The firm that I work for is pondering a switch to Revit and has decided to use me as a guinea pig. Soon I will be heading off to a crash course training session where I am expected to become familiar enough with this software package to run a project from it when I return. What are some thoughts/nightmares people have with this program? I have heard a mixed bag of nuts about it?
memory will be your problem, files are massive, so IT needs to be on its toes. develope your families early on, develope a well crafted project template - this is the foundation for about 30-40% of the work. be patient. go slow, and bring the office around slowly, do not just jump the first project that comes in the door...
the bigger the project team, the bigger the coordination of who is doing what becomes. Forget about the simplicity of xrefing files together. everything is in ONE massive file. start with a small project that is a well know type.
If you're taking some training and go through the tutorials, you should have enough of a working knowledge to get started. Try to pick either a small project or a project type that you know hands down for the pilot project, preferably one that does not have a tight timeline (if there is such a thing). www.augi.com has an invaluable help forum for when you get stuck. Biggest thing is to keep an open mind and know that you can produce projects with it, just maybe not exactly like you did with previous software.
i am very interested in learning revit ... i was told that it's similar to archicad, i am familiar with autocad and architectural desktop, my company doesnt seem to be switching, but a friend told me that revit will replace autocad in the future, so i wanna be ready !
on the revit switch as well.
only out of school for 2 years, but i have 9 years of autocad/vectorworks experience. the transition isn't as easy as i thought'd be. but being plugged into formal training instead of self teaching in spare time might expedite.
also visit www.revitcity.com
whatever you do keep an open mind.
most of the problems/complaints come from being unwilling to change.
it isn't AutoCAD, remember that!
it's an entirely different way of going about things...
consultants don't need to be using it. we've had plenty of success simply exporting files as autocad for dissemination to consultants.
it's a difficult switch for a project manager (like me) who doesn't get to do much drawing. i've had to teach myself to think like revit instead of thinking like autocad. we've had situations where a domino-effect dimensional glitch can telegraph through a drawing set and we only figured it out because we thought through what REVIT thought it was doing - which was totally foreign relative to what autocad or a hand-drafter would do.
another issue is that it's easy to trick your eye into thinking things are more finished than they are. digging through a drawing set to make sure everything is detailed appropriately is actually MORE of a job with revit than it was with autocad. for some reason.
those warnings aside, we love it and we're training more people to use it. it will soon be a full-office commitment, meaning i will be left behind as the old guy who doesn't know how to 'work the computer'. ah, crap, my desk is covered with piles of paper anyway....
We save it as a 3d dwg, which you link into a 3ds file. By doing this you preserve any material assignments you do in 3ds. This way our visualization people can be working on the project before we finish it and the 3d renderings are accurately up to date with our design documents.
j
we have now completed 3 retirement residences, the first 2 were done in revit building, they were 130 and 138 suites (i think) both were 3 stories, ICF construction, brick, siding, wood truss roof, typical, it was our first 2 project and it was HARD, going back now the quality of drawings is AWFUL, well they look good and are accurate, but we cheated in most of our views, we drew with lines over alot of things and its just the ABSOLUTELY WRONG thing to do.. the 3rd project was AWESOME, we had our family library kickin and we had out procedures refined. it was a 5 story with ICF construction and a mansard roof. precast floors and roof.
the 3rd project we did the architectural in building revit and our structural engineer linked her project in Revit structure to our project and this was challenging for them since it was their first project but it seemed to coordinate OK, not as well as we wanted, but TONNES better than cad.
now we are doing a small commercial project, with no troubles in building revit, structural is going smoothly and we are trying to get the mechanical done in the MEP Revit, but the MEP version is young and the program has problems
the nice thing about revit 9.1 is it's been though the versions, alot of bugs are worked out, there are still some things but its almost 100% and once you get a hang of it, you will never want to use autocad again.
the BEST thing you can do is join and use AUGI world, the Revit forum is frickin AWSOME, do not think you will learn more than 20% of what you need to know from school, tutorials, or whatever, the only way to learn is to have a real project and the help of the guys on the AUGI world forums - and i just noticed that someone has stated this, so you know its good!
GOOD LUCK! you will love it when your a pro
(it took me about 1 year of constant use to get to the level im no now, and i still learn new things everyday!)
