**Attention All Revit Gurus** - Teaching Revit

[Brandon_Pike]

To All Revit Gurus,

I have been using Revit for 5 years now and a new firm I am at is having me teach and implement Revit company wide, Architecture and MEP. I have never taught Revit in a classroom environment before; I was looking for any last minute advice or comments from all you Revit Gurus out there on teaching Revit.

Thanks!

[saeborne]

My advice?

RUN!!!!

If you can't run... I would definitely argue that the students must be learning while they are physically at a revit work station. It's one thing to watch someone teach revit. It's quite another, when the student has to replicate the commands. The comprehension is many times greater than a lecture style class.

Bryan

[davidcobi]

When working at an individual's workstation take note of questions asked and share what you taught with the whole class at your next session so everyone can benefit from common questions asked.

[twiceroadsfool]

Keep your hands off the mouse and keyboard.

When i teach, i have a tendancy to *drive.* If im driving, theyre not doing it. Make them do it...

[Andre Carvalho]

Don't show your tips and tricks in a first moment. Save it for later and show them the regular way of doing things, first. Then later, show your trick as the easiest way. They will find it easier and will take note and memorize that because they can now compare with the regular way of doing the same thing. If you start by showing the easiest way, they don't have anything to compare and will likely not memorize it as being something important...

Andre Carvalho

[Dimitri Harvalias]

It is a challenge to teach Revit only because the end user needs to understand the 'big picture' rather than just being able to pick and click in the right place. So as we teach the basics about the interface and commands we also need to reinforce the BIM process more than anything.
Always stress the underlying purpose of why we do things rather than focusing solely on the how to do things. Emphasize how proper set up and a systematic process will benefit the user and the project in the long run.

I've found that users can benefit from seeing the process worked through from set up to finished deliverables, all with an eye to keeping the model flexible and easy to change at any time.
Users can discover most of the 'commands' and tools they will require (after all, they have all used software before) but need to be informed about the change in process more than with other software.

Good luck!

[sbrown]

The best thing our cad manager did was to assign homework to each student that attended. This homework had to be presented to the firm at our monday morning staff meeting. It was great to see the students do whatever they wanted with the tool right after the training. I figure if you are using your firms resources to train them, they can do some work on their own time.

[guy.messick825831]

We are fortunate in that we have terrific vendor (Ideate Inc.) that has a robust training catalog. We typically send new hires to a 3 day Revit Architecture Fundementals course right away, then pllace them with an experienced project team for full Revit immersion. I follow up with PD lunch & learn programs, focused paid training sessions and what I term "Micro Training" - where I take a group and train them to perform what the need on their project in real time. works well.

[Mike_Maloney]

I've kinda started teaching similar to what Scott just wrote.........but I actually did/do about and hour or two each day training physically at the individual W/S, on the project they are working on. Kills two birds.....gains some billing time and they are gettting first hands-on. Remainder of day is to advance and build off what they started that morning.

So far, works good.

Mike

[nsinha73]

Take some Anti-Stress pills, you will need it!!

[Steve_Stafford]

Not everyone is a "teacher". Some of the best users are not the best teachers. Do you like to help others be successful or would you rather just get er done? A little self examination is every bit as important as teaching techniques. If teaching is "for you" then you shouldn't need any stress pills... :smile:

[vgonzales]

As CAD/Revit manager, I highly recommend subscribing to www.CADclips.com. They have taken the most generalized training information and made online videos of each important topic. I just have the users review the video clips on the server. They train themselves on their on pace when I am not available or cannot help train them. Help me a whole lot when the topics get to be very repetitive.

[mthurnauer]

I agree with the idea of giving homework. I have taught many college course in technology and if the students don't go back and use what you just demonstrated, they will forget it. I always tried to make assignments focus on exploration rather than creating something specific. Often, people think the great ground breaker for revit is to recreate their own home or the project they just completed. I feel like you are better off focusing on doing a project where you don't care what it is, but that you use everything taught in the latest lesson and in as many different ways as possible.

