Autodesk® Revit® Architecture 2015 Essentials
We have shaped the focus and content of this book from our diverse experience as Revit teachers, writers, users, support specialists, designers, and testers. We have tailored the content to what we think is the most valuable combination of topics and generated exercise files that target these topics. Because we teach Revit Architecture to first-time users, we feel the included content is of most value to our students learning the program for the first time. This book should benefit new Revit Architecture users, as well as long-term users who may not use every aspect of the program on a daily basis and could benefit from revisiting exercises as needed.
Revit Architecture 2015 includes a number of valuable new tools. While each tool may not be considered “essential,” we have made an effort to mix new tools, tips, and tricks, along with established features into the context of the text and supporting exercises. The book follows real-life workflows and scenarios and is full of practical examples that explain how to leverage the tools within Revit Architecture. We hope you’ll agree that we’ve succeeded.
This book is designed to help you grasp the basics of Revit Architecture using real-world examples and techniques you’ll use in everyday design and documentation. We’ll explain the Revit Architecture interface and help you find the tools you need as well as help you understand how the application is structured. From there we’ll show you how to create and modify the primary components in abuilding design. We’ll show you how to take a preliminary model and add layers of intelligence to help analyze and augment your designs. We’ll demonstrate how to create robust and accurate documentation and then guide you through the construction process. Whenever possible we will both teach you Revit and put those newfound skills to use in focused exercises.
As you are already aware, BIM is more than just a change in software; it’s a change in architectural workflow and culture. To take full advantage of both BIM and Revit Architecture in your office structure, you’ll have to make some changes to your practice. We’ve designed the book around an ideal, integrated workflow to aid in this transition.
To leverage the full capacity of this book, we highly recommend you have a copy of Revit Architecture installed on a computer strong enough to handle it. To download the trial version of Revit (offered as Revit 2015), go to www.autodesk .com/revitarchitecture, where you’ll also find complete system requirements for running Revit Architecture.
From a software standpoint, the exercises in this book are designed to be lightweight and not computationally intensive. This way, you avoid long wait times to open and save files and perform certain tasks. That said, keep in mind that the Autodesk-recommended computer specs for Revit Architecture are far more than what you need to do the exercises in this book but are exactly what