Revit
The firm that I work for is pondering a switch to Revit and has decided to use me as a guinea pig. Soon I will be heading off to a crash course training session where I am expected to become familiar enough with this software package to run a project from it when I return. What are some thoughts/nightmares people have with this program? I have heard a mixed bag of nuts about it?
memory will be your problem, files are massive, so IT needs to be on its toes. develope your families early on, develope a well crafted project template - this is the foundation for about 30-40% of the work. be patient. go slow, and bring the office around slowly, do not just jump the first project that comes in the door...
the bigger the project team, the bigger the coordination of who is doing what becomes. Forget about the simplicity of xrefing files together. everything is in ONE massive file. start with a small project that is a well know type.
I assume your consultants are starting to use Revit too?
If you're taking some training and go through the tutorials, you should have enough of a working knowledge to get started. Try to pick either a small project or a project type that you know hands down for the pilot project, preferably one that does not have a tight timeline (if there is such a thing). www.augi.com has an invaluable help forum for when you get stuck. Biggest thing is to keep an open mind and know that you can produce projects with it, just maybe not exactly like you did with previous software.
i am very interested in learning revit ... i was told that it's similar to archicad, i am familiar with autocad and architectural desktop, my company doesnt seem to be switching, but a friend told me that revit will replace autocad in the future, so i wanna be ready !
on the revit switch as well.
only out of school for 2 years, but i have 9 years of autocad/vectorworks experience. the transition isn't as easy as i thought'd be. but being plugged into formal training instead of self teaching in spare time might expedite.
also visit www.revitcity.com
whatever you do keep an open mind.
most of the problems/complaints come from being unwilling to change.
it isn't AutoCAD, remember that!
it's an entirely different way of going about things...
our office uses revit.
consultants don't need to be using it. we've had plenty of success simply exporting files as autocad for dissemination to consultants.
it's a difficult switch for a project manager (like me) who doesn't get to do much drawing. i've had to teach myself to think like revit instead of thinking like autocad. we've had situations where a domino-effect dimensional glitch can telegraph through a drawing set and we only figured it out because we thought through what REVIT thought it was doing - which was totally foreign relative to what autocad or a hand-drafter would do.
another issue is that it's easy to trick your eye into thinking things are more finished than they are. digging through a drawing set to make sure everything is detailed appropriately is actually MORE of a job with revit than it was with autocad. for some reason.
those warnings aside, we love it and we're training more people to use it. it will soon be a full-office commitment, meaning i will be left behind as the old guy who doesn't know how to 'work the computer'. ah, crap, my desk is covered with piles of paper anyway....
Thanks for the responses...
Another quick question for those who have been "using", how does it link to other rendering packages (formZ, 3dMAX, etc.)?
The latest version of Revit exports 3ds files for 3d max with all the materials in tact. is niiiice.
We save it as a 3d dwg, which you link into a 3ds file. By doing this you preserve any material assignments you do in 3ds. This way our visualization people can be working on the project before we finish it and the 3d renderings are accurately up to date with our design documents.
j
we use revit,
we have now completed 3 retirement residences, the first 2 were done in revit building, they were 130 and 138 suites (i think) both were 3 stories, ICF construction, brick, siding, wood truss roof, typical, it was our first 2 project and it was HARD, going back now the quality of drawings is AWFUL, well they look good and are accurate, but we cheated in most of our views, we drew with lines over alot of things and its just the ABSOLUTELY WRONG thing to do.. the 3rd project was AWESOME, we had our family library kickin and we had out procedures refined. it was a 5 story with ICF construction and a mansard roof. precast floors and roof.
the 3rd project we did the architectural in building revit and our structural engineer linked her project in Revit structure to our project and this was challenging for them since it was their first project but it seemed to coordinate OK, not as well as we wanted, but TONNES better than cad.
now we are doing a small commercial project, with no troubles in building revit, structural is going smoothly and we are trying to get the mechanical done in the MEP Revit, but the MEP version is young and the program has problems
the nice thing about revit 9.1 is it's been though the versions, alot of bugs are worked out, there are still some things but its almost 100% and once you get a hang of it, you will never want to use autocad again.
the BEST thing you can do is join and use AUGI world, the Revit forum is frickin AWSOME, do not think you will learn more than 20% of what you need to know from school, tutorials, or whatever, the only way to learn is to have a real project and the help of the guys on the AUGI world forums - and i just noticed that someone has stated this, so you know its good!
GOOD LUCK! you will love it when your a pro
(it took me about 1 year of constant use to get to the level im no now, and i still learn new things everyday!)
http://forums.augi.com/forumdisplay.php?f=219
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.