Is the book Mastering Revit 2014 worth purchasing?

[mcohn275654671]

I took a 4 day class training me in Revit, but i do not feel as though the instructor even scratched the surface.

[DaveP]

The Mastering series is excellent for reference once you know what you're doing in Revit, but I don't find them the best for learning from scratch.
I teach a 6-session (18 hour) Revit Fundamentals class at a technical school and I use Dan Stine's "Commercial Design Using Revit Architecture" book.
He walks you through everything step by step. Also has related books for Residential and for the Engineering discipines
http://www.amazon.com/Architectural-Commercial-Design-Using-Autodesk/dp/1585038024/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_y

[MikeJarosz]

I have the 2011 and 2014 versions. I admit a bias here. I worked with Vandezande for 10 years at SOM and Phil Read was our "implementation architect" (so says his business card) for the World Trade Center.

I use this book all the time. In fact, my 2011 version fell apart! What I like about it, you can go directly to it for specific topics. Some books build from one chapter to the next. That's OK when you're learning, but when you need something specific, Mastering is where I go.

James and Phil are working hard on the 2015 version.

BTW: very often I just type a question into google like "Revit topo one point" My IT manager wants to know why I spend so much time on google. He doesn't know Revit :)

[ghale]

I'll echo some of the previous responses. It's not a step-by-step book, but is the best reference material to get in-depth knowledge about each subject area. There are definitely some good exercises in there too.

[damon.sidel]

Here's a set of tutorials on Youtube. They are older, I think they use 2011, but they go through all the features.
1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9FH1V9bVlA
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ym7P8...feature=relmfu
3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAWEx...feature=fvwrel
4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAOA-...feature=relmfu
5. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OprC...feature=fvwrel
6. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rm0Ke...feature=fvwrel
7. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNesZ...feature=fvwrel
8. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRELr...feature=fvwrel
9. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DMhz...feature=fvwrel
10. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjm_R...feature=fvwrel
11. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZ_Y4...feature=fvwrel
12. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUh1O...feature=fvwrel
13. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0l2S...feature=fvwrel
14. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4Aer...feature=fvwrel
15. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJJaA...feature=fvwrel
16. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pL2cC...feature=fvwrel
17. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UTUH...feature=fvwrel
18. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRi2K...feature=fvwrel
19. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ctded...feature=relmfu
20. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLDUl...feature=fvwrel

After these, I think you'll find help on specific topics very easy to find on Youtube or other websites via a web search.

As much as I love books, I've never found books for learning software the best way to do it. I've done it that way in the past, but now that there are so many video tutorials for all sorts of software packages, that's generally what I find most helpful. That's a personal preference, though. Since they are free, you could try out a few of these before buying a book.