Hi Clyne,
Nice to see a full time educator here.
I'm not a bimmer yet. Just learning and trying to apply it to my office.
Vanilla Autocad 2004 (but with my own custom menu's etc). I used to teach autocad at a junior college but with it's application as an architectural tool. So how we coordinate with consultants, layering structure, proper x-referencing and cad standards. Plus I would throw in an intro to 3D Max and modeling in autocad. (contrary to popular believe, it's never too much to do in one semester). The point was to create students who would be productive in an architectural office, be flexible enough to adapt to that firms' standards. This being a junior college, and their first semester using cad. I placed half the class for summer intern jobs. The rest were transferring to 4 yr uni's.
I'm glad to see that you're cutting edge and pushing your students.
It is a good idea that enables a student to see how it all goes together. Constructing a model as opposed to just modeling (i.e building a cardboard model or using regular 3D)
I gather that yours is a design class but uses Revit as a modeling/ design tool? Actually this is nice to see. Taking Revit beyond just a drafting class. I can see why it's so popular. Sometimes I feel the students are way ahead in technology and just waitting for the appropriate courses to come along.
That being said, I know that some educators feel that students have their whole life's ahead of them in the working arena to learn the professional aspects of their work life. I.e. professional practise, working with consultants, contracts etc. So design is paramount.
Yet, those in the field get new grads every year who wished they had learned some of these aspects while in college, so they did not have to struggle as much.
Do you know if there are other lecturers teaching Revit in a professional practise class? That is get them to start thinking about what it will be like to apply Revit in an office environment. Learning to collaborate and coordinate with team members and MEPs/ structural consultants?
You brought up a good point about CAD classes. Maybe some of us have been looking at this in too much of a traditional way. CAD classes where we expect students to learn the tools and be able to function in a professional environment.
Maybe students start out with CAD classes to learn the basics of the tool and then progresss to their professional practise/ working drawings class where they learn how CAD/BIM is used to intergrate a design among the AEC team members. Bring up CAD standards there. Something that can be achieved in a 4-5yr program. But not really in a vocational school/ junior college program.
What are your thoughts?
We're hoping this thread or forum can serve as a way to cross pollinate. Between educators and those in the field. In a constructive way. So I apologize ahead of time if I write anything that may appear offensive.
Please share your ideas. Again, I do think that your Revit as a design tool is a very good idea. Applying Revit as a computer aided design tool. Maybe because the technology has reached the point where it can be used as such. There are other design studios that use Form-Z, archicad etc.
Maybe some of the ideas of team collaboration could be utilized in design exercises that require a team of students to share a design and work within workset/workgroups in Revit??
You probably are doing this already.