The other ting that we are going to try and do more of is making our own five minute long video clips. If someone has a question, they can email me and I will whip out a quick demo video and place on the server so that in the future, people will be able to pick the tutorial videos that will answer their questions and revisit any time.

[Gadget Man]

During the first lesson I usually give my students (both individual and group) an overview of the design/creation process in Revit - I build a medium size medium complexity building right in front of their eyes - from the start to the modelling finish, explaining roughly what I am doing as I go along. Normally it doesn't take any longer than 5 hours (including breaks).

Initially, it all goes over their heads, of course, but at least it gives them:

an opportunity to see it done in a logical sequence (makes them believe that it really can be done)
lets them appreciate the speed and ease in which a model is created
shows them how one thing depends on the other (e.g. basing floors/roofs sketches on the walls, so they alter later automatically when needed)
shows them that in Revit most of the things are done in more-less the same way (sketch based, single external sketch loop, non-crossing sketch lines, etc.)
helps them to understand that, in fact, in Revit you work on a single model while each view is just that - a view of the model from a different angle/position
shows them some ways to view the model simultaneously from different points of view (tiled views)
shows them the overall logic of Revit.Then from the second lesson on we do it step-by-step together - me on my computer connected to a data-projector (so they all can see what I am doing) and them doing it at the same time on their machines.

A whiteboard may help and it doesn't need to be very big. Sometimes it is much easier and quicker to sketch a detail - say, a wall intersection with all the layers and their priorities to explain what cuts what and in what order or to explain the importance of the origin in a profile family (e.g. slab edge) in terms of future placing it in the project.

And yes! The homeworks are the crucial part of it! Almost all the students are sure they can do it - during class - when the process is fresh in their heads. But to do the same later (the next day, in the evening, etc.) is a different matter... For instance, we could create together the external walls and some internal walls in the class but then I ask them to populate the rest of the internal walls as homework. The same goes for the doors, windows, cupboards, columns, posts, etc. Or, we can create one type of a composite wall/roof/floor together but then I ask them to create some other (specific) types on their own.

And lastly, at the beginning of each lesson give them a very short summary of what was covered in the previous class. That usually brings some questions from the floor (it should be strongly encouraged) , which gives you the opportunity to address them in separation - with the focus being only on these problems - to reinforce their understanding without wasting time on repeating things that they all know already.

It's all very basic stuff but I hope it still helps...

[Valkin]

There are three things I would add
Small groups of people, five at the most
Begin with the fundamentals
Don't show the easiest way to do things show the best way for people to understand this new process

[Gadget Man]

... Small groups of people, five at the most...

Well, that is not always possible. Sometimes I teach Revit at schools - in the classroom environment - and the number od students is driven by the number of workstations available. Sometimes as much as twenty... You just have to live with it...

[Valkin]

My point to a small, group is for a firm just starting out in Revit, Don't try to train everone at once or else most of your people will forget by the time they get onto a Revit Project
A small gruop of five is good to get the pilot projects going and introduce it into the company.

[mlgatzke]

I teach Revit at the college level. The one piece of advice that I would give is to teach the tools of Revit, but don't demonstrate EXACTLY what they will have to do. If you show them EXACTLY what they will have to do they will simply copy what you are doing. They MUST understand what Revit does and how it works. For instance, I show my students how to create a Wall Type, but not the exact Wall Type that they will be responsible to create. I show them how to layout walls, but not in the exact configuration that they will have to use. This way, they understand how the tool works, but they are not able to copy your work. For instance, when I teach, I have created videos showing my students exactly, step by step, how to create a Wall Type, then how to place that wall in a project. They are welcome to refer back to that video at any time, but it will not allow them to exactly copy my steps - analysis of their own project needs, synthesis of parts of my demonstration, and application of the techniques I taught are still necessary. At times I, like twiceroadsfool, tend to "drive" once in a while. However, I try to reserve those occassions to when the student is close to a deadline and they only need help to get over a little hump in a process (a quick fix). When this happens, be sure to point out exactly what you are doing so they can see and understand - but avoid taking over. They will only learn by doing it themselves.

