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Thread: Possible to teach yourself Revit?

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    Default Possible to teach yourself Revit?

    I have been an AutoCAD user for, well, many years. I first taught myself the program, and have taken classes. Ultimately teaching the teacher a thing to two. With Revit, is it really possible to teach yourself? All I see and hear is that you must take classes, have a seminar, or what have you.

    How did you learn and what is your advice?

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    All AUGI, all the time CADastrophe's Avatar
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    Default Re: Possible to teach yourself Revit?

    I taught myself Revit, so it's possible. (I'm not intending to boast about anything, but I do have a knack for figuring out things by just diving in.) BUT it would still be better to find some good training - there are a lot of trainers out there who will know just enough to get by as a trainer, and their knowledge seems superficial and artificial.

    After I had advanced a bit in Revit, I and several of my co-workers attended a brief 3-Day course. This was a waste of time for two reasons:
    1.) That is nowhere near enough time to even securely grasp the concept of Revit, which is vastly different than AutoCAD.
    2.) The instructor knew very little aside from the workflow of the workbooks. At that point I already knew more then she, and on top of that, not a single question of mine could she answer.

    Anyway, as I suggested, go for the training if you have the opportunity. There are a lot of experienced users here that could advise you on where to find quality training. In fact, searching the forums might prove useful. Also keep in mind that the situations encountered in reality will be rarely fall into Revit's ideal capabilities, and require some ingenuity to find a solution, or as a more commonly used term in the Revit world, a "Work-Around". These forums are a tremendous resource with a lot of people with *real* experience behind their knowledge, and I wish I would have known about them when I was learning Revit!

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    Default Re: Possible to teach yourself Revit?

    I'm currently wrestling with this one as well. Like you Manter I've been using Acad for more than a little while, and I'm also generally quite "savy" when it comes to software and 3D stuff.

    On that basis, I've gone through the Autodesk tutorials which are great, up to a point, and now I think I've got a decent feel for the package, but when it comes to editing and manipulating library/families struggling to find any decent training resources.

    As a result, I'm now considering looking for some formal training, BUT as a self employed contractor it's my money that I'll be spending so I really do want to make sure that the training genuinely is good, rather than sitting in a room with a "presenter".

    So if anybody can offer any pointers, I too would be most grateful for any advice offered.

    Cheers

    John

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    Default Re: Possible to teach yourself Revit?

    Honestly I think you can find anything on the internet. YouTube has a tutorial for just about anything these days. whenever I have a problem with Revit, or anything else for that matter, ill check the help thing, then ill go to YouTube for a tutorial. So going the cheap route, I would just work until you run into a problem, then hit up YouTube for a tutorial, or search here on AUGI

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    Default Re: Possible to teach yourself Revit?

    I would recommend that you ask for recommendations and a list referrals from the trainer's previous students/clients before committing to any class. I'm a Revit MEP trainer for a reseller and teach in the Philly and NYC areas. There is a lot of competition in this region, and no two trainers are alike, so I always tell people to do their homework. If the trainer is good, he/she should be more than willing and provide multiple testimonials.

    For comparison sake, our Essentials class is 4-days long...extended from a 3-day format previously...and it's still difficult to cover all the pertinent material in that time frame. It really depends on the audience and the student's ability to catch on quickly. If there is just one problem child who can't grasp things, it throws the entire class off. Ideally you could request a 1:1 class, but expect to pay a premium.

    BTW, not sure what you are looking for exactly, but I don't think you will find anyone teaching Revit MEP Families in a 3- or 4-day class. That typically requires yet another day and is considered an "advanced" topic. My suggestion is to take a good Essentials class, apply what you learned on an actual project, learn the Revit MEP workflow, and then go back and take an Advanced class after you've had some time to digest and get comfortable with the program. I usually recommend 2 months of working with the program 40 hours a week without getting pulled off to work in AutoCAD. As soon as that happens, all bets are off

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    Default Re: Possible to teach yourself Revit?

    I too have been using AutoCAD for a very long time and have been using REVIT structure for about 2+ years on a handful of projects.
    At the beginning, I dabbled with the tutorials and played around, but if there isn't anyone to answer a question you may have, your self-training will take more time and be painful.

