Problems with Switching to Revit from AutoCAD?

[m20roxxers]

Ted

There's is huge ability to create your own objects.
The object creator is amazingly flexible, but the price with flexibility is complexity.

The more flexibile you want an item the more complex it has to be, you don't have to be genius, with math or programming, but a decent understanding of math will take you far.

You can create an object you want it just depends on what you want to do, again thinking about what you are creating, why you are creating it and how it will be used are important parts of using family editor.

Have a look around you should find some good examples of just how flexible the program can be.

The best way to think is not what Revit can't do but how to make Revit do what you want, if you keep this mentality you find it much easier to explore options others with the latter attitude would not.

[SkiSouth]

I think the biggest change is thinking in "building" terms versus "drawing with lines" terms. Your first users should be very good at putting together buildings and understanding how to construct same. Congrats on the decision to go with Revit. Haven't looked back (to Acad) for many a year now.....

[benmay]

I am suprised that no one has mentioned IT & hardware in particular.

Moving from 2D AutoCAD to a Revit with an office who will be producing Arch, Structure & MEP in house will require a well planned IT system. I can only reccomend that you do your research early and ensure that you are ready and that you buy for the future.

Once you start linking together all your models, as you would expect to do working under the one company, hardware will come into play in a major way along with your server setup.

There is plenty of information on AUGI regarding reccomendations from people actually doing the projects, which is a great guide.

[travismv702230]

Having just worked on the pilot Revit project at a previous firm I would say that the biggest obstacle in learning Revit and a successful implementation is attitude. I had one person on our team of 3 to 3.5 that just didn't get it. He wouldn't put in the extra time and effort to figure things out. That and the Project Manager would make stupid comments about the quality (look) of the drawings compared to AutoCAD. I'd bring this up to our Revit implementer and we'd ask for specific examples and we got nothing in return.

It will take extra time at the start. The people on the team need to be committed to put forth the extra effort!

[balazs.trojak]

Entirely agree with Tidalwave. There will always be people who will be sceptical. For good reason too, as we have had various promises from software vendors in the past and a kind of change fatigue has set in.

Be ready to demonstrate the good points:
- Automatic generation of sections, elevations
- Automatic tagging en masse (RS)
- Beam systems (RS)
- Analysys model export (RS)
- Automatic sheduling
- Central file
- Change once - change everywhere
Ask them, can you do any of that in AutoCAD?

Also bring home the point that they have absolute control over the look of their drawings!
The most important aspect to learn in Revit for AutoCAD users is the control of lines, surfaces, patterns, colours etc. Get intimately familiar with:

Materials - they control the surfaces.
Object Styles - they control the lines.
Overrides - where you can change all of that per view.
And you can override all of this per element or even per line with linework.

What I cannot seem to do is converting some of them to use a white background...

[gbrowne]

What I cannot seem to do is converting some of them to use a white background...

Haha, I laughed out loud..!

[tedg]

Thanks everyone for the information.
All good points and valuable to me.

Our Cadd Manager/IT guy seems to be aware of the hardware and server requirements.
It was brought up in a meeting.

[pauljordan]

Switching to Revit is just like it was back in the day when we all switched from the drawing boards to Autocad. We had our nay sayers back then as well. Most of them have long since retired or taken up jobs at local malls as security guards now.

You're definitely getting good advice here. Look for the ones that are coming to you and saying "Hey, this Revit thing does this..." and the ones that keep asking when you'll be setting up the team. Don't go pick "Ole Gus" who still has his lead sharpener and a 30/60 triangle on his desk "Just in case."...

As for the longer you've used Acad, the harder it is to switch.. That's total BS. I'm one of those guys that made the switch from manual to Autocad back in '89 and when I went to Revit, I went full bore.

As an AE, I have to be proficient on all of the AEC software and I catch myself in the middle of classes all the time when a client is learning Autocad Arch or MEP and thinking "Dang, these guys should be using Revit, it'd be so much easier for what they want.."

One small piece of advice. Don't just tell your folks about AUGI and other sources like Revit City, etc.. Take time to do a brown bag lunch and SHOW it to them.. The more times you do, the more likely they'll start using it. I tell users all the time about AUGI and other resources. I see them write the websites down but, when I go back, it's always "Ohh, yeah.. umm.. I was gonna go on there but.... (Insert BS excuse here)...."

Anyway, good luck, ask questions, embrace the evolution, ask more questions..