[Dean Camlin]

Like Mike's, my teaching experience has been at the college level. My most recent experience was instructing several one-day introduction classes for other vocational teachers who were just getting into Revit. These groups have averaged about 15 students each.

As with many subjects, you will likely find among your class a wide range of talent, ability, and interest. Some students will come in with some level of prior exposure, while others may never have worked in 3D before. This can even be true of students who are drafting teachers themselves. To prevent being bogged down, enlist those who "get it" to help their slower neighbors. This will keep the class moving and avoid boredom among the quickest.

Go beyond the mechanics of how to do something, by explaining the why of it. Explore not only the way processes are supposed to work, but also how to correct them when they go wrong. And introduce your students to this forum and others, so they can join in these communities of opinions.

[Rick Houle]

What worked best for me in the office:

4-6 people at a time, hands-on training

Get them using the program in production ASAP, preferably with a mentor.
Use it or lose it... (i guess mandatory homework is near the same thing)

The best results we have had is to build a "Revit Kingpin" in each studio that is a couple steps ahead of the rest. People need answers to the real-time tasks before their frustration takes them over.

[m20roxxers]

Revit in itself is concept and more importantly a concept not all are willing or easily capable of embracing.

You will have students who pick up things at an accelerated rate and others who cannot understand simple basics. Remember pay attention to those who need the most help. Revit can be picked up by a user with little industry experience compared to a 20+ years user of CAD. They are not stupid they simply do not understand why doing something in 3D is easier especially when CD"s show alot of symbolic representations of real objects, then when you throw in reference planes and so forth. The best advice is to demonstrate how they can save time, and why Revit is better. A simple wall with a window in it then tiling an elevation and moving the window and watching it move in plan with a window schedule update demo can do wonders for the mind compared to an hour long speech about how great 3D is.

Teach them to see the time saving the benefits and bring the passion back into the drafting incorporated with the design, then expand upon why BIM design is the future, remember Revit is but one part of the total design future that will happen over the next 10 years iot is not BIM but simple on aspect of it. While I find the computer savvy pick it up faster, those with true building experience are the ones who become the masters of Revit recognising not only the CD capabilities but other issues that can be solved before ground is broken and analyise designs. Teaching Revit is easy, getting people interested or excited, or passionate about it rather then being a different form of paper work is the harder part.

[sthedens]

I've read that "the best CAD users don't often make the best BIM users".

I have found that to be false in our office. Of course, that depends on the definition of "best CAD users". To me, the best CAD users are the ones who really understand what they are doing. We have some users who are only considered "the best" because they have been doing CAD for 25 years BY ROTE. To this day they still don't "get CAD".

We have moved away from the "redline shop" mentality. Our project architects and engineers are working directly with the technology. When working in Revit you really need to know how buildings go together.

Taking someone who just knows CAD and try to teach them Revit? I'd rather eat glass.

[hand471037]

One thing I learned when working for a Autodesk reseller is that just because someone knows a lot about a tool doesn't make them a great teacher. And that someone who's a great teacher, but only knows a little about a tool, will still do a better job than the 'expert' user turned teacher.

I'm saying this not to discourage you at all, but moreso to tell you that teaching is very much a skill, like any other, that you learn via experience and training.

If you want to be successful at this, you should either read up on basic teaching techniques, or if you're going to AU take one of the excellent classes there on learning how to teach. People learn differently, and it's a bad habit that most 'experts' think that everyone learns the same way they do.

Another option would be to have the basics taught by someone with a lot of teaching experience (i.e. a reseller or consultant), have you sit in on the classes to learn from them and to chime in about your company's way of doing things, and then have you handle the 'expert' level teaching for project leaders. If I was in your shoes, and had the budget, that's what I'd do.

