A couple of years ago, venture capitalists got real excited about 3D, and so funded a bunch of companies with unusual names like sunglass.io, To3D, and Revizto. Most of them spent the funds, went out of business, or were bought by bigger companies, like Tinkercad was by Autodesk.
Vizerra manages to surprise me by not only surviving but also flourishing. Last week, for example, they announced Revizto version 3.5. The first version of the software only viewed and navigated Revit models, hence the name. But now it handles AutoCAD, FBX, IFC, Navisworks and SketchUp files. It converts those files into its own lightweight format for viewing on Windows, OS X, iOS, Android devices, and Web browsers.
Once in its own format, Revizto provides a lot of control over viewing the 3D model: we can edit the lighting, optimize meshes (usually used for terrain modeling), make measurements, edit object data, make section cuts, track issues and so on.
Revizto was programmed from the start for collaboration by its clever Russian programmers: several people running the software in Web browsers (and other supported platforms) can see and discuss the same model. This becomes particularly interesting as Revizto combines 3D models from the six sources into one big model.
So, what's new in version 3.5? Revizto now imports clashes from Navisworks into its issue tracker. It improves on collaboration with 2D sheets (imported from Revit only). And it does a better job of merging 3D models, which it calls "scenes." The new release lets you import a 3D model into an existing scene, without needing to recombine all the other the models after a change. Sounds like a time-saver to me.
How Much?
Also new is the cost of Revizto. At the end of July 2015, the new pricing structure kicks in. Revizto Editor becomes free; Revizto Viewer was always free. Where the new cost comes in is with Revizto Workspace, which is the software needed for collaboration. A typical "pro" price is three collaborators and three projects of unlimited size stored on the cloud for $450/year, while a typical "business" price is 100 collaborators and 100 stored projects at $10,000/year. Monthly plans are also available.
Many of those other firms that got into doing 3D CAD on the Web were doing it only because it was suddenly possible through new browser technology; there wasn't necessarily a market for what they did. Revizto survived the bloodbath, when the other firms didn't, because they had an excellent marketing team from the start, and they provided a useful service that customers actually want.
As Revizto Editor is now free, it’s worthwhile for architects, engineers and landscape designers to check it out.
Ralph Grabowski is the owner of upFront.eZine Publishing and hosts the WorldCAD Access blog. He has written more than 100 books and several hundred magazine articles about CAD. In addition, Ralph has served as technical editor for Cadalyst magazine, and has been a columnist for CADENCE and AutoCAD World.
Ralph holds a civil engineering degree from the University of British Columbia. He was awarded “Best CAD/AEC/PLM Editor” by Strategic Research in 2005, and received the CAD Society’s “Community Award” in 2002.