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Sunday, 11:30 p.m.; office. My staff has long since gone home, having ended a rather long 76-hour work week trying to help an architect colleague complete construction documentation for a 340,000 SF residential complex his office had developed using Autodesk® Revit® software.
I sit alone in my office with my arms behind my head, stretching out the kinks in my neck and shoulders while I stare blankly at my laptop screen hoping that if I blink one more time the inaugural Revit article that I need to develop would appear from thin air and I could then go home and get some sleep.
On the 15th blink I give up hope. I come to the realization that despite the 76-hour work week and despite the proposal that is due in a couple of days as well as the rest of the work that awaits my attention in the office, I have to push these things aside and start typing this article. I have to make this article speak volumes to an unknown public and make it so informative that its audience would wait in great anticipation for the next article.
Again I look around my office, this time scanning the pictures of past projects on my wall and begin to wonder what made these buildings any more enjoyable than buildings that I have completed in the past. It suddenly dawns on me that each of these buildings were completed using Autodesk Revit, the incredible parametric software that is making quite an impact in the AEC industry.
It has been almost seven years since Autodesk Revit entered the marketplace, then challenging the giants of the industry by providing architects with a totally different approach to designing buildings. Where most architectural software made the promise of quick design ability, easy transition to modeling, and full rendered images, these same applications often required third-party involvement and exporting of information from one platform to another.
Revit, however, was different as it made no promises. With its true parametric capabilities and its ease of use, Revit allowed the end user the ability to create not only pure volumetric spaces, but also to achieve instant gratification as a result of its 2D/3D interchangeability.
So as I start to write this article I'm trying to focus not only on topics key to promoting the power of Autodesk Revit, but I also start to think of what this article can provide in future publications. Food for thought, but for now I must go home to sleep.
Wednesday evening 7:00 p.m. and like every good parent with children in high school, I am sitting in the cafeteria listening to the senior band play while I work diligently (but quietly) on this article as Kilimanjaro, an African Portrait by Robert Washburn plays melodiously in the background. As I listen to how smoothly one note flows into the other to create the sound of a masterpiece, I am reminded of Revit's User Interface and how easy it is to navigate from functionality to functionality where, like the notes played by the senior band, I too can create a masterpiece with the greatest of ease.
The Revit User Interface: the keyhole to the success of using Revit. With its Design Tabs, Options Bar, Drop Down Menus, Project Browser, and Status Bar, the roadmap to success is clearly laid out. For example with the Design Tab, one simply has to select the Design Tab Functionality that the user wishes to carry out an d simply perform the task.
Drawing a wall, window, or roof is as easy as picking and clicking. Revit makes it simple. Revit makes it quick. Revit allows us to create that masterpiece. The senior band has long since finished; I sit back in my very uncomfortable chair and begin to wonder what life was like in the non-parametric AEC world.
Ironically, as the junior band now on the stage starts to stumble feebly through Watermelon Man, the answer to my question becomes quite clear. Like the rawness of the junior band, the world without Revit was also clumsy and unpolished. I begin to think of the times when the inability to make complete and interconnected changes to a drawing set left me with the daunting task of having to find each element that was being changed in the drawing set and manually change them, one by one.
Again, the clashing of the junior band briefly interrupts my Revit moment and I begin to wonder: What is it about the obvious poor synchronization of this young group of talent that sits poorly with me? What is it about the way that the percussion section seems to be fighting with the wind instruments that reminds me of how difficult it was to import third-party data into legacy CAD programs? What is it about the cat-like screeching of the string section trying desperately and unsuccessfully to keep up with the three-quarter time of the brass section that reminds me of pulling my hair out and screaming like a banshee when I had to coordinate all of the changes that I was required to make back in the days of using non-Revit software? There never seemed to be enough time available to ensure all of the changes were coordinated throughout a project.
The disharmonious wail of the junior band now brings me back to my Revit moment and away from the nightmare of their playing. I look around while wiping the sweat from my brow, just happy in the knowledge that the concert is almost over and I get to go back to the office and complete this article. As I am about to get up, someone taps me on the shoulder. It is my son who has been standing beside me now for almost 20 minutes as I was typing this article. He asks what I thought about his playing in the intermediate band and, though I was indeed listening while I was typing, I did not see them play. As any of you who have the responsibility of listening to your kids play in a school band knows, you cannot see them sitting in the fourth row anyway. I looked up at him and said, "You were good son... yup, you were Revit good!!!”
I packed up my Blackberry and headed for the door. The lights were now dim, as dim as a distant memory like the one I now have of ever using legacy CAD software during my architectural career. It has been a long time now since I started using Revit. I will be conducting a kindergarten rhythm band before I stop using Revit. After all, it is, as they say, the “cuttingest” of cutting edge software.
This is just the beginning of my contribution to the Revit world of literature. In the next article, I will introduce you to tips and tricks for the software that I feel is a modern-day architectural tool that has impacted and changed the way we do business. The move to Revit is not unlike the paradigm shift that occurred when computers replaced the drafting table. Do any of you remember the drafting table? If you do, drop me a line and tell me about it. Even if you don’t remember the drafting table, feel free to let me know what you think of this article.
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Submitted by Paul F. Loreto, marketing director of ANO Architects/Architectes Inc., a 30-person, full-service architectural firm with offices in London, Sudbury and Timmins, Ontario Canada. Paul has been an Autodesk Authorized Contractor since 2002 and has provided 34 Autodesk Revit training, implementation, and mentoring sessions throughout North America on behalf of Autodesk Inc. Paul taught Revit classes at Autodesk University in 2003 and 2004 and is currently providing Revit consultation through his company. You can contact him at paul.loreto@anoarchitects.com and visit his website at www.anoarchitects.com.
