Autodesk released the R2 Update for Revit 2015 yesterday. With that update comes “over 30 user-requested features that add powerful capabilities, enhance software performance and improve user productivity.” Included among these is the Site Designer Extension.
While Site Designer may sound new, it is actually the latest version of Eagle Point’s Siteworks repackaged and “specifically optimized” by Autodesk. This is not surprising, as Eagle Point suspended sales of both Revit add-ins (Siteworks and LandCADD) a while ago.
Though I do not expect any new features in Site Designer, it is available to all Revit Maintenance and Desktop Subscription customers immediately (English, only). If you are not one of those customers but are still interested in using the extension, it is also available on the Autodesk Exchange, by subscription.
For those of you that are unfamiliar with Siteworks/ Site Designer, it focuses on modeling Topo and various Hardscape elements using Masses. It also has a much-needed interface for importing and exporting between Civil 3D files, via LandXML. If you’re interested in reading a highly in-depth review, I would recommend this article written by Aaron Maller. Though somewhat dated (winter 2010), it gives a fair amount of insight into the capabilities of the extension.
Also, thanks to all readers who have kept me updated.
Reblogged this on BIMopedia blog and commented:
Excellent round up of the new Site Tools in Revit by Aaron Maller. Thanks to LandArchBIM for the post.
Are you planning to do a review? I’ve had a play with it and it’s pretty horrible in terms of workflow, interface etc. It also crashes Revit, which is a very rare occurrence.
Unfortunately I do not currently have access to it, so I will not be able to give it a proper review. Though that was my experience when I briefly played with Siteworks a while ago. I never got very far due to errors and crashing. I was hoping it might be slightly better now… Oh well.
I had the same experience as Chris, it was a pretty cosmetic tool in the first place, so combine that with its shoddiness and…