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I don't doubt that BIM is sort of great, but given the difficulty we have with software packages interfacing with each other now, how much worse will it be in the future if BIM is demanded?

To give an example, Autodesk's Revit product won't even interface properly with itself! The product will upgrade files from older to newer versions, but there is no save as option if you own an older version and are working with a consultant with a new one. The forced obsolecence "magic upgrade cycle" starts to become very lucrative indeed for the software company and their resellers but could leave a company stuffed if it doesn't have the cashflow to keep the upgrading process going.

But how much worse will it be when the industry is fractured into competing BIM factions? Will multiple versions of Revit be able to interface with multiple versions of Archicad and others and vice versa, well enough for this push to achieve the benefits supposedly on offer?

People were talking about the supposed benefits of virtual reality 10 years ago and we are yet to see it happen despite the massive advances of computing power, how much less likely is this push to work for what will be mission-critical applications?