[PinkPantser]

I'm preparing to teach a "intro technology" class next semester for 2nd year university students in architecture and interior design and this thread has been useful, particularly some of the pitfalls of teachers (I tend to teach the way that I like to learn, but i'm working on it). I've taught this course before when it was specifically for 2d CAD and now the faculty wants to convert it to BIM while still covering the basics of 2d drafting.

I'm having a bit of trouble writing the curriculum and the other faculty have up to this point been summarily unhelpful. A couple questions I was hoping that you all could weigh in on:

1) Should I use AutoCAD to teach the 2d basics (lines, arcs, circles, plines, splines, offset, trim fillet, array, extend, etc) or should I try to teach them that stuff in Revit in order to keep to one platform?

2) When teaching Revit from scratch, do you find it best to do independent exercises independent of one another and then do a cumulative "building" at the end? Or do you prefer to stick with one project throughout the course, with each exercise building upon that one model?

[Brian Myers]

You should teach the basics of drafting in Revit. Why? Because there is really no reason to teach your students how to do things one way and then switch things up. Point being, many firms (including my own) use Revit for drafting every day (yes, I used AutoCAD for 19 years as well) and there is really no logical reason to switch from program to program during the learning stages. After all, they are really there to learn the art of design communication more than how to use a couple of software programs (at least I would hope so).

As far as teaching exercises and teaching projects... everyone will have their own opinion. I've done both and I can tell you that both ways work... but ultimately it's what INSPIRES the student to learn more that really matters. Once again, are they learning a program or are they learning architecture? A program I feel is best learned by accomplishing exercises. Architectural process is best learned by forcing creative situations and a project best creates those results. So it's a matter of what you are trying to accomplish and teach.

Good luck! :beer:

[hand471037]

1) Should I use AutoCAD to teach the 2d basics (lines, arcs, circles, plines, splines, offset, trim fillet, array, extend, etc) or should I try to teach them that stuff in Revit in order to keep to one platform?

Honestly I'd just stick with Revit. The 'drafting basics' are drawing vectors (lines, arcs) and the offset and trim command. It's so basic that any drafting / modeling software will get the basic idea across. Learning AutoCAD, or at least when I used to teach it back in the R14 days, is so much more about layers and xrefs and command lines and all that other junk than about drawing lines.

Besides, drafting in Revit is a heck of a lot easier and faster, and it's a lot more like drawing in Illustrator and other tools they might also be using. You'll spend less time on teaching 'drafting' and more time on more useful things.

If it was me, I'd teach modeling *first*, along with how to create views and schedules. Do something that has instant payoff. Drawing a bathtub with 2D lines is pretty lackluster when you could have everyone drawing whole buildings. Then, once they get some modeling ability going, have them learn the drafting to detail and annotate the views in Revit. That's closer to the real workflow of BIM anyways (model first) and will get everyone on board much faster I feel. I once tried teaching some Revit stuff talking about 2D stuff first, and it really didn't work.


2) When teaching Revit from scratch, do you find it best to do independent exercises independent of one another and then do a cumulative "building" at the end? Or do you prefer to stick with one project throughout the course, with each exercise building upon that one model?

The problem with the one big model is that when folks fall behind it creates a mess. Some people will rocket ahead and some will be slow, and so everyone will be at different points really quickly. What I like doing is the 'cooking show' approach, where you have everyone do a single exercise on the same model. For example you have them draw a staircase on class, and learn all about stairs and such. And then the next class you have them take a model that has a finished staircase in it, and then they draw & tag & keynote & detail & annotate sections and details of that staircase. That way if people didn't finish their staircase the last class it doesn't interrupt the next class.

[Scott D Davis]

I'm having a bit of trouble writing the curriculum....

You may want to check out www.autodesk.com/education (http://www.autodesk.com/education)

We have a group of people dedicated to education from K-12 to higher education, and provide services including cirriculum development. We provide these services free of charge.

