Best ways to learn Revit

Revit is a large and complex software. Learning Revit can be fun or frustrating depending on how you're learning it and what your expectations are. Again, depending on your expectations as well as time that you want to dedicate to learning Revit and of course ho you learn it, it may take anywhere from a week to a couple of years!

You need to develop an action plan in order to save time and money to achieve your goals and objects. To do this, we need to first understand what is Revit and what are its capabilities.

What is Revit?

Revit is a software that helps Architects, Structural Engineers and MEP Engineers in Design, Presentation & Documentation. You are able to build a Virtual 3D Model of a Building, its Structure and its Engineering systems on a Computer. It integrates both graphic information such as walls, floors Roofs, columns, beams, Pipes etc. and non-graphic information such as areas, volumes, electrical loads etc.into this Virtual Building Model. This process of integration is often referred to as BIM or Building Information Modeling.
Revit can be customized as per your Office and Project needs. In addition, many processes in it can be automated through scripting and programming.

Define your Objectives

Revit has three integrated parts, each aimed at a particular discipline. Revit Architecture for Architects, Revit Structure for Structural Engineers and Revit MEP for Building Systems Engineers, that is, Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing Engineers.

• You will select Revit Architecture, if you're an Architect or Revit Structure if you're a Structural Engineer and so on. So this is the first part in defining your learning objectives.
• Decide what your needs are
• As a Student, you may just want to learn Modelling & Presentation to be able to use Revit in your school projects and thesis, or if you're a working professional looking for a job and want to improve your prospects or your current job requires Revit Skills, then you may need to learn not just modelling and presentations, but  analysis, documentation, detailing and customisation as well.
• Based on your learning objectives and your comprehension capabilities, you will need to decide on the time that is available to you and an optimal time that is required to learn the specific skills.
• You can learn Revit in stages, say a week to learn Revit Modelling, another week to learn Presentation Techniques and so on. You can give a break between each of the stages.
• Allocate a specific time and number of hours per day towards learning.

Learning Options 

There is a whole range of learning options available, both free and paid. Revit Courses are available in broadly three levels:

• Revit Beginner
• Revit Intermediate
• Revit Advanced

There are Online  Recorded videos, many of these free such as those on YouTube and paid courses offering complete courses again as recorded videos. You can also buy training DVDs or books. Or go in for regular Classroom tutorials. Each one has its advantages and disadvantages. Let's compare each one of these.

	Free Recorded Videos	Paid Recorded Videos	Classroom Tutorials	Online Instructor led
Price	Free	Low	High	Low-Mediul
Structured Course	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Quality	Variable	High	High	High
Current/ Uptodate	No	No	Yes	Yes
Interactivity (ask questions & get answers)	No	No	Yes	Yes
Individual Attention	No	No	Yes	Yes
Self paced Learning	Yes	Yes	No	Both
Need to travel	No	No	Yes	No
Time it takes to learn	High	Low	Low	Low

As you can see from the above table, each of the learning options has its own advantages and disadvantages. Typically:

• The biggest advantage of free Online Videos is cost. You pay nothing. The biggest disadvantage is the time it takes to learn. Since most tutorials are either non-structured or offer limited depth, you will need to search and explore. Another big disadvantage is interactivity which is virtually non existent. If you do not understand anything or have questions, there is no way you can get answers
• Paid Online Videos or DVDs: At a relatively low cost, you are able to get a structured course that makes it easier to learn. However, again, there is no interactivity. There is no way you can get answers to your questions, no one to sort out your problems
• Regular Classroom Tutorials: The biggest advantage is that you have an Instructor teaching you and can answer your queries. You learn in a structured manner and get your problems sorted out. This has two big disadvantages, one that Classroom Tutorials can cost a lot and second, you'll need to travel to the training center.
• Online Instructor led: This offers all the advantages of a paid online course as well as those of a Classroom Tutorials. They typically cost much less than Classroom Tutorials. Since these are instructor led, live sessions, they are interactive, just like Classroom tutorials so you can ask your instructor to repeat what you did not understand, ask questions and get your problems sorted out. You do not need to travel and can take classes at home or at your place of work. BimSrv Education offers these courses, the live sessions are recorded and you have access to these sessions, so you can revise what was taught in the class

BimSrv Education provides a whole range of Instructor led, live and interactive Tutorials starting from Beginner Level Revit Architecture Course , Intermediate level course for those who have some experience and want to learn how to customize Revit elements and an Advanced level course that helps you learn how to manage a Revit Project in your office, learn advanced modeling techniques and take up a leadership position in your office.

Decide on one of the options that is most suitable to you and the advantages it offers, consider advantages and dis-advantages of each and see what works best for you.