Monday 22 August 2011

Do you find Revit puzzling?

This post isn't a tip or workaround but more a simple observation which has stuck in my mind. 

During a typical working day I get lots of questions from team members regarding their Revit projects.. Some the answers I give them are quick fixes, some are simply advice tips however some are simply bad news. 

As I'm sure many of you already know, Revit can be amazing at doing complex tasks and yet sometimes it can seem almost impossible to get it to do something that the user considers a simple task. In actual fact, this is more often than not a user issue rather than a Revit issue. When this kind of thing occurs I can usually find a workaround to achieve the desired result but it often comes with bad news for the deadline panicked user.

Usually these issues are a result of a lack of forward planning when it comes to building the model or sometimes it can be a change in the user's requirements of the model. (these can be the same thing).. When this happens you often have to unpick a lot of work to be able to be able to provide a fix.. Users don't tend to like this and I often find myself the bearer of bad news.

In a recent such case and after explaining an open-heart surgery procedure for a live Revit project a colleague of mine summed up the whole thing in a nutshell. He said that it reminded him of doing a slider puzzle...



You know the one where you almost get it completed but the last two squares are the wrong way round. The only way to get it right is to go back and tear up what you have just done and rework it. Well guess what.. The same applies to your Revit projects..

Actually, I rather think a Revit Project is more like something like below but you get the idea.



I guess the lesson is to try and start with the end goal in mind. Please dont just jump in, whilst you may well get 1-13 done in record time I can guarantee you will be doing it again tomorrow if you want 14-15 the right way round.. 

2 comments:

  1. I do, but thanks to countless Revit tutorials online I was able to catch up some challenging features.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Inbuilding.org are running a free online Q&A on BIM and Autodesk Revit.

    Come and have a look

    ReplyDelete