REVIT 2013 - scaled down usage - worth it?

[PRSS]

Hello every body

I have cross graded from AutoCAD 2013 to Building Design Suite 2013 (at a very low priced aggressive promotional offer here in Inda). This suite includes AutoCAD 2013, AutoCAD Architecture 2013, Autodesk REVIT 2013, 3dsMax Design 2013, Autodesk Sketchbook, Showcase, etc.

Out of this I intend to use REVIT as follows:

In India full BIM (meaning upto the point of taking it to work out bill of quantities and estimation etc.) is not yet the default and may not be so for sometime to come. Also in India, if we use REVIT, 75 percent of the objects will have to be custom objects converted to Revit intelligent objects (i.e., doors, windows, curtain walls, and any other day to day use objects) because Revit's components or families are fine tuned and oriented towards the West & Europe. In India nothing is standardised yet and no vendor gives his products as REVIT family or component. So each has to be modelled and made into intelligent objects for Revit. This wuld be an extensive and expensive process which would be counter productive here in India.

So if Revit is used to model from the ground & upwards till the roof top only (without the foundation etc, and also without the services like HVAC, plumbing, electrical, etc.) and all the custom made objects will be used as non-intelligent models (i.e. Revit will not recognise such objects as Revit intelligent objects) and use the Revit model to produce construction drawings alone (i.e. 2D drawings of plans, sections & elevations generated from Revit and then annotated in AutoCAD), and also for visualisation, is working on Revit for this purpose really worth while or would you recommend some other software. (ACA also is included in the pack). As i am not an experienced user in either of these - ACA or Revit, I am asking this question. However, my software pack has arrived - atleast let me use them dilligently as per your advise.

Thanks in advance

PRSS

[alan.quinn]

You asked very good questions and ones that many before you have faced. I would approach this as a way of getting into Revit, learning how to use the applications, and where you can take it. I'm not sure where Revit will be in 5, 10 years here the West or in India, but looking at the past 10 years I expect that more and more people will adapt it.

Perhaps your first project is only a Massing in Revit and you do all your annotation in Revit, but slowly over time (like so many other users) you transition from Autocad 2D to Revit. It will not take very long to start building up a library that suits you needs in India. Start with an family in the Revit library and edit it to match local needs. If you did two per week for six months, you'd have fifty two custom families at the end! In the grand scheme of things that's not a lot, but if that fifty two made up doors and windows that you always use in your projects you will be a long way down the road to having a nice library. 

As you add more content you will start moving more work to Revit and at some point in the future you will be modeling and annotating fully in Revit. Remember you are not the first person to ask these questions and you won't be the last. My advise is to dig into it, ask all the questions you want on this forum and before long you'll be the persons that other seek out for advise.

Good luck and welcome to Revit.

[PRSS]

I am very happy to note that I got a reply direct from Autodesk. I am satisfied with what you have said. This is really a good guidance.

One more question: I have only one license for Building Design Suite Premium. So it is for a single seat. My office is a Small Office Home Office setup with 4 diploma staff to do drafting. I have to train myself up and one of my staff so that when she gets trained up she would be using Revit & other 3 would be using AutoCAD LT. My projects also are small ones - High-end Residences, small Commercial Buildings, Small three star hotels, small apartments, etc.

So I wish to know that whether one staff alone could handle Revit. I can't afford to buy a second license for Revit. So what workflow would you suggest?

Thanks in advance

PRSS

[alan.quinn · Accepted solution]

Glad I could help out. As far as your last questing is concerned. The amount to work will determine whether or not one user can handle it. If the user is well trained and comfortable in the application they will be able to handle more work, if not it will be less. 

Hope this help and thanks again.

[PRSS · Accepted solution]

Thank you very much for the info. Appreciate your guidance.

With best regards

PRSS