Satisfaction with eVolve

[Darren Young]

Anyone care to comment on their current satisfaction level with eVolve?

[Darren Young]

56 views. No comments. If you're not comfortable making a public statement (pro or con) feel free to ping me directly. All responses will be kept confidential.

dyoung@umci.com

[davidratx]

I'd comment if we used it. What's driving the ask? Not particularly thrilled, struggling, wonder if there is something better, writing a product review?

[Gerin]

We have had evolve for a few months.  In that time I have only used it a few times.  This is mainly due to the fact that our largest job that hit just as we got the software was based in 2019 and not worth trying to upconvert.

What I like the few times I have used it so far. 

Their .maj export tool is simply better than the stock exporter due to the fact it will then warn you if you try and export the same parts again.

The annotation tools are way above Revits tool.  Revit as we know has the one tool and you have to change from annotation to annotation manually.  Evolves way of having a tool for most of the common annotation simply makes tagging my drawing faster.

Their numbering tool is also much better than what I have been using.  It is nice that it keeps track of the last number used.  Granted their is some stupid glitches here.  For instance if I change to a different floor that had it last number used as 590 the numbering on a new floor should start from 1 again not 591.  However this is easy to fix.

I really like the the hanger tool also.  However I have not had to use it yet.  Still being able to add your shops hanger specs and have it auto fill your drawing is much better than manually placing each hanger.  Granted I have noticed when testing you still need to double check the hanger placement.  This also leads to trapeze hanger placement.  While I do not find this as useful for Duct systems I do find it very nice for certain piping system and if you are adding racks of electrical conduits.  The simple fact that it can autofill up to a 4 tier trapeze hanger makes it really nice for pipe and electrical systems.

I really have no use for the sleeves function but I suspect that has more to do with the area I work in not really needing them.

Some of the quick tools are helpful some not so much.  For instance I find their Reconnect Element tool to be a touch stupid compared to Victaulic's Any Connect Tool.

I am sure their is more but honestly I suck at typing what I am thinking and I am supposed to be working......  Any other questions, let me know I will try and answer it as best I can.

[Darren Young]

I'd comment if we used it. What's driving the ask? Not particularly thrilled, struggling, wonder if there is something better, writing a product review?

At the point where we really should add more licenses. But given a growing list of challenges and frustrations, I'm really having a hard time committing. Want to make sure my thinking isn't in a silo.

They have some great tools. But it seems like development is stalled and some of the recent organizational changes have created a bit of instability in the product. Perhaps it's PTSD from past baggage of Autodesk's virtually abandoned Fabrication Parts implementation strategy in Revit that's giving me a bit of DejaVu.

Trying to wrap my head around if I should stay the course and ride out the rough waters hoping there's calmer waters ahead or if I should start looking for other passing ships perhaps more sea worth and hitch a different ride.

[ayakus]

We've been a user since the beginning when it was just renumbering tool.  I think overall it's a good addin.  I understand all too well about the staff and company changes being a concern.  I've been down that road with other software and it was not pleasant.  My problem with it is the changes and new features aren't well documented.  We don't have unlimited resources like some larger companies do, and when we are really busy it's tough to dive deep into new workflows and settings.  I think it's becoming a bit bloated with settings all over the place and how to implement them on all the workstations.  It's possible I may be missing something easier there because of how busy we have been.  It would be nice if they would have a webinar for users when a new tool comes out beyond just the quick 1 or 2 minute overview they would give in the monthly meeting.

[dopefish]

I have a weird perspective as I'm still in autocad but I have spent the last 6 months doing support for a user with the evolve tool set. I have used the suite but I am not a full time revit person yet.

Minuses:

Every name I knew that used to work there seems to be gone

Development seems to have stalled out a bit

The price for the suite seems to be getting higher every year without adding a whole lot of new features

Some of the UIs are not intuitive for even experienced cad and revit users

Pluses:

Their online documentation with videos covers a lot of the big items in their suite. I have not seen this level of support in another product

If you have users that need to transition from CAD to Revit, I find this suite to be the best solution. They have maintained a similar "feel" of the older TSI tool sets. I'm pretty sure the annotation icons are literally the same .ico files

Their origin and value pack databases are simply laid out and offer a nice 80% solution for anyone that needs to get moving quickly and build out a dept.

Summary: If you need something now with decent documentation and built in work flows it's a good decision. However I view these add in sets like foreign energy. Use them to get to a point where you no longer need them and cut it off. These should serve as a jumping point to start doing dev within your org and build your own code base. Whether that is sub'd out or internal is case by case. But every business does thing's a certain way. It's what makes them unique. Their ERP and Dev/Ops implementation should reflect that.

[cadbyken]

We have had it for about a year or so.  I just started using it in the last couple of months.  Haven't dove into all of the tools yet but it has helped this old AutoCAD guy with the transition.

I can't remember the exact price but it seemed to be pretty hefty from what I remember so that is an issue. 

I guess, call me insufficient experience to give a full review yet.

[Tye Austin]

I am definitely feeling pluses and minuses.   We don't seem to get much support on things like database issues...  I have to deal with Foresite which so far just causes wasted time for us.

Also, I am struggling now with Trimble.   CAD had the Field Point Viewer that you could use to manage and append files so you can keep your control separate or combine points from multiple files...   Cannot figure out how to do this with the eVolve Trimble export tool.

On the other hand, the Workset Manager and Filter tools are pretty amazing.  And the quick tools palate has tools that save me a ton of time modeling and coordinating.

[Tstright]

We switched to BIMrx after a few months....

Was not happy with it.

[Darren Young]

We switched to BIMrx after a few months....

They're on our list to test (among others) including considering having the tools we need developed ourselves.

[dbanker]

This plug in was supposed to fill in the gaps that Revit was missing and so far it's not filling in all the gaps. It's ok but still needs lots of work. One issue that blows my mind is not having the Job Info available to edit so we can properly use the fab reports fill in the header. There are other big gaps still. And yes i have used their suggestion portal but to no avail...