Andy Fuhrman, of CAFM Services in Santa Cruz, California, writes:
> "I've really been enjoying the LaiserinLetter. Very well done and informative. 'Autodesk in Wonderland' was a good article. I'm not overly impressed with Autodesk's vision at the present time. As they say, it's a big ship and it's hard for it to change direction…"

Responding to the same article, Phillip G. Bernstein, Vice President of Autodesk's Building Industry Division, wrote at length—a reply we felt merited publication in its entirety:
> "Thanks for coming to my talk in Berlin directly after your transatlantic flight—that’s dedication, I’d say. As usual, your reporting was quite insightful, and you were right to note our emphasis on Autodesk Architectural Studio, which will make its debut in Europe this fall. In our assessment, discussion of this innovative freehand conceptual design tool was most appropriate for the UIA worldwide community of designers, so my presentation was centered on that tool. But lest you or your readers extract more meaning from the tea leaves than is actually there, I thought I’d clarify a few points about Autodesk’s intentions as we move forward with our new technology vision for the building industry.

"We believe that the most important paradigm shift taking place in our industry now is from graphical, 2D production drafting to "building information modeling"—or the application of information technology to the problem of describing a building project in terms that are actionable for the entire team. At the forefront of this revolutionary way of working is Autodesk Revit—a parametric building modeler that lets designers use the familiar language of drafting to collect and coordinate information in an underlying database that can serve all building industry players at any juncture in the process of designing, constructing, and managing facilities.

"There should be no doubt about Autodesk’s commitment to Revit, which we see as setting the standard for the direction of building information modeling within our industry. At the same time, Autodesk Architectural Desktop is also playing an important role by letting our customers take their first steps toward implementing building information modeling through the familiar guise of an AutoCAD-based program. We believe there’s great value in offering building professionals more than one path to reach their destination and we are continuing to evolve ADT as we evolve Revit.

"We are just now concluding our work in integrating the role of Revit in our building industry technology strategy, and will soon be reaching out to key journalists and industry analysts like yourself to convey more details about our plans, and hopefully, to incite more lively exchanges on these significant issues that we now face."

> Thanks, Phil! Your articulate statement represents a welcome step towards clarifying the present and future roles of "RevitDesk" and Architectural Desktop (ADT). We look forward to learning further details and inciting more lively exchanges.
JL

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