Should we train new users on 2010?

[Andrew Dobson]

We have stayed with Revit Archotecture 2009 for now with a view to upgrading once the ribbon has been sorted out.

Does anyone have a view on training new users on 2009 or 2010?

On one hand, training new users on 2009 is easier because we know it ourselves - but they will have to learn the ribbon later.

Training on 2010 now means that we all have to upgrade and learn the interface.

Any ideas?

Thanks

[sjsl]

We are staying with 09 for now. 2010 really does not have anything we need at this point especially instability. Our consultants are also staying put. We will have one person start playing with 2010 but no projects.

[dfriesen]

I would say train in 2009, and when 2010 is ready for business, do the upgrade training for everyone.

At least that way the new users will understand what the experienced users are complaining about. ;-)

[cliff collins]

Train them in 2010.

2011 will be here by the time they are just getting used to 2010.

The ribbon is here to stay, so in the long run new users will gain productivity
by beginning with 2010.

In some ways, staying with 2009 is a step backwards.

Roll with the changes, as they say. Just think how soon " 5 years from now"
will be here!

cheers...............

[sultarc]

All that is fine, however, we are a firm of three with the other two using dell laptops and monitors. So far, 2010 has refused to load on either of their machines and no one can tell us why or helping fix the problem.

[brethomp]

The ribbon is really designed for new users. I believe your new users will have an easier time learning Revit on the Ribbon, then they will learning the old GUI. For us experienced users, the ribbon is more difficult to use.

Autodesk did mess up on some aspects of the new interface which make training more difficult. One example is that there is now a Modify Tool, and a Modify Tab. New users get confused fast. The instructor needs to be very careful to specify, tool or tab.
The new blue selection color also adds difficulty, since the interactive elements of selected objects are also blue. It may be a different shade of blue but both colors are blue, and it can be difficult to explain which blue objects you are referring to.

[dgreen.49364]

2010 is really no big deal. Really. The ribbon is nothing to worry about. If you know 2009 it will take a day or less to figure out the ribbon and where everything is at. If that's the reason to hold back, don't hold back.

There is a thread here regarding stability and how often does 2010 crash? If you read that thread you will get the impression that 2010 is killing everyone. We go thru this every year with every new release. Those that are having issues are the ones talking about it and you can get the feeling that the new release is garbage and decide to wait.

Don't wait. Install it. learn it. Train people on it. If you have hardware issues or whatever, you've still got 2009 to fall back on.

[twiceroadsfool]

Were training all new users in 2010. All existing users have already upgraded as well, with the exception of two remaining projects in 2009. Those are only remaining as we have consultants on 2009 as well.

[Mike Sealander]

Our structural consultant says 2010 is actually much improved over 2009, beyond the UI. My feeling is that ADSK had two tasks with 2010: have MEP and Structure catch up to Arch, and make it easy for non-Revit users to migrate.
FWIW, we are a small shop and continue to hold off. We've invested all our training in Ectotect and Max, truly important extensions to Revit.

[Phil Read]

My opinion about the 2010 UI aside - the answer to this question is really one that you should consider from the standpoint of your office and the consultants you're working with that may use Revit. If you're on 2010 and they're sticking with 2009 - trouble. And vise versa.

In the meantime, the binary of 'either 2009 or 2010' because of the UI is really unfortunate and has been a huge distraction. I remain hopeful that the factory will expose the classic UI in 2010 in the next update or so, which will ultimately allow for an even faster transition to 2010/11/12 as a result of far more complete customer feedback.

-Phil

[jcoe]

We are upgrading projects that are in SD and DD to 2010 and providing training as needed. All projects in production using 2009 will finish in 2009.

[iankids]

For myself, as I have no need to share the model with any consultants, I have chosen to stay with 2009 until the UI and stability issues are ironed out.

I lost a fair whack of time with the first release of 2009 (which was very unstable on my machine - but has been fantastically stable since then) & have no desire to repeat the exercise.

2010 WU1 or later is when I will migrate the files.

Cheers,

Ian

[m20roxxers]

I have trained a few new people on Revit 2010 and so far it has been 10 times easier then on 2009.

The simple fact is everything is on the Ribbon as opposed to menu bar, toolbars and design bar. The changing of the contextual tabs is both blessing and curse for new users just getting into it everything they need is right there. As they progress they will start to see themselves jumping to different tabs for workplanes and so on.

But for new users Revit 2010 is far easier to use and get into.

[jlinger]

We are starting up new projects in 2010. There were only a few users familiar with the old UI so it has only been a major change for them. We are showing people the Ribbon, but trying to teach them keyboard shortcuts as much as possible. The bones that made Revit a better option than anything else are still in there. Just takes a different kind of finagling.

[jj mac]

I have to say I agree with what both Mike Sealander and Phil Read have posted. MEP and Structural had a lot of catching up to do in my experience working with consultants and training. I have heard very little negativity from either 2010 package. If your consultants are not using 2010, you will probably run into compatibility issues which are very difficult to fix, so it that regard wait.

We have found a few new features with 2010 that have been really nice addition, and the new UI in my opinion is pretty cool. I am glad we are using it and we are training people on it as well. It's not going back, as was also mentioned earlier so you might as well dig in. The crashing issues seem to happen on some projects but not all, and overall our reseller is working pretty hard to help us out with Autodesk. If yours is not, you need a new one.

I say go for training on new UI. Upgrade your template so you have a 2010 version, and start a new project.