Revit Advice I Learned From Star Trek

[#1]

Revit Advice I Learned From Star Trek:

When dealing with a Help Desk ticket, a buddy mentioned a Star Trek quote. I believe it was, "The needs of the many…”. I immediately spouted back something about sticking to the client standard. And that’s how it started… we went back and forth giving me quotes, and I related them to CAD/BIM. What follows are just a few of my favorites. Enjoy.

Let's start with one of the most well-known quote from Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan.

“The needs of the many outweigh the needs (desire) of the few, or the one.”  

• Adm. Kirk & Capt. Spock (Star Trek II: Wrath of Kahn (1982))

When I hear that, I think of standards and how important they are. The “many” refers to the standard, whether that is a company standard or a client standard. The “few” refers to the individuals who don’t want to follow the standard. Standards are used for a lot of different reasons. Standards help maintain consistency and a common workflow. If anyone asks me to violate a standard, I will ask for something in writing from the originator of the standard authorizing the change. You can almost rephrase this to say “The requirements of the standard outweigh the opinions of the individual”.  

“Things are only impossible until they’re not.”

• Captain Jean-Luc Picard to Lt. Data (Star Trek: TNG: Season 1 : Coming Of Age)

Just because you don’t currently know how to do something, doesn’t mean it can't be done. Though I try not to think like that, I fall into this category sometimes.  I'm on a deadline, it's crunch time, and I'm trying to get something done I can't figure out. “… it can't be done”,I say and move on.  When in reality, it can be done. I just didn’t know how, at that time. When I hear this quote, the first thing that comes to mind is Don’t stop learning. Few things are Impossible, sometimes you just need to learn how…

“Insufficient facts always invite danger.”

• Spock (Star Trek (1967) - S01E22 Space Seed)

To put it frankly, Garbage In—Garbage Out: Bad information often delivers bad results. Sometimes, it's okay to fudge things.  But ultimately, you need to input the right information to get the right results. I know, easier said than done, especially early on in a project when you don’t have all the facts. However, promise me you’ll try.

Another thing that came to mind on this one was, Don’t take shortcuts. Saving a little bit of time now might cost you a lot more time down the road, especially in Revit. On a regular basis, I see so many issues later in projects that could have been averted if someone hadn’t taken a shortcut earlier in the project workflow.

“Improve a mechanical device, and you may double productivity. But improve, man, you gain a thousandfold.”

• Khan Noonien Singh (Star Trek (1967) - S01E22 Space Seed)

Here’s another one from Season 1, E22, Space Seed. You can have the highest-end computer with the fastest processor and most memory, but it won't matter if you don’t invest in training for your staff. A well trained workforce will be able to make the most of the nice computer you invested so much on.  Keep your staff up to speed on new software and methodologies. Send them to conferences, talk to your local reseller about classes they offer, send them to Autodesk University, etc… Keep learning and expanding your skills.

“I canna’ change the laws of physics.”

• Chief Engineer Montgomery “Scotty” Scott (Star Trek (1966) S01E04 The Naked Time)

I know I said earlier that most things aren’t “impossible”, but some things are more trouble than they're worth. Sometimes you need to manage expectations on what can be done efficiently. You may not be able to change the laws of physics, but you can set expectations on what is possible. You'll probably be explaining this to Project Managers or Senior staff, so keep it simple and understandable. Albert Einstein once said, “If you can't explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough”.

Next, I got a couple of double features for you…

“You can use logic to justify almost anything. That’s its power. And its flaw.”

• Captain Cathryn Janeway (Star Trek Voyager (1995), S01E09 Prime Factors)

"Logic is the beginning of wisdom, not the end."

• Mr. Spock (Star Trek IV: The Undiscovered Country (1991))

Just because it was designed to do one thing, doesn’t mean it can't do something else.  I always look at something's functionality, not what it's called. I remember back in 2011 when I was asked if Revit could do Process Piping. First reaction was, “That’s not what Revit is used for”. But logic would dictate that all the functionality was there, it just needed to be configured properly. I worked with my staff, and we set up new Pipe Types, Systems, and Families to work with Process/WWW workflows. Now it's used all the time for that kind of work.

This same logic can be applied to all sorts of stuff. Louver walls from a Curtain wall, Egress Lines from a Handrail, and Security Fencing from a Railing to name a few. 

"I am endeavoring to construct a pneumonic memory circuit using stone knives and bear skins."

• Mr. Spock (Star Trek (1967), S01E28 City on the Edge of Forever)

"Resistance is futile."

• Locutus of Borg: (Star Trek: TNG (1990), S03E26 The Best of Both Worlds,

To put it simply, stop trying to make Revit work like AutoCAD! The senior staff managing the project often fall back on what they're familiar with, and that’s probably AutoCAD. They never got trained in Revit, so the concept may be uncomfortable for them.  Luckily, I'm seeing this less and less as Architects and Engineers I trained 10-15+ years ago are becoming PM’s and know how to use the software.

This one may not be as popular, but I never said I wasn’t biased. Don’t use AutoCAD Architecture/Mechanical/Electrical/Etc… when you have access to a tool like Revit. Yes, there are some beneficial tools they have, but “I feel” the benefits of using Revit outweigh the drawbacks it may have. On almost every project, we get files from a specific discipline, that are done in one of these tools when the rest of the project is using Revit. This often causes issues with the model coordination of the other disciplines.

I get it, you have all these blocks and details that have been made in DWG format, and you don’t want to spend the time remaking them. But, One could say, “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few….”.

One last set of quotes I'll share are the Starfleet Captains' catch phrases.

“Engage”, “Execute”, “Make it so”, “Punch it”, “Let’s Go”.

• Starfleet captains' catch phrase

Every captain has a signature phrase when jumping to warp as they boldly go where no one has gone before…. Or, in our case, to start Designing and Making things. With the tools you have from Autodesk and the wisdom of Star Trek, You Can Make Anything…

Live Long and Prosper....