Autodesk and Primavera used a recent joint announcement to affirm continued support for NavisWorks in Primavera's suite of project management solutions. There has been considerable angst among users of NavisWorks products for 3D collaboration and construction planning since the Autodesk acquisition earlier this year, wondering what would happen to the product line's ability to interact with solutions from many vendors. This announcement sends a signal that Autodesk intends to continue to support links to a wide variety of products from within NavisWorks.
In the specifics of the announcement, Autodesk said it would continue to participate in Primavera's Technology Partner program, allowing Primavera to continue to support a link between its solutions and NavisWorks products.
Users of NavisWorks products I have talked to since the Autodesk acquisition--as well as some NavisWorks resellers--confirm our belief that Autodesk will indeed pursue an "open arms" strategy with NavisWorks, for no other reason than it is one of the program's key strengths. Users and industry watchers who expect NavisWorks to become a proprietary solution, based on the history of Autodesk, should realize that the current generation of Autodesk leadership is giving more than lip service to partner-based interoperability.
"Primavera is continually partnering with best-of-breed technologies to offer our customers the most innovative solutions for their business needs," said Joel Koppelman, CEO of Primavera. "This partnership with Autodesk further supports our commitment to enable interoperability and collaboration throughout the AEC industry and gives users the ability to proactively manage change from design through construction."
"Autodesk is committed to improving industry workflows," said Jim Lynch, vice president of marketing, Autodesk AEC Solutions. "Through the partnership with Primavera we'll continue to help our customers aggregate information from multiple platforms, including both Autodesk and non-Autodesk solutions."
--RSN