Autodesk Revit 2015 Subscribers Get Slew of New Capabilities with “R2” Update

Autodesk is making an updated release of Revit software for Building Information Modeling (BIM) available today to Maintenance Subscription and Desktop Subscription customers*. 

Autodesk Revit 2015 R2 includes over 30 user-requested features that add powerful capabilities, enhance software performance and improve user productivity for architects, MEP and structural engineers.

In addition to addressing customer requests, the family of Revit R2 releases represents more value for Subscription customers who get access to the most current Revit technologies.  

“Our customers are constantly looking for greater productivity and capabilities from the technologies they rely on to meet their own business needs.  We are releasing this update to Revit to help deliver on those needs and help our subscribers exceed the expectations of their clients using the latest, advanced technologies from Autodesk," said Jim Lynch, Vice President, Building and Collaboration Products, Autodesk.

Coinciding with this release, Autodesk is also delivering on a continued customer request for access to site planning tools within Revit.  The new Site Designer Extension for Revit® 2015 software, available through the Autodesk Exchange store to select Subscription customers**, is based on an acquisition of site planning software formerly known as SiteWorks from Eagle Point Software Corporation.

Figure 1: Site Designer enables architects, designers and planners to shape the terrain for building sites and communicate design intent with civil engineers.

Site Designer enables architects, designers and planners to shape the terrain for building sites and runs natively in the Revit environment so the site design becomes part of the overall building model. Users can model alternatives for mass grading, building pads, streets, sidewalks, parking lots and retaining walls all within the Revit environment, and Site Designer automatically updates the underlying toposurface. These context-rich site models can then be shared between Revit and Autodesk® AutoCAD® Civil 3D® software through Land XML files, improving collaboration between architects and engineers.  Enhancements in Revit R2 specifically optimize the performance of Site Designer by speeding the edit and regeneration of complex site design elements. 

Last month, Autodesk provided a well-received sneak peek at the new functionality through the “Revit Sundial” hosted preview.  Revit 2015 R2 is the Subscription-only release of this preview.  Customers who used the preview version of Revit R2 had rave reviews, commenting for example on the impressive speed for drawing and regenerating data-heavy views.

Fully compatible with the existing Revit 2015 releases, R2 does not have a file format change and installs without disrupting ongoing work in Revit 2015.  

• Power: R2 includes new features that enable you to do more with Revit:
• Explore energy performance information in custom dashboards with Project Solon       accessible through the Result and Compare dialog.
• Use existing geometry in a linked IFC model as a reference for dimensions, alignment, snapping and hosting of some families in a Revit model.
• Trouble shoot models better with the Reveal Constraints mode making all dimension constraints and alignment constraints in a view visible.
• Explore visual programming with the open-source Dynamo interface for computational       design, which now installs automatically with Revit.

• Performance: R2 meets requests for faster software performance to make work easier:
• Edit and regenerate complex toposurfaces, subregions and building pads created in the new Site Builder Extension for Revit more quickly with improvements to the performance of Revit site design tools.
• Get better performance of the energy analytical model in Revit, with R2 using less memory when analyzing large models.
• Experience faster rendering and updates to views that contain multiple instances of families.
• See faster display of Revit links within views.

• Productivity:  Multiple enhancements in R2 improve modeling and work productivity:
• Work in perspective views, make quick adjustments without having to change views.
• Save time with single click group editing of ‘wall join’ behavior.
• Find content more quickly with Search capabilities in the Type Selector.
• Navigate PDFs exported from Revit more quickly with hyperlinked views. 

Figure 2: Linked IFC models can be used as a reference for dimensions, alignment, snapping and hosting of some families in a Revit model. 

With every release of Revit, the development team strives to improve the experience of using Autodesk’s software for BIM.  

“With so many new Revit features ready, we are excited to put this additional value into the hands of our Subscription customers – those who are dedicated to Autodesk BIM solutions as the best software to accomplish their own goals,” Jim Lynch explained. 

Availability

Autodesk Revit 2015 R2 is available to Maintenance and Desktop Subscription customers worldwide starting today, September 17, in the following languages: Brazilian Portuguese, Czech, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish and Traditional Chinese.

Figure 3: Electrical engineers and designers can use the new Search feature in the Panel List to quickly find the panel they need by simply typing the panel number.

*Autodesk Revit 2015 R2 is available to current Subscription customers of Autodesk® Building Design Suite Premium and Ultimate, Autodesk® Infrastructure Design Suite Ultimate, Autodesk® Revit® Architecture, Autodesk® Revit® Structure, Autodesk® Revit® MEP, Autodesk® Revit LT™ and Autodesk® AutoCAD® Revit LT™ Suite software.

**Site Designer Extension for Revit 2015 is available to current Maintenance and Desktop Subscription customers of Autodesk Building Design Suite Premium and Ultimate, Autodesk Revit Architecture, Autodesk Revit Structure, and Autodesk Revit MEP.  Available in English only.