[Review] Revizto Visual Collaboration Tool
-
I'm at the end of my trial period for Revizto and so I thought I would post a small review of the experience. I have not been asked, nor paid for my written opinion by SketchUcation or Revizto.
Installation
The installation of a program is very prophetic of things to come, I have found in my years of computing that the great software developers that make the best software, take pride in the tidiness of code and efficiency of use. No bloat... The Revizto installers gave hope right away. Clean, simple and quick installers. The Revizto Editor is 232mb and Revizto Viewer is 60mb. You don't have to sign up at their website to download any products, but you will have to signup to install or use any of the main features of the software. Installation completed first time with no issues on my Win 7 Ultimate 64 machine.Revizto Editor The Editor starts up quickly, another sign of efficiency. It's even a bit disorienting how quickly it comes up... You're expecting something else to come as the Editor UI is very simple. 5 menus and 5 icons across the top panel.
File - Settings - Tools- Cloud - Help
and
Calculate Shadows-Sync w/Cloud - Use Materials Library - Autoupdate Material Library - Open Project with Viewer
Pretty simple and straight forward. I don't like to read instructions, I feel like I've been doing this long enough that a developer should be able to convey to me the things I can do visually as I use the software. whether it be with icons, tool tips or UI standards. I wasn't disappointed in this arena either as I have yet to open the instructions; though I did publicly ask a question about collision I should have looked up. The first thing we do with new software like this is shove something in it without preparing it at all right? right... So that's just what I did and after a few questions about backfaces, project name and such; it's thinking... Not long and viola I'm looking at my House project in a quasi rendered state, Shadows, glare, transparency and most of what you would expect in a rendered state. However, you're moving around via the FPS controls of "W,A,S,D" and right click "mouse look" at fairly astonishing speed and smoothness. I certainly can't move around in SU with this amount of detail and shadows at this speed, not to mention rendered.
Looking around you quickly notice that your left click initiates the material editor that has a number of rendering options from transparency to light source emission, bump map and bump controls, glossiness and the expected scaling controls. Another nice little addition is the factory presets for your materials such as glass and concrete to give you that nudge in the right direction.
Surprisingly there is not a lot more to the Editor besides this... Things are kind of done for you on import. Yes there are some object options for turning on the collision of various groups. there are a few grouping tools but for the most part, the average user will be done after editing and confirming some material options. it's now ready for the viewer if you choose.
If you're a more advanced user and know some rendering techniques some terminology; there is some very powerful light map baking tools. While I know enough to be dangerous in these realms, I have not really had much call in my work to do many renderings. I can see the power of the feature though. The deeper I delved into the properties of the light map and rebaked it, the longer it would take to bake and the more realistic the rendering would be come. Until finally I was in the dark recesses of some comic book from my childhood and had to hit the reset button and go back to the natural lighting garnered up on first import. I will be back to play with you again lightmap.
I can see now that I was mistaken in my first impression of the software, that the editor would be where I would spend hours preparing to show my project to the clients, how wrong was I... If one wished, he could spend mere minutes in the editor and be sharing the project and collaborating with clients or colleagues right away. Unlike so many other programs, the Viewer is where most of the work will be done. Renderings, Movies, Collaboration notes, Live Walk Throughs and Structural testing by way of walking around in your structure before it's built.
My main impression now leaving the Editor for the Viewer is that I will not be giving up any of my precious time to bake, render, navigate, re-render, upload some massive movie file to youtube... It's just going to be upload a file that is equal to the sketchup file and bang instant live walk through.
Revizto Viewer before the viewer opens you're presented with a choice of Screen Resolution and Detail level. I of course go for the top detail level of "Fantastic" and a moderate screen resolution for one monitor at 1920 by 1080. When opening the Viewer again we're struck with speed and then presented with simplicity. A simple, monochromatic menu across the top with 13 tools. At the far top right and left are hide menu and close program respectively. Across the center are several tools regarding your navigation and options such as Flight or Walking Collision or Not Collaboration Markers and simple camera tools for making renderings and recording movies.
Again I find that you're not going to spend a lot of time here. Besides making movies, I can't see much that needs to be done by the creator of the project. Check for some collisions so people don't fall through the floor into oblivion and Sync with the cloud and you're done. Ready for Collaboration or Walk throughs.
