Revit new users

[minhtct]

Hello everyone

We are a small Mechanical Engineering firm in Ca. In the next 3 months, we will have to start using Revit upon the requests from our biggest clients. So the boss would like us to go full blown in Revit. We have 7 engineers doing very little cad, none of which has any training on Acad. I am the only Cad designer in the company. We are doing projects in health care field. One of our largest projects will be designing the new hospital for Kaiser Permanante.

I would like to get as much as advices on how I shall prepare for this transition. I've read a few threads here and it does not sound very fun to switch.

So please give me ideas, I believe I'd need lots of helps in the next few months

Thanks for your responds.

MKT

[mjdanowski]

Hello everyone

We are a small Mechanical Engineering firm in Ca. In the next 3 months, we will have to start using Revit upon the requests from our biggest clients. So the boss would like us to go full blown in Revit. We have 7 engineers doing very little cad, none of which has any training on Acad. I am the only Cad designer in the company. We are doing projects in health care field. One of our largest projects will be designing the new hospital for Kaiser Permanante.

I would like to get as much as advices on how I shall prepare for this transition. I've read a few threads here and it does not sound very fun to switch.

So please give me ideas, I believe I'd need lots of helps in the next few months

Thanks for your responds.

MKT


If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball!

Star everyone off making basic families and move on from there. I found that once you knew the mechanicals of families, everything else kind of fell into place.

[JoelLondenberg]

If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball!
I love this! Getting up to speed for a large project in Revit just might be as painful as acting in a Ben Stiller movie.

I also agree with MJ about the advice - simple families, then complex, then projects.

[dmb.100468]

Template Template Template!

It is crucial to start your project off with a solid, well defined template. This will help you prevent any "backtracking" to fix issues that may arise later in the project.

Take the time to establish a project template that has your company standards built into it, including schedules and families that you know will be used. It is also helpful to set up view templates so that when views are created, the users will not have to spend time adjusting visibility settings and view range settings.
(Sorry if this sounds like a rant, but the template thing has become my mantra.)

That some of your people don't know Autocad may actually be a benefit :)

[Mottiqua]

Also you might want to seriously consider buying stock in Excedrine....

considering the headaches ya'll might get! :)

[JoelLondenberg]

Template Template Template!

It is crucial to start your project off with a solid, well defined template. This will help you prevent any "backtracking" to fix issues that may arise later in the project.

Take the time to establish a project template that has your company standards built into it, including schedules and families that you know will be used. It is also helpful to set up view templates so that when views are created, the users will not have to spend time adjusting visibility settings and view range settings.
(Sorry if this sounds like a rant, but the template thing has become my mantra.)

That some of your people don't know Autocad may actually be a benefit :)
A good template is a huge boost, but how is he going to know what he needs before getting started? Our firm's template is rapidly evolving even after many completed projects.

[JoelLondenberg]

Also you might want to seriously consider buying stock in Excedrine....

considering the headaches ya'll might get! :)
That's not what it sounded like in your article in July/August AUGIWorld.

Quoting the article
"Conclusion-The MEP designer and engineering will be pleasantly surprised with the new rollout of MEP."

I read that during an especially frustrating day and definitely didn't agree.

[Firmso]

.......So the boss would like us to go full blown in Revit.
MKT
Soon as you Have Revit up and running, set up a mock project for practice and explore all the possibilities. You may want to practice on linking files, Keynoting, Family creation, Visibility Graphics, Stair Modeling, Floor and Roofing Modeling, Reference plain and aligning objects, Creating Symbols and legend. Oh, and you won't want to miss the Site tools like, the Pad.

[dmb.100468]

A good template is a huge boost, but how is he going to know what he needs before getting started? Our firm's template is rapidly evolving even after many completed projects.

The template will always be a fluid entity. My point is to build as much of your company standards into it as possible before your start. Also, consider that if your office is using multiple platforms of Revit, you will need a template that accommodates them all.