Formerly Autodesk LIVE—Revit Live 1.7 Intros This Week

Autodesk this week has announced its updated 1.7 version of Revit Live (formerly known as Autodesk LIVE). The third major release of this relatively new product from Autodesk comes with an important name change.

Public relations manager, Ralph Bond, explains to Architosh that the name change reflects the integrated functionality within Revit. The capacity to extend BIM into immersive visualization and virtual reality is also a reflection of the name change.

What’s New in Revit Live 1.7

Autodesk introduced this new interactive 3D tool in July 2016. Then in October 2016, the company introduced support for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift virtual reality hardware. From just two mouse clicks a user could take their Revit BIM model directly into an immersive experience.

01 – Image of interactive Revit Live 1.7 model by architecture student and beta tester, Igor Macedo Barros Balinese. All rights reserved.

Now in Revit Live 1.7 the company has added the following new features:

• Support for Revit LT — previously only Revit users were supported with Live
• Support for Custom Building Materials — users who create custom materials now have full support of those materials within Revit Live 1.7.
• Level of Details support — utilization of this rendering technique reduces the workload of the graphics pipeline by decreasing the complexity of a 3D model as the user, typically, moves further away from the model or according to other metrics such as object importance, speed, or position in space. The net result for Revit Live 1.7 is a 20% performance improvement for users working with large models (eg: a hospital complex) and in virtual reality mode.

Other updates in version 1.7 include such things as changes to handle in VR model where it used to move and rotate the Minimap it has been replaced by using the Controller Grip buttons. Characters in the 3D model have subtle animations and they can be turned on or off; you can also make characters hidden or visible. More details on what is new in 1.7 can be found here.

Autodesk Revit Live 1.7 is a part of the LIVE Design family of offerings. The new name—Autodesk Revit Live—will not appear formally on Autodesk’s website until 9 March 2017. The full name implementation takes place in April at the next major product release.

[Editor’s note:  Architosh added details about the final product naming on Autodesk’s website, 23 Feb 2017, 1:02 pm, EDT.]