An article was recently published by AEC Magazine rehashing the idea that Revit "is a derivative of Reflex" (quote from the embedded video in the online article). The Revit founders, Irwin Jungreiz and Leonid Raiz, have refuted this proposition over the years.
Here is a link to the article, which includes a video were Dr. Jonathan Ingram, creator or Reflex, verbalizes his opinion that Revit was based on his code; Celebrating the history of BIM. The image below is a screen capture from the video, listing nine initial points used to "prove" Revit is based on Reflex.
Additionally...
The embedded video has another slide titled "Identical Technology and Concepts Revit & Reflex". It then shows some comparisons between the two programs. One example is how the two programs join walls. To me, this example is not very convincing. The Reflex example is not really joining, and the Revit example works similar to how it always has; but both are described as bugs by Dr. Ingram. Then, when talking about the next slide he said "I wasn't actually able to get the same angle" to show the same wall join problem between the two programs.
At the conclusion of this article, the editors have included a letter they received from Dr. Irwin Jungreiz. However, this is not the first time I heard about or read this position from the Revit founders. I remember a thread from 2004, in the AUGI forum, were this was discussed. I just went looking for it and see that Dr. Irwin posted an update just yesterday with a link to the article mentioned above. Fair enough... if they did truly create Revit from scratch he wants to defend the idea that they did and have not misrepresented this position over the years.
AUGI thread: http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?10925-Origins-of-Revit
Of course, personally I have not way to know the truth. In any case, the video linked in the AEC Magazine article is fascinating. Dr. Ingram is truly a pioneer in the AEC industry, as are Dr. Irwin and Mr. Raiz.
Fun stuff.
On a related note, here is a link to a Revit History Timeline: Revit Timeline (W.I.P.).
Here is a link to the article, which includes a video were Dr. Jonathan Ingram, creator or Reflex, verbalizes his opinion that Revit was based on his code; Celebrating the history of BIM. The image below is a screen capture from the video, listing nine initial points used to "prove" Revit is based on Reflex.
 |
| Screen capture (26:49) from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgqvGwaYf8g |
The embedded video has another slide titled "Identical Technology and Concepts Revit & Reflex". It then shows some comparisons between the two programs. One example is how the two programs join walls. To me, this example is not very convincing. The Reflex example is not really joining, and the Revit example works similar to how it always has; but both are described as bugs by Dr. Ingram. Then, when talking about the next slide he said "I wasn't actually able to get the same angle" to show the same wall join problem between the two programs.
 |
| Screen capture (28:09) from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgqvGwaYf8g |
AUGI thread: http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?10925-Origins-of-Revit
Of course, personally I have not way to know the truth. In any case, the video linked in the AEC Magazine article is fascinating. Dr. Ingram is truly a pioneer in the AEC industry, as are Dr. Irwin and Mr. Raiz.
Fun stuff.
On a related note, here is a link to a Revit History Timeline: Revit Timeline (W.I.P.).