Revit Training - A Starter/Primer

[dandlf]

Hi Guys,

I have finally been asked to give some in-house Revit training to the rest of the office here (initially 10 people, then more).
It is amazing to see the Resistance to any approach toward Revit from the existing ArchiCad users.... they flatly refuse to look at it..

We work on mainly commercial and institutional buildings, large scale stuff, Universities and Laboratories.
I was hoping that someone could point me in the right direction with regards to training materials (ie. powerpoint maybe?)
OR alternatively maybe a step-through on how to setup a large commercial building that will be designed with 10 users/architects.

Any help you guys could help with will be appreciated as I am literally fighting to get this up and running and need all the ammunition I can muster....

Cheers
D

[Steve_Bennett]

My first word of advice would be this: Stay away from powerpoints at all costs! Just show them what the software can do & that is far more powerful than just teasing them with pics. Tease them with the software itself & let it prove to them what it can do.

The next thing is to remember the KISS approach (Keep It Simple, Stupid). Just design a simple building in front of them. Do this a couple times by yourself & outline what the building will look like so you have something to follow when they are in training.

Hope these points help you towards winning the battle against Archi-CAD.

[beegee]

Books - Lay Christopher Fox + James Balding's " Introducing and Implementing Autodesk Revit " is a good one to use for training.

Cyril Verlays Advanced Courseware for Autodesk Revit - Commercial is equally good.

Autodesk also publish Essentials and Advanced training courseware for Revit, which can be ordered through your reseller.

Check out our LINKS page ( Publishers ) for details.

For initial training, get them doing stuff hands -on as quickly as possible. Cover the interface briefly, then get straight into modeling with them creating walls, windows, doors, floors , roofs etc.

Put that into practice modeling a small building.

Then show them how to quickly dimension and place views on sheets. Then get into some easy scheduling.

Follow that with an intro to families.

Should have a happy team by the end of that process !

[jbalding48677]

Some very good advise above, and I would add to it by saying that you need to demonstrate the power of Revit and how it out performs ArchiCAD. Coordination is a good one, ease of use and intuitive workflow good to follow up with. Bi-directional workflow is also something they might be interested in. That would mean working in schedules, elevations, sections and 3D and seeing the whole model up date.

You are in for a big battle but one worth fighting, good luck and keep us posted.

[Scott D Davis]

Show them you can open numerous plans of the same model within one session of Revit, something you can't do in ArchiCAD.

Show them you can 'drill-down' a detail to an almost infinite level. ie: building section to a wall section to a callout of the wall section to a detail of a piece of the wall section to a specific piece of the detail, and so on. You can literally make a detail of a detail of a detail....something you cannot do in ArchiCAD.

Show them how easy it is to do multi-story walls in Revit. ArchiCAD has a very tough time dealing with walls that pass from floor to floor continuously.

Show them how easy it is to set up sheets with views, internally in Revit, without having to open a second program as you do in ArchiCAD.

[patricks]

I myself found the included tutorials to be quite good at getting me going. I liked how it walked you through the creation of a whole building first, and then went more in depth into each of the different parts like walls, floors, roofs, doors and windows, etc. I think that using the tools in a basic way first and then learning more about each tool is a good approach, as opposed to just telling all about each tool straight away.

When a new version of Revit is released that has new tools and features, I usually just go through the tutorial for those new features to see how they work.

At my office we just printed out the whole tutoral (nearly a full ream of paper printed front and back) and just went through each tutorial session. That's my suggestion.

[Wes Macaulay]

It is amazing to see the Resistance to any approach toward Revit from the existing ArchiCad users.... they flatly refuse to look at it..

So you're an ArchiCAD office? Why bother switching?

I know why I would, knowing how ArchiCAD works... but an established group of users... that's tough.

[Phil Read]

Funny.

True story:

I was going to buy at ArchiCAD at the last firm I worked for - but the ArchiCAD reseller (being honest) told me I should also look at something called "Revit". In addition to 1) having resolved fundamental building relationships (wall/roof/floor/ceiling/levels/hosted elements...) and 2) made creating content approachable...they had also, 3) "...integrated documentation". We both considered exporting/linking for CD's to be problematic either functionally (horribly disruptive) - or philosophically (from an implementation standpoint it's horribly complex). Integrated CD's - not linking....not exporting...seemed to be a fundamental leap forward...so elegant.

So I downloaded 1.0 and have never looked back.

And the reseller? He's using Revit.

-Phil

[Rols]

I actually did a little lunchtime demo. I took the "First Model" tutorial and ran through it live as everyone watched. As simple as it is, it really shows off all of Revit's capabilities. It really got everyone charged up, from drafters to vice presidents!
I followed that up with an open offer that I would install a 30 day demo and anyone could run through the same tutorial and see the benefits for themselves.
It's really paid off big. People love it when they can take it at their own pace. Some people "unlearn" Autocad faster than others!

[jyeager]

visit www.ascented.com...well established courseware with instructor's kits