Introducing Revit Architecture 2010, BIM for Beginners: Notes #1

3.17.10 9:05-10:05pm
Introducing Revit Architecture 2010, BIM for Beginners
Chapter 1 ■ Understanding BIM
- A Brief History of Architectural Documentation
- Advantages of a BIM Approach
- How BIM Is Different from CAD
- Why Revit?
- Revit Concepts

I skimmed these first three chapters as I have had a good start with the native Revit tutorials. I suggest reading them if you are starting fresh with the program.

Here are a few notes of items I discovered that I either found to be significant moving to BIM from 2D CAD or didn't learn through the Revit intro tutorials.

"example, in Revit, there is no way to accidentally place a window into the ″wall″ layer. In a BIM world, layers become obsolete"
Wow! As a CAD manager, this is just astounding and exciting. No more endless debates over layer names, color settings or lineweights.

"Revit is the most technologically advanced BIM application. Currently, a number of BIM applications are on the market, provided by a host of different software vendors. While most other BIM applications in today’s market are based on technology that is 20-plus years old, Revit was designed from the ground up as a BIM platform to specifically address problem areas of the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry"
I can't say if Revit is the most advanced, market share pushed me towards it. Interesting nonetheless.

"the name Revit comes from ″Revise Instantly.″"

"Revit has embedded logical relationships among elements, so that when one is modified, all related objects follow the change."
"If for some reason this automatic behavior is not to your liking...and do not want to have existing conditions be affected by new construction...Hover the mouse over the end of a selected wall, right-click, and choose Disallow Join from the context menu. Only that one wall will be modified, and the others will not be affected.
You can also lock elements in place to prevent unintended consequences."

"User-Defined Rules
Revit allows you to define and lock these relationships with constraints: explicit dimensional rules that keep elements locked to one another."
Any element can be locked in place or rules can be set for items placed such always keeping a door jamb 4" from the adjacent wall.


to be continued...