March 2008 marks the second year in which I have been writing "The Diary of a Revit User." Twenty-one articles later and it never ceases to amaze me how through my interaction with various companies migrating to Revit, a direct parallel between their migrating process and real life turn up. I have tried to capture these parallel occurrences and, through the use of my warped sense of humour, offered you my experiences in the form of a very relaxed article.

My humour has successfully hit its mark with some of you while often, at the same time, my lengthy preamble on the "life side of things" have irritated a few of you as well. The important thing however, is that throughout my writing I have stayed the course and have maintained writing about the use of Autodesk Revit in the light-hearted manner for which I strived. In doing so, I have educated some, while occasionally boring others.

For some, I have shed light on specific aspects of Revit that they were finding difficult to understand during their own migration over to Revit. For others, I reconfirmed all of the hype behind Revit that they were witnessing and gave them the "push" that was needed for them to take the plunge in using the software. All in all, the articles flew by fast. And as my first article turned into my second, and then into my twenty-first, two years have passed by and I find myself again, sitting in another train station, writing my twenty-second article.

However, unlike my typical article, this article will be different. What I want to do with this article is to sit back and reflect on what I feel were my best attempts of writing about Revit over the past two years. So, without further ado, I present to you "Paul's Fantastic Five Articles of the Past - The Anniversary Edition."

Number Five:
September and October 2006: The Diary of A Revit User: To Design Using Revit or Not to Design Using Revit (Parts 1 and 2)

These two articles always sit well with me. In these articles I tried to capture the process of Design in Architecture through the use of Revit. Written while on vacation in Fort Myers, Florida, in August 2006 ( yes, I still do wonder why the heck I was vacationing in Florida in August), this article illustrated how one would leverage the use of Revit to not only secure a client, but also to capture their ideas and translate their vision through images developed in Revit. By projecting these images on a wall screen, the owner becomes part of the process and is then able to see projects materialize from thin air.

This article offered the reader the opportunity to learn how to develop projects using Revit "right out of the box" and how to mature the project through each stage of the architectural process. By applying what was written, the reader would be able to leverage Revit in a way that no other legacy software could be leveraged. Despite the fact that I still am dehydrated as a result of the sweltering 100+ degree weather, this article was fun to write and was a great testament on how the RIM Blackberry truly does control everyone's downtime!

Number Four
May 2006 - Flying to Yet Another Revit Implementation Session

Here, I take creative liberty and write about the parallels between first-time flying and those who are embarking on their first flight into Revit migration. The article was initially intended to simply be about the uncertainty one has when taking their first flight. It quickly grew a life of its' own when a person in front of me during a flight to my home town of Timmins, Ontario, Canada, began to panic and wanted to get off of the plane "right then and there." What made this scenario interesting was that no matter how panicked the person became, rationale was thrown out the window at his insistence to get off of the plane when we were 15,000 feet in the air.

The parallel drawn between what transpired throughout the rest of the flight and one's first attempt at using Revit was actually rather comical. By using the unfortunate traveller's panic attack, I chose to write about the same type of panic attack experience by those ambitious people who, regardless of making the proper decision to move to Revit, began to experience panic attacks when deadlines came calling and their knowledge of Revit was limited. It was interesting to see how the Revit user acted exactly like the panicked air traveler.

Throughout the article I wrote about what one should do when panic sets in and how "staying the course" is the only answer. In the article I consistently encouraged the Revit "newbies" that if they stayed focused and did not abandon Revit, they would not only make it through turbulent times, they would end up soaring with the eagles.

I liked this article.

Number Three
August 2007. Orientation - Wilderness White Water Rafting

This article still makes me chuckle. Not only because of the fact that the white water rafting trip was a total blast and that my family had a great time, but because of the similarities this article had with the airplane article I wrote about on the number four spot above. Both articles speak about the troubled times that one experiences when using Revit for the first time, yet this article hits a strong vein with me. The fact that I chose to use water as a symbol for tranquility and turmoil still makes me smile. Water is to be used for cleansing, not for shock. A river is to be used to symbolize mobility from one point in time to another, not as a medium to exploit the vulnerability of the water traveller.

