The Revit Add-ons Blog is Back!

Hi, this is Tim, humble founder of Revit Add-ons. As some of you may know, I went to work for Bentley Systems in January 2020. Because it represented a conflict of interest, I had to stop my work on Revit Add-ons. For a time, my friend Cord Ellison took over the blog. However, when a number of advertisers ceased their sponsorship of the site, as a side hustle, Cord just didn't think the juice was worth the squeeze, and he ceased updating the site in October 2022.

Fast forward to January 2024 and I was laid off by Bentley Systems. Why didn't I restart the blog then? I didn't want to take the chance that I'd have to shut it down again. If I went to work for an add-in developer, or an Autodesk channel partner with their own products, they may not have wanted me posting about their competitors. Fortunately, I'm now a BIM Coordinator with Woolpert, and they're supportive of Revit Add-ons. 

I conducted my job search exclusively on LinkedIn. Of course, while I was there, I kept my eye on Revit add-ins news. I noticed a couple of trends: acquisitions and AI. Regarding the former, Autodesk acquired UNIFI, and rolled it into Revit, sort of. 

GRAITEC acquired both StrucSoft and Ideate Software. Wowzer.

Arkance acquired AGACAD, and purchased Autodesk channel partners U.S. CAD and CADD Microsystems, amongst others, at once giving AGACAD products like Wood Framing and Metal Framing North American distribution and support, and creating the second-largest Autodesk channel partner in North America, and the largest Autodesk platinum partner in the world.

Lastly, Newforma purchased BIM Track. (Pat yourself on the back if you saw that one coming.) Using Newforma Konekt, one can now transform email threads into actionable BCF Issues in BIM workflows.

And then there's AI. I imagine that a lot of people are doing things with it and Revit add-ins, but EvolveLab has been the most active on LinkedIn. First there's Veras, an AI-powered visualization app.

Sample visualizations created with Veras

From EvolveLab there's also Glyph co-pilot, which uses GPT to perform mundane construction document tasks like dimensioning and tagging. Geez but that's cool.

A couple other add-in developers have been noticeably active on LinkedIn over the past several months, Nonica Tab and DiRootsOne. Look for individual posts on them soon.

Anyway, we're back–and happy to be here! Come along for the ride, won't you?