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A comment on Autodesk criticised by architects. Parent comment

Re:Autodesk criticised by architects by wappa on Monday August 03, 2020 @03:00AM (#24034884)
Architect's margins are typically in 5-10%. Avg salary for architect is ~75-80k. They don't have the budget to even pay for small pilot or mvp, even if all 20+ firms pool their money together.

The domain knowledge + software engineer skills + computer graphics skills needed are extremely rare.

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Re:Autodesk criticised by architects by Dork1234 on Monday August 03, 2020 @09:29AM (#24037501)
You are right on point, it even says in the letter:

"It is in this context that a number of practices, who represent a revenue stream for Autodesk of over $22m over the last 5 years"

A $22m over 5 years is not a large deal for the large CAD companies such as Dassault, PTC, Siemens, Nemetschek.

Revit as a software package started as Reflex and then acquired by PTC, PTC decided they couldn't make enough money off it, and basically let former employees leave and start Charles River Software with the Reflex code base. The amount of work required to create Revit, It would not be good return on investment for any company other than Autodesk to sell it. The only reason it makes sense for Autodesk is it keeps the AutoCAD DWG monopoly going.

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Re:Autodesk criticised by architects by saeranv on Monday August 03, 2020 @03:10AM (#24034925)
Exactly, this is the main reason you don't see a lot of successful start-ups tackling problems for architects. Most end up pivoting to real-estate development.
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