Problems with Switching to Revit from AutoCAD?

[tedg]

Hey everyone....
We're an A/E firm with 100+ people. We have Architects, Structural, Mechanical, Electrical and Civil Engineers as well as a Survey crew, Construction managers, Estimators (etc). We currently use 2d AutoCAD (with a little bit of 3-d, but not much). We have allot of different versions of ADT (but don't really use the ADT) like from 2005 to 2008.

Our company is strongly considering biting the bullet and getting into Revit: Architecture, Structure & M/E/P.

I've heard and seen allot of great things about Revit, what kinds of issues will we see when making the switch?

What things should we do to prepare?
What things should we NOT do?

A small key group of us is expected to get the training and software and work on a project. We would then be implementing it for most if not all projects.

I expect that we will still be using some AutoCAD.

Any insight from those who have experience on this issue would help.

Thanks

[Andre Carvalho]

Three tips that you might want to consider:

You should see the ACAD to Revit switch as an evolution and not a revolution.

The ideal is to start with a pilot project that's is at the same easy (straight forward) and with no deadlines, so you can actually focus on the implementation.

Pick the right team: On the path to switch from ACAD to Revit you will find people that don't want learn Revit and these will be very negative toward the change. Pick the ones that are excited about the change. Don't forget that being very god with ACAD doesn't necessarily means being good with Revit because most likely you will have to forget most of what you know from ACAD when using Revit.

Best regards,

Andre Carvalho

[tedg]

Three tips that you might want to consider:

You should see the ACAD to Revit switch as an evolution and not a revolution.

The ideal is to start with a pilot project that's is at the same easy (straight forward) and with no deadlines, so you can actually focus on the implementation.

Pick the right team: On the path to switch from ACAD to Revit you will find people that don't want learn Revit and these will be very negative toward the change. Pick the ones that are excited about the change. Don't forget that being very god with ACAD doesn't necessarily means being good with Revit because most likely you will have to forget most of what you know from ACAD when using Revit.

Best regards,

Andre Carvalho

Thanks for the tips.
We have two out of three covered:

1. We are seeing it as an "Evolution" (most of us see it for the improvement it is)
2. We have a good group of people excited to jump on and move forward.
3. We have a project we're already working on (with deadlines) with a consulting firm, that is already doing their part in Revit, (as well as one of our designers working with them in Revit).

I actually can't wait, even though I'm a very strong AutoCAD user, to see the company I work for make the commitment to "evolve" .

[aaronrumple]

...and read and memorize everything writtent about Revit at AUGI.

[Andre Carvalho]

...and read and memorize everything writtent about Revit at AUGI.

Excellent point, Aaron!

Ted, encourage your group to visit the AUGI forum regularly to look for answers, best practices, share theirs discoveries, etc. I can tell you that's the best "teacher" they can have (and better than all, it's free!)

Andre Carvalho

[patricks]

Not sure if this helps, but it seems to me that the people who are best at Revit can both visualize in 3D quite well, and those who don't have as much experience in AutoCAD. The more you've used CAD, the harder it is to pick up on Revit, and probably vice versa (I am very bad and slow when it comes to working in CAD).

*edit woohoo 3000th post!