Hardest thing you ever learned in Revit.

[tcatana]

I am looking for everyone's experience in what was the hardest or most difficult thing they had to learn in Revit.

Thanks in advance for your replies.
Tony

[agustnj]

For my the hardest thing is project base point to get it to work with autocad/bentley so the model will export in right location and still trying to get it to work so it will work.

[AP23]

Doing non-orthongonal buildings is the hardest part in Revit. Then again, Revit isn't made for those types of buildings, so you can't really blame Revit for its steep learnig curve.

[nsinha73]

This is a difficult question since things in Revit are pretty much easy once you have a right resource....however....The Hardest thing for me was "Design Options"
But once i got it....it was the best thing I learnt.

[wmullett]

I'm curious about what problems you had AP23 "...Doing non-orthongonal buildings is the hardest part in Revit"

[Scott Hopkins]

One of the hardest things for me is getting a project set up with True North and Project North settings. Every time I attempt this I get it wrong and have to relearn the process again.

[johnf.77896]

I would agree with Scott, true north and project north, also nsinha73, design options. But like most things in Revit, once you figure it out it makes everything else gravey. Some people also have issues with the view range. For example, when you do framing and electrical plans sometimes the beams dont show up when they need to also outlets and switches for eletrical plans. But like most things once you understand why then it makes everything fall into place.

John Fleming
GMK Architecture, inc.

[Joef]

Railings and Balusters!! Tons of settings with no precise description of what they do.

[Hulston1982]

I'd have to agree with Joef....Railings and balusters are a nightmare. Never easy to create what you actually want!

[barrie.sharp]

With Jeof also. Tried a few custom railing families with panels and it was crazy! I was asked to draw Key Klamp railings to meet specific dims and nothing went where I wanted. Still scares me off but I'll get around to cracking it.

[vennix]

angles in families
everything keeps moving about.
certainly if you nest an angle driven family in another family.
Constraning arays, same thing

Geert

[SCShell]

Hey there,

After 7 years, the hardest (and most annoying) thing for me was (and still is):
1. Site grading and pads
2. Railings
3. Learning how and when to stop modeling.....lol

Cute thread!
See you all in Vegas!
Steve

[RevitNinja]

Explaining to upper management what Revit is and what Revit is not.

[twiceroadsfool]

Stairs and Railings. Because even when you DO understand how to use them perfectly, then you have to figure out how to get AROUND them when you want certain things.

Then you have to deal with the fact that for some odd reason, circles arent circles when you look at them as railings that are cut, and you have to explain that one away. LOL.

Stairs and Rails need a reformat.

[swalton240189]

Shared Parameters every time I think I understand it I do something wrong.

[AP23]

I'm curious about what problems you had AP23 "...Doing non-orthongonal buildings is the hardest part in Revit"

The initial design phase which is very crucial, requires high end modelling tools that you would in 3ds max, Rhino, Maya etc. While Revit has improved modelling tools, most shapes cannot be created in Revit even if you rationalize it. Many times you get the “unable to create shape” or “unable to join”.

The alternative is to create the geometry in another software and import it into Revit. Problem here is that the geometry can’t be edited. Mapping building components on the face of the geometry is a great concept but doesn’t always work in practice. Many times you have to use a wall instead of a floor or roof. The mapped buildings components don’t always join and clean up either. Revit also has this annoying habit to break the faces of the geometry into separate faces. This leads to segmented surface which isn’t always desirable.

Importing geometry as an in place family gives you more freedom as you don’t have to deal with joins. You will have to manually draft the layers of the walls, roofs and floors in a plan or section view. Revit unfortunately, doesn’t recognize the edges of a (double) curved or slanted wall at the place where it’s cut as a vector line. It’s just a visual representation of the cut, so you’re unable to pick the edge to offset, nor dimension. Here is an example http://www.123video.nl/playvideos.asp?MovieID=566218&q=revit&CatID=&familyFilter=ON
This can be resolved by exporting the view as a dwg and then importing it back in Revit. Not really ideal.

So, these a just few examples that are quite difficult to achieve in Revit.

[jcoe]

Going back eight years now - for me it was probably phasing and phase filters. It seems trivial now, but coming from a long AutoCAD background I found it difficult to grasp at first.

[violet78]

Shared coordinates. They still don't make sense.

[Munkholm]

It´s allready been mentioned, but Rotating True North has been (and still are) a real killer. Guess my kind of logic just don´t work togheter with the tool. Each and every time I use it, I get it rotated in the wrong direction the first time... :beer:

[stephanschneller]

still trying to understand why somethime you can 'snap' to certain elements using the measure command but you can 'snap' to the same elements using the dimension command.


Regards

[jj mac]

Like many have said already:

FOR SURE:

1. Railings
2. When to stop modeling!
3. Explaining to upper management and users why Revit get's really slow when too many objects are in the model, and we can't necessarily get rid of them, unless we redo a large part of the model:
i.e... repeating curtain wall in a 50 storey tower with complex and random mullion design

[Scott Womack]

Railings - yes.

The other item is in the Family Editor:
The fine nuances of reference planes, and instance parameters (to get, or avoid the blue handles)
When type and instance parameters can be mixed in a formula( order does matter!)
Nesting of shared vs non-shared families, and their effects in projects.
Advanced 3D arrays in families, and the amount of nesting required.

[ajayholland]

This is so easy! Wall joins!

Really the hardest thing to learn is when to stop expecting Revit to figure out how to join multiple walls at multiple levels. To facilitate 4D scheduling and sequencing, I now stack walls vertically, which also simplfies wall join conditions.

~AJH

[anthony.67953]

Yes most mentioned...

1. True North
2. Railings
3. Understanding how to view and create levels such as structural, electrical and getting underlay plans to view correctly.

[Hilux]

Teaching people that the simple things in ACAD are sometimes difficult in Revit whilst the hard things in ACAD are some of the simplest in Revit. Oh and keeping everyone happy.

[Munkholm]

Railings - yes.
When type and instance parameters can be mixed in a formula( order does matter!)


Scott !

Could you please elaborate on that ? I´m having the need for this, for some current work... Thanks in advance... !

[bregnier]

This is so easy! Wall joins!

Really the hardest thing to learn is when to stop expecting Revit to figure out how to join multiple walls at multiple levels. To facilitate 4D scheduling and sequencing, I now stack walls vertically, which also simplfies wall join conditions.

~AJH

I'd like to add multi-unit buildings, and when to use groups or links in said projects. Or in general how to break up a complex building that has multiple parts.

[cliff collins]

Trying to get Sketchup guys to switch to Revit for fast, conceptual design.

A bit more "hands-on": Trying to do a HUGE Site Plan, with complicated grading,
thousands of parking spaces, water features, 3D curbs,entourage, campuses full
of multiple buildings linked in, etc.

LOL.............