What customers should know:
At NXT BLD, Carl Christensen made Autodesk’s direction clear: Revit remains critical to how customers work today, and over time, more work will happen in Forma. This shift will happen gradually, and Autodesk will continue to invest in Revit while building more connected, cloud-based, outcome-based BIM workflows in Forma. For customers who use Revit today, that naturally raises important questions: what’s changing, what’s staying the same, and what comes next? To offer clarity, Carl Christensen and Dan Lohmeyer sat down to discuss the relationship between Revit and Forma, Autodesk’s approach to the future of AEC, and how Autodesk will support customers along the way.
Q: Carl, at NXT BLD you described a future built around connected workflows, project context, and intelligence. What problems are we trying to solve for customers that today’s tools cannot solve on their own?
Carl: The hardest problems in building design rarely live inside a single tool. They live in the gaps between tools and teams. A designer can make a great decision during concept design, but by the time that work reaches documentation, the why behind it is often gone. Intent ends up scattered across briefs, meeting notes, emails, and people’s memories. Autodesk is focused on connected data, connected workflows, and intelligence that compounds over time. A decision made early should still mean something later, from the first massing study to what gets built. Q: Dan, customers have invested heavily in Revit — not just in software, but in standards, content libraries, workflows, and people. What responsibility does Autodesk have to protect those investments?
Dan: We have a massive responsibility to our customers. Millions of people use Revit to get their jobs done, and that is not going away. Revit remains a critical tool for detailed model authoring, coordination, and delivery, and customers will continue to see Autodesk invest in it. At the same time, we believe there are better ways of working ahead: more outcome-oriented design, richer data access, and improved methods of collaboration. Our job is to give customers a path from where they are today to that future, while continuing to support the tools, workflows, and expertise they rely on now. Q: Revit is now the first Forma Connected Client. Why is that milestone important, and what does it enable?
Dan: It matters because it brings Forma capabilities to where many customers already work. Autodesk has been investing significantly in Forma, including Forma Site Design and Forma Building Design, with capabilities for outcome-based analysis and early design exploration. Revit as a Forma Connected Client lets us bring some of that value directly into Revit. Customers can access contextual data, use analysis such as wind, and move more smoothly between Revit and Forma without the old import/export process. The goal is not to make customers choose one tool over another, but to let them use the strengths of both. Q: How should customers think about which workflows belong in Forma, which belong in Revit, and where the greatest value comes from using them together?
Dan: The greatest value comes from using them together. Forma Site Design and Forma Building Design are especially powerful for exploring different design options early, understanding the implications of those choices, and comparing a wider range of possible configurations before teams move deeper into detailed design. That complements Revit, where teams move into detailed design and coordination around a shared model. The opportunity is to help customers use each environment for what it does best: Forma for earlier exploration and outcomes, and Revit for the detailed design work that carries the project forward.
Carl: And this is exactly why the connection matters. Customers should be able to carry context, data, and analysis forward as the project moves from early decisions into detailed design so teams can keep building on decisions they have already made instead of recreating information by hand. Q: You have described Forma as enabling a more outcome-based approach to BIM. What does that mean in practice, and why not simply deliver that through traditional model-based workflows?
Carl: With model-based BIM, you start by authoring the model. You place geometry, and the model becomes the source of truth. That remains incredibly important, and Revit is brilliant at it. Outcome-based BIM starts with intent: what the project is trying to achieve. Instead of modeling a scheme and then checking daylight, carbon, wind, or cost afterward, teams can express what they are optimizing for and explore informed options while design is still fluid. That requires intent, analysis, options, and AI to be native from the beginning on a cloud data model built for that purpose. It is a different foundation, not a criticism of model-based BIM. Q: Some customers hear “Forma” and assume it is a replacement for Revit. What is the distinction between the long-term vision and the reality today?
Carl: Forma is not a replacement for Revit. More importantly, that is the wrong framing. The industry already works across multiple paradigms: 2D CAD, model-based BIM, and now outcome-based BIM. Teams choose the right paradigm for the job in front of them.
Revit remains our leading solution for model-based BIM and the home for detailed model authoring. Forma expands what is possible earlier in the process, where intent, options, and outcomes are the priority. Over time, more outcome-based work will naturally happen in Forma, but that evolution happens workflow by workflow and at the customer’s pace. It is not a switch Autodesk flips or a migration we force.
Q: Fast forward five years. What does success look like from the customer’s perspective if Autodesk gets this vision right?
Carl: Success is when customers stop feeling the seams. Today, teams spend enormous energy moving between tools, rebuilding context, and re-explaining decisions they already made. Five years from now, I want that tax to mostly disappear. A team should be able to start a project with their firm’s knowledge, standards, best layouts, and lessons from previous projects already working for them. They should be able to explore options with key outcomes understood as they go, then carry good decisions into Revit and the field without re-keying or redoing work. The deepest sign of success is cultural: teams spending more time on judgment and design quality because the system is handling more of the connective tissue. Q: What is one thing customers misunderstand about the future relationship between Forma and Revit?
Carl: Some people see it as a contest: Forma versus Revit, with a winner and a date on a calendar. It is not. Revit gives customers depth in model-based BIM. Forma gives customers intent and outcomes earlier. The future is not about choosing between them; it is about reducing the seams between them. Dan: I agree. We are early in making this relationship visible to customers, so it is understandable that people are still connecting the dots. But as we deliver more Forma capabilities and better connect those experiences with Revit, the future will become clearer. Our intent is to support customers in the work they do today while giving them a practical path to the future of building design.