Also available are downloads of Autodesk software for students and instructors free of charge.

[jeffh]

College level cirriculum can be found and downloaded here with an EDU e-mail address.

students.autodesk.com

This is what I use to teach Revit at the Boston Architectural College.

[Norton_cad]

There are five types of student:-

I don't know why I was sent here?
Try to engage them in conversations about something non CAD that they are interested in eg. Fishing, cooking, etc. By showing empathy, it will make them more suseptable to listening to you.

I use a different peice of software & think it's better than yours.
Ask them to identify what they think is great about the other software, and write them down on a white/black board. Then show how to do the same in the new, one by one from the list. Once they understand that you can "do it", they are more open to the training.

I'm an expert in this software, and any training is a waste of time.
Pick a topic you feel confident in, with some sort of cool tip feature in it. Something difficult & challanging. Show them how it's done. As they watch & understand, they develop a level of respect, and thus are more open to learn more.

I'm a big manager, and am a bit frightened of adapting to something new.
Probably the most difficult of the five. Managers are used to voicing an opionion, and can get upset if they arn't allowed to. Allow them to only at the end of a segment or exercise, and be polite & concise. Never try humour, as they can be really touchy.

I'm open to something new, and am keen to learn.
The rarest of the five, and a true blessing for any trainer.

[PinkPantser]

This has all been very helpful. I appreciate it!

I believe I now have a grasp on what my goals for the class are, now I need to focus on my technique and improving over last semester - the students unanimously said that I covered too many topics too quickly.

[PinkPantser]

Just wanted to say thanks again for the comments, just finished up a good semester. The material that Autodesk provides for teaching was a very helpful base, the workbook in particular.

[truevis]

The book The Instant Trainer http://books.google.com/books?id=np-Xz7ON00YC&dq=the+instant+trainer&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=azDN2LOa4B&sig=79PkaAOTplNJOF1CZ7QFlTfzGNc&hl=en&ei=8-IWSvmUDZyxtgeYwvn1DA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3#PPA32,M1
is for people like you -- someone who knows the subject, thus gets assigned to teach it. The book gives some good, general advice.

[jspartz]

Everyone here gave good advice. The only thing I have to add to it is that you should take a look at how your users learn. Everyone has a different learning style and so you need to adapt your teaching style to suit. Have them take a simple test for learning styles. You'll find out that some are visual (you can show them), some are audible (you can give them support with a phone call - make sure you say the exact words that they will see on the screen), some are kinetic learners (and need to do it themselves while you talk them through it), some learn better solitary, and most learn better with a group. So, make note or at the least a mental note of their learning abilities.

This will save you from having to answer the same question 5 times to the same user. The quicker they catch on the less headaches you have. The more you strengthen the knowledge base of your power users, the less easy questions from slower users you'll have to answer because the power users will answer them for you.

[Gadget Man]

One more thing that I "discovered" recently is that - in a classroom environment - you don't have to answer individual questions to individual students.

What I mean by that is when you are called by several students to their own workstations for support you just collect their questions and problems and tell them: "Ok, I will explain this again in a second" than you go to the next student.

Then you answer these questions or explain the solutions to the whole group again.

This serves several purposes:
- There is a very good chance that you will have more than one student with the same question/problem, so you won't have to repeat the answer several times.
- The rest of the students won't get bored and noisy.
- You will maintain group's attention.
- Students will have a chance to do it themselves again rather than you showing them how to do it on their machines (and believe me, you will want to hurry up - answering the same question for the third time - so you will do it for them)
- For all the other students who didn't have a question, one more repetition won't hurt...

That should be obvious but I am amazed how many old experienced teachers loose a lot of time and group's attention during a class explaining the same thing to several students separately. I had this very feedback from my private students, who attend the other teachers' classes.

[xiqx]

It's amazing how people's attentionspan stretches if you bring torture devices to class. Ofcourse you have the classical ones but feel free to try some other.
Suggestion; really bad music and so on ; )