BIM: How I learned to stop worrying and love Revit

After being asked quite a few times the question: "Are you using Revit yet?"  I decided to dip my toe into the waters of Building Information Modeling.  Up to this point I had resisted for several reasons, and you may be hearing some of these too:

• It requires a lot of computing horsepower.  You will need at least a dual core machine running 64 bit Windows 7, having as much RAM as you can afford.  8 to 16 GB is common for users, and if you intend to work with large models and buildings you may want to go up to the maximum 192 GB that 64 bit Windows 7 can address.
• The software is expensive.  A single seat license is $6K, a subscription license approaches $7K.  Now this does allow you to install on one work and one home computer, and also gives you a full version of AutoCad.
• A steep learning curve.  The commands are different than your CAD program, you will need to spend some qualtiy time with your tutorial book.  But the capabilities are also much more robust.  For example, the MEP version has a built-in heating and cooling load calculator.  Revit can also help you design electrical ciruits and tablulate the loads for you, building panel schedules at the same time. 

Some of the reasons architects seem to want their Engineer to use Revit fall along these lines:

• Coordination of the trades.  One main 3 dimensional building model is produced by the architect and is shared to the MEP and structural engineers.  Engineers build upon the same model so that everything gets fitted together like you are building a machine or automobile.  This takes the guesswork out of pipe/duct interferences and ceiling space getting too packed up to move a ceiling tile.  It also helps where structural beams may get in the way of conduits or ducts, and automatically shows your intereferences.  Change orders should be greatly reduced for these types of field problems.
• Existing buildings:  You can now set up a laser scanner to collect both exterior and interior data points, and use this to generate a "point cloud" in your computer model.  This point cloud can be imported into Revit, and then used as a template to construct your 3D model of the building.  This can save weeks of field measuring work.  There are companies now doing this scanning as a stand alone service.  The files generated can be huge though, in the multiple gigabyte range.  Your computer needs to have plenty of horsepower to use this technique.

As far as the learning process goes these are my observations:

• You can download a trial version of the program from Autodesk, which is good for 30 days of free usage.
• I am using this book for learning Revit: The Aubin Academy Master Series, by Aubin, McClelland, Stanly and Schmid.  Cost was about $45 from Amazon, and it includes downloadable practice exercises.  It is a tutorial style book, with each lesson building on the previous one.  In general, it is a great way to get an overview of the capabilities, as well as get some practice on actually producing plans.

It is definately the wave of the future, and many clients are now expecting it, so why wait any longer?