To this day, whenever I read this article, I remember the Atlanta-based architectural company that I used to draw parallels between the white water rafting experience and Revit. When I was summoned to Atlanta, this company was truly drowning in its experience with migrating to Revit. Once the first panic attack set in, they began to behave like the person lying in two feet of water who firmly believes that he is going to drown. Once they listen to the person telling them to stop panicking and to stand up, the person sets their feet on solid ground and is able to collect their wits.

This firm and the white water rapids experience was fun to write about. I often wonder how this firm would act if I offered to take its principles down the great Ottawa River. Hmmmmm, if only AUGI would cover the cost of getting them up to Canada, it would be a great article to write about.

Number Two:
January 2007 - Diary of A Revit User - Happy New Year...Or At Least It Could Be.

This article got me into a lot of trouble with my old partnership group, although it was about time that they took heed of my commitment to Revit. In January 2007, I made a very serious decision to write about what it was like to be an advocate for Revit when your business partners do not subscribe to your excitement.

By drawing a parallel with having a hangover the morning after New Year's Eve, I tried to get the point across that no matter what it is, good or bad, everything begins to make a sane man¡¦s mind go mad! In this article, my frustration with my two partners' hesitance to stand behind the Revit migration and the resulting toll on my staff to act as the Revit arm for their satellite offices resulted in a somewhat surreal article.

In the article, the frustrations were well documented along with the actions required to counteract what was deemed the anti-Revit movement. Still to this day, the commonality written about here with what I see in the Revit consulting world, is that for every one person who is excited that their office is moving toward using the most modern technology, there are always five other people who look at Revit as a threat to their existence. The humorous thing here is that the fear found in these anti-Revit people not only lies in their disinterest in not learning new technology, but also lies in their fear that they will be exposed as unintelligent individuals.

Get a grip, people! Revit is only a tool to better enhance your abilities to carry out your trade It is not, and never will be, a benchmark used to assess people's intelligence. Now, having said that, the article does tend to lean towards the side of how stubborn people tend to be road blocks in the Revit movement, and how this stubbornness does promote unintelligence.

No matter what one got out of this article, it will still stand the test of time regardless of the subject matter. I really liked writing it. Furthermore, when I had my fill of the company and resigned my position to go out on my own, I had to revise the article to make the company that I wrote about be located in Europe. Funny...

Number One:
March 2006: Diary of A Revit User

How can one have sentimental feelings about their first kiss, even if it was from their dog? How about the first intimate moment? Your first child? Or even your first marriage...okay, let's keep thinking of the first intimate moment...um, unless that ended up forcing you into your first marriage. Oh what the heck...you know what I mean.

The March 2006 - Diary of A Revit User was my very first Revit article and it truly did set out how all future articles would be written. Again, a testament for the RIM Blackberry, this article was in fact written while attending my son's Music Night held at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic High School in London, Ontario.

During the evening, inspiration came to me through the progression of the evening's venue. At the beginning of the evening, the Junior Band took the stage and, as they were mostly comprised of Grade Nine students who were just learning how to play instruments, they were rather painful to hear.

As they hit each note off key, a pain shot through my head no different than one would get when chewing down on a piece of tin foil. As the Junior Band fumbled through each song, a parallel equal to that of a first-time Revit user trying to use Revit without any training came to mind. The similarities between the Junior Band and the Revit Newbie offered some rather humorous content for this article and what impressed me the most was the natural flow of this inaugural article.

When the article was finally completed with my son tapping me on the shoulder and breaking my train of thought, I believe I was able to provide a rather in-depth article on what it takes to overcome the awkwardness experienced by both the Band Newbie and the Revit Newbie, in order to comfortably and confidently approach each moment with the skill and finesse found in the experienced of the Senior Band member who took the stage later on in the program.

Again, like my first kiss with the love of my life, whom I would end up marrying, this very first "Diary of A Revit User" article from March 2006 will always be my favourite; if only for its sentimental value.

Honourable Mention - which you will have to go to the archives yourselves and read:

1. February 2007 - Diary of a Revit User: Old Dog New Tricks
2. April 2006 - Diary of a Revit User: What a Car Ride...Darn You, Mark Mandich!
3. December 2006 - Diary of a Revit User: All I want for Christmas...
4. July 2006 - Diary of a Revit User: Top 10 Reasons Why Revit Shouldn't be Used in an Architect's Office
5. March 2008 - Diary of a Revit User: Happy Anniversary...Gotcha...

Enjoy everyone! And here's to many more articles that hopefully will tickle your Revit fancy.

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