    My opinion: take a Revit Essentials class, that will get you over the hump where you can start creating something. And as others have mentioned, simply keep working in it and you'll learn stuff as you go. I, myself, really need to get some advanced training because I'm finding that some of the advanced stuff I need/want to know is just too hard to figure out myself on YouTube or tutorials..and I like to think I'm pretty clever myself

    I have worked with a few self-taught AutoCAD users too, and there have been issues with thier work (at least the ones I've dealt with).
    As you know, there are allot of basics that you need to know to work in a professional drafting and design team environment.
    If someone comes in who is self taught and has only worked by themselves, it can show up quickly with things not ByLayer, blocks not created on the layer zero, wrong coordinates/insbase points etc, etc.

    Of course there are exceptions, some self-taught users do their homework and know more than the seasoned professionals, I just haven't met one.

    BTW.. there are some "teachers" who teach AutoCAD wrong too. I know of a teacher who teaches a high school AutoCAD course and is giving very bad advice, because they learned a new trick on how to do something, but isn't how it is ever done in the real world, it is so wrong... sort of sad really.
    That's all I'm at liberty to say about that right now
    Last edited by tedg; 2013-01-29 at 07:46 PM.

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    Default Re: Possible to teach yourself Revit?

    Quote Originally Posted by tedg View Post
    BTW.. there are some "teachers" who teach AutoCAD wrong too. I know of a teacher who teaches a high school AutoCAD course and is giving very bad advice, because they learned a new trick on how to do something, but isn't how it is ever done in the real world, it is so wrong... sort of sad really.
    That's all I'm at liberty to say about that right now
    I hear that Ted! I taught at a community college a few years ago where the CAD professor taught his students to use the sidebar menu Yes, that's right, the friggin sidebar menu from the DOS days. And it was version 2007 or something current. He showed everyone how to turn off the palettes and toolbars so they could focus on that archaic menu from the early 90's. I couldn't believe it. I walked in and told my students to forget everything they had learned to that point, and I showed them how it's done in the "real" world. If any of those students got a job in the workplace and turned that $#@% on they would get escorted out of the office

    Just proves how self-taught users or instructors can get stuck in their ways without ever considering that there might be a better (and more efficient) way. I'm not pointing fingers, but it's usually the close-minded that are guilty of that. People just need to remember that they don't know everything and someone else might be able to show them a better way. I've been at this CAD thing for 27 years and I still learn something new every day because I keep an open mind. Cheers

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    Default Re: Possible to teach yourself Revit?

    Quote Originally Posted by Misteracad View Post
    I hear that Ted! I taught at a community college a few years ago where the CAD professor taught his students to use the sidebar menu Yes, that's right, the friggin sidebar menu from the DOS days. And it was version 2007 or something current. He showed everyone how to turn off the palettes and toolbars so they could focus on that archaic menu from the early 90's. I couldn't believe it. I walked in and told my students to forget everything they had learned to that point, and I showed them how it's done in the "real" world. If any of those students got a job in the workplace and turned that $#@% on they would get escorted out of the office

    Just proves how self-taught users or instructors can get stuck in their ways without ever considering that there might be a better (and more efficient) way. I'm not pointing fingers, but it's usually the close-minded that are guilty of that. People just need to remember that they don't know everything and someone else might be able to show them a better way. I've been at this CAD thing for 27 years and I still learn something new every day because I keep an open mind. Cheers
    Yes. One of the most important things you can teach is that there are always multiple ways to achieve anything!

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    Default Re: Possible to teach yourself Revit?

    I believe that a good balance would be ideal - a quality instructor who will provide guidance, but often let and even instruct the user to try to solve a lot of issues alone. Allowing the user room to make errors will expand his familiarity and ingenuity with the program and better learn it's limitations, pitfalls, tricks, etc.

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    Default Re: Possible to teach yourself Revit?

    Quote Originally Posted by jaberwok View Post
    Yes. One of the most important things you can teach is that there are always multiple ways to achieve anything!
    Here Here!
    When I was taking my basic and advanced AutoCAD classes back in college in the early 90's, we were taught atleast 3 ways to do everything!
    We were taught to use all the commands and setvars on the command line, the pull-down menus, and the tool bars.

    This was back when allot of shops still used "Release 12" and "Release 14" was just out, so everyone would be equipped to work in all environments.

    I still mostly use the command line, and it helps with programming too (lisp & script files)

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