Decision for a newbie

[mephasm]

hi,

First I'd like to say hello to all the great ppl out here. I'd be very grateful if you could help with my questions.

I am a seasoned (!) architecture student. Now I am about to deliver my diploma project. And I've been trying to make my mind for the means to deliver it. It is a museum project by the way.

You see I can deliver it by just drawing in Autocad. But I have only 10 days left, and I'd really like a 3d model too, which will be very hard to catch up if I go autocad way.

I have some experience with Allplan BIM, so I know what a bim is, but schedules or such is not my case here. I have delivered a previous project fully drawn in Allplan, and visualised by Cinema 4d.

My question is, do you think I can accomplish this in Revit, in such a short time (10 days), considering I have no pro. experience with revit, and I have just went through getting started tutorial, and some in tutorial menu?

For example, I have managed to model my detailed, and huge topography in revit. And i tried to use those tools for the first time. Will all process be like this? Is it so easy to understand?

And secondly, will I be able to export the sections and views in 2d, just in case all goes messed up?

Sorry for testing your patience, but last question: I have modelled the topo, now I will go in detail on it. Make some pads or so. But I would like to keep my original topo in backup. how can this be done in revit, since it is just one file. If was allplan, i would copy in a seperate drawing file in the same project, and in the same coordinates.


Thank you for the time, I hope I was clear enough with my English.

Sincerely, Emre.

[aggockel50321]

I have students here that can pick it up reasonably after a few days (usually 3-4 hours per day) of working through the tutorials.

If you've done a detailed topo in Revit, chances are you are well on your way. Another advantage you should have is that you should have better design & construction knowledge, which will give you a leg up.

You can preserve your topo, by doing your building as a separate project, and then linking the two.

And you can export any view as a 2D autocad drawing.

Museums must be a popular design challenge in school. A former student here, that picked up Revit as described above, is now in his second year of architectural school at Rice, and has sent me pdf's of some of the museum project(s) he's done in Revit.

So give it a shot, and be sure to post some stuff in the gallery here.

I'm sure you'll do well.

[mephasm]

Thanks Andrew for your encouraging answer.

Well I guess I will try on it 1-2 days to see my progress. some things about revit are uncomfortable to me, coming from another package. Like not being able to draw a free column, the family obligation. Or the need to insert columns on their centre points. Stuff like that. Maybe there are no such problems, may be I'll figure solutions.

You mean if I link the topo, I can make pads on it freely, without damaging the original? That's a very cool thing.

About posting my stuff, I'd be happy to do that. But it is a school project, and our school has strict rules on designing, like it has to be subtle in form, very very, i mean very, respective to surroundings. This makes it hard to put out a handsome contemporary project. So you may not like it, because I don't :)

[saeborne]

Let me preface my statement, by saying I believe Revit is an excellent tool. For my professional work product, I'm 100% a BIM convert.

That said... In your situation, I would not recommend it. If you only have 10 days to produce your thesis project, can you really afford 4 days of learning curve?

At 2:00 AM, when you're gunning to get something done, you will invariably run into a road block of some sort... "Why does this wall look like this?" "How come the roof won't extend here?" I don't know the exact nature of your project, but I can guarantee there will be some issue, where the application doesn't behave as expected. Do you have a support network to turn to, when you hit this road block?

On day 5, will you be thinking, "Damn, if only I did this in <Form Z / Sketch Up / Insert proficient application>, my life would be so much easier?"

In addition to your plans and elevations, I'm certain your thesis entails much other content. Don't make your life difficult by adding the learning curve as another layer of complexity. Stick with what you know, and learn the app when you have more time.

Best of luck on your thesis!

[mephasm]

Hi, saeborne,

Well you may be right, that's what I was thinking, and the why I asked about it here. I am somewhat productive with revit, but not sure what will happen in the course to finish the project. I don't have anything else to prepare other than the project itself.

In fact this is a huge project in area, but it is a simple one. But I agree with you that there will be issues. There are some already. Like attaching colums to curved roof (extruded), making beams in that roof (concrete roof), etc.

I guess I will try 1 or 2 days to see what comes up, I don't know.

[iankids]

Gee, I'm not sure.

Given a fixed deadline I would probably opt for the safe option and spend some extra time in prettying it up.

Although I am possibly a slow learner, I found that the first three months of Revit were terrible where my production level halved as I tried to do some jobs in AutoCad (to keep the cash flow up) , and some jobs in Revit (to add value to the longer term)!

If I remember correctly, it was around the six month mark before I finally saw some productivity improvements above and beyond what I would do in AutoCad.

That being said, the sooner you start with Revit and the less you do on AutoCad the better off you will be in the long run.

Best of luck whichever way you choose to go, but as I said, I would err on the side of safety.

Cheers,

Ian

[cliff collins]

I'd go for it in Revit.

That said, the biggest lesson you will learn in school is TIME MANAGEMENT!!!

You obviously should not be making such overwhelming decisions so late in the game.

Once you get into the "real world" you will face challenges many times greater.

And you will learn to plan ahead, or you will not survive.

Just some advice from an "old guy" who has been thru school, hand-drawing, Autocad, Microstation, Architectural Desktop, and Revit--all on real projects with real clients and real deadlines!!!

Good luck!!!

[Comach]

I would suggest you play safe - prepare your diploma in the cad product you are most comfortable with - then if you have time, develop the additional 3d model in Revit.

At least then you will have delivered your project.

The general consensus is that you have left this decision very late and you don't want to compromise the end product as a consequence.

For any new cad product you really need to have some lead time to familiarise yourself with the vagaries of the product and fully comprehend the work-flow options available to you.

Without in-house product support and colleaques on hand to chip in to help, your options are unfortunately limited.

Which ever way you choose I wish you success.

[mephasm]

thanks for all your answers. I decided to play safe.

And Cliff, the reason for this decision to come up late, the reason for bad time management is that I've been working in real life for several years, so I can't give enough time as a usual student.

Because of the fact that there are still unresolved issues in the project, and the fact that there will be issues in using revit, and issues after the 3d model came up (the things you don't see in 2d sections and elevations), I play safe now.

Thanks for all the time for you kind suggestions.

Cheers, Emre