Transitioning templates and standards from AutoCAD Architecture to Revit

[lisa.149109]

Our office will be transitioning from AutoCAD Architecture to Revit Architecture in the near future based on client and industry demands. We are not fully educated on Revit's capabilities, so forgive me if this is a naive question.

What can we expect when applying the office standards and templates originally established in AutoCAD Architecture to the Revit? We intend to apply this information to our developing office standards so that when we implement Revit we are not reworking all our standards.

Any comments or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

[aaronrumple]

You can expect to rework all your standards. Revit just isn't AutoCAd and the old rules just don't apply.

[twiceroadsfool]

What Aaron said.

Youre first thought is going to be to import and explode everything from AutoCAD, or to try using the AutoCAd stuff for as long as possible... Ive even seen firms convinced it was more economical to work in Revit and export to ACA to plot, so they didnt have to make titleblocks, lol.

Youre going to need to spend a LOT of time, reworking things. Then, youre going to discover some things need to change. The way they look, the way they display, etc. Trying to bottleneck Revit in to using AutoCAD standards wont end well, in my humble opinion.

Convince the office now is as good a time as any to start the standards over. :-)

[tim.101799]

what Aaron & Aaron said!


You might also want to look into the idea of hiring a consultant to help in the process. Most of the larger Revit / AutoCAD dealers offer these services. My firm used a consultant (CDV Systems) that only does Revit training and implementation with great success.

[cstone]

Lisa, my office is going through the same process. We are new to Revit and we are trying to fit our AutoCAD standards into Revit. It's a hassle. I would recommend changing your standards to work with Revit, not against it. Since standards are largely visual representations, any variation from your CAD standard to Revit will still convey the same message.

You don't want the situation like in my office where some of the senior techs (who aren't Revit users) are wanting to stick exactly with the AutoCAD standards. This results in lots of wasted time retouching minor elements to show essentially the same thing. Like changing all the wall tags to free ends and manually dragging them through a wall assembly and changing all the earth to a rotated earth filled region in sections, just to give you an idea. This is working against Revit in a lot of ways and causes Revit users (like me) lots of unnecessary stress.

So definitely rework your standard to suit Revit, not the other way around. Trust me.