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Joined: Wed, Mar 19, 2008
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G'day from down here in Sydney. I'm a cad manager for a decent sized building services consultancy. I have never been impressed with 3D software, including Revit MEP. We had Autodesk down here giving us the hard sell about a year ago and I felt it was far from ready. However...I've just accepted a job at a much larger company who want me to set up a 3D section for building services using Revit. I guess I felt I needed the challenge. There aren't many people down here using it for MEP so I'm not exactly sure how long this thing is going to take me. From what I've been reading, there's something of a learning curve coming up.I start the week after next and I would dearly like to give my new masters some sort of indication of where we're all likely to be in the short/medium/long term. I know I'm asking how long is a piece of string, but any help would be appreciated. Does anyone have similar experience with building services consultancies starting from scratch and roughly how long it takes to get up to speed in mech, elec, hydraulic and fire? Is it a viable proposition to do a project with just (say) mech and then build expertise in the other services? So many questions...so little time! Look forward to talking with you guys in the coming months.
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Joined: Thu, Jul 21, 2005
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How much, how fast, and how many of us will be able to, eh? The question of how long it will take you to be proficient is really more a quesiton of how much time you can spend on a real project in Revit. It took me about 2 months of poking around/ reading tutorials/ trying it out for myself to get to what I'd call a good working speed. As to how long it will take for the whole firm to get to the point that you can do all your projects in Revit, I feel like that depends more on how much time your firm is willing to put into developing the details. If you're always in a state of "get it done as fast as possible because the client was supposed to have these drawings 3 days ago" then you will never really be able to use Revit to its fullest potential. If, however, you are able to take a very tedious few weeks to change ALL of your CAD details over to Revit details, you will be able to make working drawings that not only look good, but they'll have all the benefits of instant revision. I love Revit as much as the next person, but I have to say that the sell we got from Autodesk reps a few years ago when we bought into the program said nothing of how long it would take to convert all of our details and drawing conventions. I guess I'm just trying to say that your new bosses need to realize that Revit is a great tool, but one which needs to be calibrated, so to speak, to the needs of your office. If no one is given the opportunity to take the time to do the calibration, everyone will have a slow time of it. (building details on an "as we need them" basis is NOT the way to go, because inevitably you need them yesterday). I'd love to know what experiences other people have had making the switch.
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Ruth Rau Main Street Architecture, P.C. |
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Joined: Thu, Mar 20, 2008
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Hi Wozza, I’m a Project Manager at an outsourced CAD and BIM solutions company, and we have found that Revit MEP has been the slowest on the learning curve for us (we developed extensive expertise in Revit Structure and Architecture first). One reason is that the MEP guys were late in getting on board the BIM bandwagon, and the other is that the Revit software for MEP still had some major kinks in it (it wasn’t just you who felt it wasn’t ready). They are rolling out this year’s version of Revit MEP next month, so I expect we’ll see some improvements… I think Ruth is correct about the need to be realistic about timeframes for developing competencies, you need to make sure you’re doing it right. Your bosses should understand that efficiencies will be lost at first as you develop expertise (in the near term it may take twice as long), but that this is where the industry is headed so they’ll need to take that step eventually anyways. We are finding that more owners/developers are requiring coordinated models and dictating that their design team all work in Revit – and then coming to us to help make it happen. MEP will have to be able to keep up with the Structural Engineers and Architects working in Revit, and we are already seeing that the ones who don’t are at a competitive disadvantage. Your new bosses need to see it as a necessary investment of time and money, and a great opportunity to set your business apart… Good luck! Michael Renaud Project Manager, BIM CADFORCE, Inc. Marina Del Rey, CA 90292 www.cadforce.com Direct: (310) 437-6300 ext.134 Fax: (419) 821-7513
Edited on: Tue, Mar 25, 2008 at 4:06:36 PM
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Michael RenaudProject Coordinator, BIMCADFORCE, Inc. 4094 Glencoe Ave., Unit AMarina Del Rey, CA 90292www.cadforce.com(c) (310) 437-6300 ext.134(f) (419) 821-7513 |
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