Revit Help: Help me Help you...

[Scott D Davis]

Now that the Revit Help is Wiki based, I'm beginning to contribute my over-ten-years of Revit knowledge to the Help file. I know there are many areas of Help that need....well, help. (and I'm trying to see how many times I can say Help in this post about help. 9...and counting :mrgreen: )

So I know many of you have found areas of Help that can use some help. Please respond with the areas/topics in help that seem to need the most....attention. (bet you thought I was gonna say Help).

I'll do my part to update the areas you all say need the most help.

(Oh, and since I focus on Architecture, I may not be much help if you ask me to update a section on panel schedules, for instance. but i'll try and pass it along!)

Thanks in advance

[Revitaoist]

One thing that is not documented anywhere, they didn't teach me in school, and is counter-intuitive, is how to set up construction documents when multiple buildings are involved. I originally set up all the buildings in one file as links, thinking I could have all my sheets in one file so when I hit publish my whole set would come out in a nice tidy package Multiple problems arise from setting it up this way, and I ended up having to re-do lots of work.

[DoTheBIM]

One thing... ....ended up having to re-do lots of work.IMO, there should be a whole 'nother section(s) for real life work in revit (not just how to use this tool or that tool). Kind of like a best practices section, but it shouldn't be called best practices because the best practice depends on deliverables, experience, residential, commercial, downstream data usage, etc.

[Scott D Davis]

I have started a section in the Wiki titled "Documenting Multiple Buildings in a Project". It's rough at this point, with some initial thoughts. Intended as a placeholder for further developement, I encourage all of you to help contribute to this section. It's currently in a "draft" and out for review through the Autodesk "checking" system, but should be available later today for you all to view and edit. thanks for the suggestion!

[Scott D Davis]

IMO, there should be a whole 'nother section(s) for real life work in revit (not just how to use this tool or that tool). Kind of like a best practices section, but it shouldn't be called best practices because the best practice depends on deliverables, experience, residential, commercial, downstream data usage, etc.

So what would you call it if not "best practices"?

[DoTheBIM]

So what would you call it if not "best practices"?

Not sure. Maybe Best Practices is OK at a very very top level, but then it would almost have to break down in a flow diagram type of decision on what is the best practice depending on the desired outcome and inputs. Hard to put into words without and an example. A simple example might be if you only have a few wall types in a project it might be best to go ahead and create a different wall type for every condition, but if you could potentially end up with hundreds of wall types to maintain and sort through, you might be better off creating a couple basic core wall types and apply the interior/exterior finishes (like tile, boards, paint on drywall, brick, stone, etc) as seperate walls and types where needed. 'Course that would also depend on how you might want to schedule things as well among other variables.

[Mike Sealander]

Scott:
More power to you. I have often thought that Revit (and Max) suffer from poor documentation, not from poor software features. Sometimes it feels like half my time in Revit is spent trying to figure out what the program is supposed to do. Family creation is an obvious starting point. So much of Revit is left to user trial and error.
Creating great software is great. Communicating that greatness has got to be part of the effort.