (in places)

I often come into contact with consultants who work in the external sphere: Geomatics Engineers, Landscape Architects, Civil Engineers and the like who have been told they need to start using Revit. There is a lot of reticence surrounding this idea, particularly because the software is in no way designed for external design, in fact, designing assets for the external sphere has been explicitly ruled out by the powers that be on the Revit wishlist.


And working with Landscape Reviteers I know first hand a lot of the problems that can arise when implementing this software. Revit is, out of the box and after basic training next to useless for the total novice who works outside of the building envelope.

Furthermore, Revit is not BIM and anyone who says that it is has missed at least half of the message of BIM in the UK.

However, and it is a big however, there are ways to make Revit work for the external sphere. And using some programming skills, I have just managed to make a 900% efficiency gain on some Landscape Architecture workflows within Revit. This wouldn't be possible without the experience of Revit at Colour Urban Design Ltd.,  nor would it be possible without being able to program. I guess I'm showing off really, but who can blame me!

So I'm still not going to tell you that Revit is the perfect software for external works, (but neither does that perfect software exist), but if you do decide to take the plunge (because, after all, there are still a lot of benefits to Revit), then I suggest factoring in a more complex set of requirements than an Architect would need to. Software vendors will always tell you that implementing new software is more than just buying the stuff, and they're right, but many companies muddle through with trial and error. That just won't work with Revit.