Revit MEP 2012 (First Time)

[Anonymous]

Well here is my question for all of you Autodesk pros. My company just upgraded my AutoCAD MEP and also got Revit MEP 2012. I have been using regular AutoCAD for approximately 4 years. I have got it down pretty well from what I think I am sure I am missing things but I am able to do what our company needs at a very well pace.

But here is the problem I am running into we are looking at doing a few projects in Revit and I have never opened the program. I have recently had some time in order to open it and start playing around with it. But seems that with this program it’s very hard to self teach or this could just be me? Is there any material out there that would help me guide through some exercises I have looked on autodesk website but they dont have basic stuff from what I have seen. I recently had our reception buy the Mastering Autodesk 2011 book even though I have 2012 I figured it would help me out even though it is last years verison since the 2012 book doesnt come out for a few months and I have time now to start getting to know the program. Let me know if any of you have any other good places to go in order to start mastering this program.

My co-workers and boss think that I can have it mastered in 2-3 days with just playing on there trying to figure out things. Which I do not believe I can do or is this the case for everyone?

Thanks for the help

[asommer]

Your Co-workers and Boss have no Idea what you are about to get into. Books can help, but playing with it a lot will get you used to the works. Set small goals on it. Create a simple building with floors, walls, Ceilings and Roof, and Link that into your mep file as a test architectural model. Do simple duct and piping systems. There will be a lot of issues you will run into at first, just get to understand how the Revit system thinks. I did this for Weeks, nothing but. It was worth it.

[julianjameson8403]

Mike

What a great question - I love the ignorance of your boss and colleagues!!

Firstly - Autocad and Revit have little in common. You have a head start in the 3D environment which is good and if you just want to use Revit as another 3D drawing package then you will feel pretty at home having done 3D modelling in Autocad MEP. However to get the most out of Revit there is a lot more to learn than modifying 3D elements- parametric families/schedules/calculation tools/ analysis tools (although not 100% correct)/systems, etc.

Secondly - the standard training course is 2-3 days after which most people are able to drive the package and model easy services in nice simple buildings, like the tutorial buildings, etc. Understanding how the package is implemented in a real life scenario takes much longer due to quirks and limitations in the software.

Thirdly - family creation. Depending where you are in the world, you will either have access to are fair amount of manufacturer specfic content or you will have pretty much bugger all. Therefore you will either have to buy in your content, make do with generic stuff or learn how to make your own. This ia a skill set that in itself

Fourthly - Interaction with other packages. In the MEP world, we interact with loads of different analysis/design tools and understanding how to export/what information transfers/what information can be imported into Revit, etc. this is again another huge learning curve to understand IFC, GbXML, etc.

Fifthly - You will have fun getting Revit to model as well as Autocad MEP and especially CADMEP+ (CADDUCT). Fittings and stuff do not seem to work consistently and look as they should to suit DW144 (if in the UK) and people oftne go about amending the OOTB stuff to work properly. Also you will have fun getting stuff to connect properly as REvit will refuse even though it looks like a logic option.

Sixthly - You will also spend a fair bit of time playing with visibility settings, etc trying to get your 2D deliverable (i.e. drawings/documentation views) to look right. Especially when you colleagues and boos trun round and say the usual "It doesn't look like our previous CAD drawings!!)

Don't let the above put you off as Revit is a good programme and has it's place in the design process. However it does have quite a few short comings which take time to work out how to get around.

As far as training goes - the Mastering MEP 2011 is a good start and probably better than the help file. There is now the new Wiki but haven't looked at it in great detail yet. The tutorials on the Autodesk website from 2010 will help you learn how to drive the software but for real life applications, forums and blogs are best as many people around the world have probably gone through what you are about to go through.

Good luck with learning and remember that there is alot of information out on the net to help you - just takes time to find it

Julian