Note: This article is written and published in Ukrainian and is a translated version of the original published here.
Questions: Tell us about your education and first professional steps. How did it all begin?
I am an Industrial and Civil Engineering (PCB) engineer by education. He studied at the Talnivskyi College of Construction and Economics from 1998 to 2003. My studies were interrupted by military service in the army – after the first year I was drafted. But I never considered this period lost. On the contrary, the army gave me very serious experience, especially in terms of personnel and organizational work. He served in the Commandant's Office at the headquarters of the Land Forces Command, and thanks to the knowledge of computer programs gained at the college, mainly in the Personnel Department. It was an interesting period that taught me discipline, responsibility and understanding of how to work in a large and orderly structure. These skills have subsequently become useful more than once already in professional activities, especially in personnel work.
Questions: When did AutoCAD and digital design appear in your life?
It was during college that I was first introduced to AutoCAD. It was still a DOS version of AutoCAD 11, which came on five-inch floppy disks. Now it sounds almost like a story from a museum, but then it was my first contact with digital design.
After returning from the army, the Windows environment had already appeared – I think it was Windows 95 – and I began to learn AutoCAD very actively. So actively that my college diploma was the first to be completed entirely digitally: AutoCAD, Word, and Excel.
Questions: What was your thesis and why did it become important to you?
My graduation project was a church. It was already performed in AutoCAD 2000, which had tools for three-dimensional modeling. I consciously chose the path of working with a 3D model, because I quickly realized that it is much easier to get projections from the model than to draw them manually, especially if changes appear.
At that time, access to the Internet was very limited, so all the tools had to be mastered by experiments - trials, errors and constant checks. But in the end, I managed to implement the idea.
The head of the Cherkasy Regional Agrobud was present at the defense of the diploma, and it so happened that just for the defense he invited me to work at his place.
Questions: What did your first years of work after graduation look like?
After the defense, I moved to Cherkasy and from 2003 to 2004 I worked in the department that was engaged in calculating volumes and estimates. My task was to work with drawings that were still done manually and create models in parallel.
During this period, I began to actively study AutoCAD Architecture. It seemed to me a more developed tool, with better functionality. This, of course, was not yet Revit, but the so-called "intelligent elements" were already appearing there, which made it possible to create models, not just lines.
At that time, we accompanied the facilities of Myronivskyi Hliboproduct (MHP) – their first poultry farms. I was engaged in the calculation of volumes and construction support. This work gave me a very clear understanding of the relationship between design and implementation on the construction site.
Questions: When did you move to Kyiv and what has changed?
In 2004, I was invited to the design bureau in Kyiv. I passed the interview and started working in the civilian direction. It was during this period that AutoCAD 2005 was released, and with it, Revit appeared on the disc - a completely unknown product at that time.
But unlike previous years, I already had the Internet, which allowed me to systematically search for information, learn Revit better, and increase my own productivity. This allowed more communication on resources dedicated to AutoCAD and AutoCAD Architecture. In fact, I was one of the first to publicly ask the question: which is better – AutoCAD Architecture or Revit? And most importantly, prove it on real projects.
Questions: How did you finally come to Revit and who influenced it?
In the beginning, it was quite difficult with Revit. He faced limitations, did not understand everything and could not always overcome these barriers. And the design bureau mainly worked in AutoCAD or ArchiCAD. The turning point was the acquaintance with Neboysha Novkovich from Kharkiv. As far as I remember, he is a Serb and was one of the first to start systematically working with Revit in Ukraine. He guided me to international resources and advised me to actively communicate with foreign experts. So the main platforms for me were Autodesk User Group International (AUGI) and RevitCity.
Through AUGI, I started communicating directly with the developers of Revit. In particular, withFedor Kouranov, who gave me a lot of tips, explained the logic and principles, and also invited me to beta testing. This gave a completely different level of understanding of the product – not only how to use it, but why it works the way it does. Even then, the realization came: if you want to get the necessary changes, you need to be in constant dialogue.
Questions: What exactly interested you most about Revit?
As I began to study Revit more deeply, I realized that families were the key to it. This is a parametric mechanism that allows you to create your own components without programming. This is what fascinated me very much.
I began to experiment a lot, create the first solutions, and at some point I realized that Revit for me is not just a tool, but an environment for implementing my own logic and design processes.
Questions: How did you end up in Autodesk distribution and what did you do during this period?
In 2005, he began working with Autodesk's distributor – Arkada CJSC. They began to invite me to their events, and at the beginning of 2006 I moved to work with them and was responsible for the direction of architecture and construction in Ukraine.
It was then that my systematic work with Revit began: its implementation, promotion and training. At the same time, I worked with other Autodesk products, but Revit remained key.
At that time, Revit did not have localization, and I already had my first developments in the form of projects, templates, and a library. Yes, at that time there was no clear understanding of what and what to call ... But even then he understood that names are extremely important. By the way, this library was officially included in the first localization and became the basis for the first trainings.
Questions: How was the community formed and your influence on it?
In general, on various CAD forums in fierce discussions, and then on Arkada's own forum. In fact, this was the first Revit forum, where the first backbone of the community was formed. Then he met Dmytro Tyshchenko, Ilya Glukhanyuk, Oleksiy Borysov, Oleksiy Lobanov, Dmytro Chubryk, Serhiy Simonov, Roman Zheleznyak and others.
And I gained considerable notoriety and influence in 2007, during the celebration of Autodesk's 25th anniversary - I was among those who performed on the main stage, demonstrating the complete process in Revit, from architecture through structures to engineering networks. A technical specialist from Great Britain came to us -John Adams, who showed the methodology on the example of the Autodesk office in Britain (Farnborough). I saw that the model was not adapted to our realities, and I completely redesigned it: optimized file linking, facades, nesting, object grouping, and division by stages. The performance had a great resonance - it was a real sensation. It was from this moment that Revit began to develop more actively, and the community began to form.
Questions: Who played the biggest role in your journey as a roar?
The largest role was played by Tatyana Erofeeva, who in 2007 just came to Autodesk. During all international meetings, including in Boston and Las Vegas, she was actually an interpreter and moderator of communication. It was she who helped to smooth out sharp moments and keep the dialogue in a constructive field.
In Boston in 2011, he also met Leonid Raiz one of the founders of Revit. Unfortunately, we didn't talk much, but it was very interesting and useful to get answers from him to the questions - why exactly so?
Questions: What did interaction with Autodesk look like at the impact level?
In 2009, we, as a community, went to Las Vegas with the first large-scale wishlist – more than 100 pages of wishes in English. Over time, we changed our approach: we stopped comparing ourselves with competitors and focused on Autodesk's internal products – AutoCAD, AutoCAD Architecture, Inventor.
Wishlist was reduced to 30-40 key points by direction. Some of them were implemented over time, and this gave a sense of real impact. Then there were trips to Boston – Summit and One Team Conference – with a direct dialogue with developers at Revit's headquarters.
Questions: How did this stage of your journey end?
In 2009, I moved to Softprom, and Belarus was added to my responsibility. Active trips, work with design institutes, consulting and support of the state program for the implementation of BIM began.
In 2013, I had a choice – Minsk or Moscow, but after the One Team Conference in Las Vegas, I deliberately refused to move further in distribution and began to work with Ukrainian developers. I realized that without significant practical experience in large and large-scale projects, it is impossible to move on. Thus ended the first major stage of my professional career.
Expect a continuation in January 2026.
Note: This article is written and published in Ukrainian and is a translated version of the original published here.
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