Advice for a novice Revit user

[traceyjj]

Hi all

I am just taking my first steps learning Revit Architecture. I have recently downloaded the Student version from Autodesk with the aim to learning this in my own time to make myself more marketable.
Are there any major pitfalls to look out for when coming from an AutoCAD/Microstation user of more than 15 years experience?
Can anyone recommend any good quality tutorials (in metric) for me to learn from?
What is the most difficult part to master?
What order, in your opinions, should I be learning things in?
How would I know whether I was doing things correctly (I know this probably sounds inane, but I was thinking about how would you construct the file etc)

I'm sure I will have MANY more questions, but I dont want to bombard you all on my first post in this area :)

Many thanks in advance for any advice and guidance.

[etboards17]

I am a graduate architecture student at Washington State University and currently teaching the first Revit course.

I found the best way to comfortably use any new program is to have fun with it. If you start by trying to immediately crank out a project, then you are asking for some hard times.

After running through some tutorials, I would recommend you revisit an old project, a project that you may know as well as the back of your hand. This way you can intuitively think about what is right and not right in the design and not have to worry about production time. Doing this leaves out the need for design and only the need to materialize the conditions.

Before starting your first design, I would recommend you download this tutorial from autodesk:

http://revit.downloads.autodesk.com/download/2008/Documents/ENU/TutorialsBuildingMetENU.pdf

and finish chapters 1-2 right away. After you finish Chapter 2’, start your personal project. Only take your personal project as far as roof, walls, floor, windows and doors. Design the shell of the building. Don’t worry too much about the details, materials, etc. I would give you about a week, 1-2 hours a day to work on the first personal project.

After doing that, jump back into the tutorials in this book and you will start to see the validity in everything. Attempting to make a model only knowing the basics is a good way to get acquainted. After running through a significant amount of tutorials, jump back into your personal project and start learning how to do things on a need to know basis. What I mean is, if you have a desire, but dont know how to do it. Visit the forums and don’t be afraid to use past tutorials and especially the help function.

You can also purchase this book here if you work better out of white pages (exactly the same as the pdf):

http://store.autodesk.com/DRHM/servlet/ControllerServlet?Action=DisplayProductDetailsPage&SiteID=adsk&Locale=en_US&ThemeID=516200&Env=BASE&productID=81305800

After downloading and saving the pdf, if you feel that this is the rout you want to take, visit this website to download all the needed files to complete each tutorial. These are important and you will not be able to progress without them. They also build a great pool for learning how Revit Families work. The more you explore the more you will learn using Revit, which is why I strongly recommend staying away from production projects for a while.

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?siteID=123112&id=9481365

Good Luck. You have a lot to look forward to.

[iankids]

Hi Tracy,

Good luck with the change from AutoCad to Revit. I started the change about 9 months ago and its only been in the past month or so that I have felt more comfortable on Revit than I do on AutoCad. In fact I now dread the older clients who want to make changes to their project if it was drawn in AutoCad.

I found the videos from CadClips ( http://www.dgcad.com/ )to be very helpful. And to read hour after hour on this forum to gain the knowledge for those more experienced than I.

There is no big one thing to learn than I can think of. For me, as most of my work is in residential extensions, coming to grips with Phases was critical.

Anyway, best of luck with your transition,

Cheers,

Ian

[still.james]

hi,

im relatively new to Revit and found DGCAD.com to help me a lot, as did drawing previous ACAD projects up in Revit (import the floor plan and trace etc to get used to wall styles etc)

welcome to the world of Revit, there is no going back now!

[Carlos GT]

Welcome to the world of Revit. There is no magic formula to learn this program, it is just searching information, watching videos (dgcad.com has some cool videos), and downloading tutorials from the web (look in AUGI - education - handouts). Also there are a few sites that you can check out. I recommend www.revitrants.com, www.revitup.com and www.bimboom.blogspot.com, in this last site you will find the latest news about Revit and testimonies from people that switched from Cad to Revit.

So, good luck.

[D.Williams]

What is the most difficult part to master?


From what I've seen, the hardest part for many people to overcome with your breadth of experience with Autocad is simple: Autocad is not Revit. If you can mentally separate the two, not saying to yourself, "I can do it this way in Autocad, why can't Revit do it the same way?", then you'll grow quickly into learning and adapting the program. Most importantly don't be afraid of experimenting with it.

The best way I've had in teaching people Revit is to get them started in any of the multitude of tutorial books that are making their way around. You can find a few of these titles with a quick search of the forums. I try a different book with every new hire, so I don't have any real recommendations other than they've all worked in getting users up to speed in a relatively short amount of time.

[traceyjj]

Thanks everyone for their suggestions/encouragement/links to materials etc. It is very much appreciated.
As far as I can see, I dont think of Revit as AutoCAD. I think it helps cos I "share" my AutoCAD time with Microstation, and both of those softwares are different.
Its strange, I never thought about looking in the AUGI handouts for Revit training materials... but I will go there tonight :)
Now to play with it until I feel confident enough to look for work using the software.

Once again,
Thanks all for your input :)

[traceyjj]

Hi I read ur Advice to go through tutorials. Can u refer me free Intermediate Revit tutorials ?
The ones I found were on the Autodesk students website. I'll take a look see if I can find a link, and post back

[zenomail105021]

I moved from ADT to Revit 7 a while back and I must admit that I was rather sharply critical of Revit at the time. Recently I have spent some quality time with the program setting it up so I can use it to get input for cost estimating. I'm no expert but I have to admit that once you really get into some depth with the program it is quite rationally programmed. Sure some things (actually a lot of things) need to be improved but .....wow! I highly recommend you read (study) Mastering Revit Architecture by Dzambazova,Demchak & Krygiel; Paul Aubin's Mastering Autodesk Revit Building; and Introducing & Implementing Autodesk Revit Building by Fox & Balding. That and the aforesaid tutorials and spend some time each day with AUGI. Revit is an adventure. Enjoy.

Bill Maddox