September 30, 2009

Revit Rant #1

DISCLAIMER: It may very well be that the issues discussed below have a solution, of which I am unaware, due to my current level of Revit experience.

I am finding it very difficult to draw/model with any accuracy. The lack of an exposed coordinate system (let alone a user-defined one), and simple things like insertion points for linked Revit files or Model Groups is maddening. Modeling anything, in place, where you want it when you first place it is extremely difficult. The fact that the project on which I am working has multiple weird angles does not help.

I am also frustrated by the number of items in the program that can not be done with accuracy or repeatably. Clipping a view and placing a view on a sheet are, so far as I can tell, a total "eyeball" situation. It becomes rudely apparent when you change from one sheet to another, and what should be aligning plans on adjacent floors (or aligning plans of different types of the same floor) ends up being an animation, with the plan moving up and down, side to side or both.

Side Note to Self: The next time someone asks me to work on a project where adjacent rooms are rotated at 1.53 degrees, just say no.

4 comments:

Matt Stachoni said...

I feel your pain. Drawing accurately in Revit requires a whole new skill set than in AutoCAD. Of course, doing a wacky building as your first big project doesn't help.

What training and/or book resources have you gone through in learning Revit?

David Koch said...

The project team had three days of "basic" training from the reseller. There are other people in my firm with more experience, including some at our "Helpdesk". We are supposed to be having a follow up "shadowing" session with the instructor from the reseller.

I also took Paul Aubin's Mastering the Family Editor on-line course, which was quite helpful.

The "Help" is also sometimes useful, provided I know the right term on which to search.

Décio Ferreira said...

Well,
reading your post, i think that you don't know how to work in Revit.

I suggest you to take a course in Revit to be able to correctly use the program; in my opinion, as an architect i am, and a ADT/ACA user after using Revit, is the only true BIM software in AutoDesk.

About books, in my opinion, (Paul Aubin's book of ACA are one of the bests i know, and i have 3 of them, that I recommend without reservation), Paul Aubin's book of RAC2008, I confess that I was disappointed a little; i dont realy saw his new RAC 2010 (i believe that the index has improved.

So, I recommend the following:

http://www.sybex.com/WileyCDA/SybexTitle/Mastering-Revit-Architecture-2010.productCd-0470456493.html

(for me, one of the best books I know Revit)

Anonymous said...

Wow - I thought the whole world had gone Revit crazy. I've use AEC then ADT then ACA - I like ACA - I've just started dabbling with Revit and find it exasperating. The problems I have found is that I don't want to create a new door style when the door opening switches from 910 to 1010. I find the curtain walling difficault. There are some things I like - the links between tags and object properties, and I can see it's benifits if all disaplines are using revit. But using revit and not fully exploiting the model is a waste of time (in my opinion).