Website Gallery
After saving our project to the cloud I'm brought out of the Editor and to my User Gallery page at Revizto.com where I can make some selections about who can see and edit my project. This is a nice area but is actually unneeded for clients as you don't actually open anything from it as much as control the project. Clients and collaborators will be opening the project directly from their own viewers or editors. This will be a kool place but will be more kool when people can browse and walk through many of your designs without being invited to each one. Currently videos and screenshots can be saved and viewed on the website gallery but public users cannot walk through your project in the viewer without permission.
Client Response
@unknownuser said:
Wow revizto looks very promising. I think I will use it to show the final version of the house to the builder and also make it available to the contractors so they will know how we want things to look. Thanks for showing this to me....
-Alex@unknownuser said:
What an exhilarating ride that was, I can't wait to walk through the Rustic version
-RosemaryAnother Client is actually going to pay for an Interior 3D; something that has never happened to me before... Sure they all want to see the interior and I want to do the Interior, but they never wanted to pay for the interior before now. I think the ability to walk through the rendered model helped seal the deal.
Clients have yet to fully use the Collaboration tools made available within the program, but the ability to walk through your structure before hand cannot be understated. Emails from laymen become much more informative because they have a better understanding of the space. As I bring this software into my workflow earlier, instead of right at the end as in these cases, I can see that these type of post it markers will become much more useful.
Cost
$99.00 What can I not say about $99.00? A few of the rendering software programs are this inexpensive but don't offer near the abilities, they might render a bit better, but That's not really what this is about; although I could see it going that way as well. Lumion offers the same movie making, walk through, live render, FPS style but at a huge price increase of $4000.00... Now I'm not saying this offers the same quality of Lumion or the wind and water options but for $3,900.00 I really don't care about wind and moving water. What's more Lumion is slow and clunky in operation and takes a considerable amount of time to create the work that will or won't be paid for. $99.00 is a steal to me and looking at the Revit version of this software @ $400.00 I might suggest you move on it fast as they might come to their senses sooner than later.Customer Support
I downloaded the Trial a few weeks ago and have had a few issues and had the pleasure of dealing with Alex and Oleg from the Revizto team. Both have been very quick on the draw to help when I'm stuck, which has normally been my own fault with that whole anti instructions thing. They said I helped find a bug which I think might have actually been them "dumbing down" the software to compensate for people like myself. I'm rather messy with groups, layers and material names as no one ever sees them besides me. They have been polite and helpful throughout and shown a youthful energy in regards to the development of software. We're going to see more good things from this team I can tell."Liking" their page on Facebook will allow you to not only follow the development of the software but to feel old by seeing these guys play Soccer or Futball or whatever it's called... https://www.facebook.com/REVIZTO
Overall Impression
As you can tell, I'm excited about this new tool. Not many tools in my work increase my value and offer me new services to sell without also consuming time that I don't have. This is not only "Effortless Collaboration" as it's touted on their website; but an Effortless Sales Tool. I see a time very soon where I can let people walk around in my house plans before they buy them. I see clients paying for interior 3D's that were not before. I see saving time in the "changes" process when clients actually know what they are getting because they've walked in it, not having to make unneeded changes along the way.In closing I offer this advice. If you're in the business of collaborating directly with clients or colleagues in the architectural, landscaping, construction, remodeling industries; I would take a long and serious look at Revizto. Then ask yourself if you're losing money and wasting time by not having it.
As I said at the beginning, this review was not solicited in any way by either SketchUcation or Revizto. Although, I do suggest that if you decide to try or buy Revizto for SketchUp that you use this link to support SketchUcation. Revizto
Forgive my grammar and spelling, it's late not early.
-
-
Hi Krisidious,
Thank you very much for your detailed and thorough review of our product. You have made our day -) The whole Revizto team works very hard to make lightweight easy to use tool to connect and collaborate professionals and their stakeholders/owners.
We are so happy that our efforts appreciated and that makes us even more energised in our work on our further version 1.2. and make Revizto even more comfortable to use. Thank you again and we are always glad to hear from our users and get their feedback.Regards,
Revizto team.PS. v1.2 will be as free update for users of version 1.1.
Advertisement