Howdy-Ho There Boys And Girls!!!
I received a comment on a post I did a while ago - reader "Seysearles" was deep-diving into the shallow end of the Revit pool (and like another commenter, most likely googled 'fuck Revit', and found himself here).
His cries for help echoed many other people's Revit experience, and he is left at a pivotal point in his career - as I told him, he basically has two options:
a) Shut the fuck up and use Revit.
b) Tell everyone using Revit to shut the fuck up, and to go
fuck themselves.
Of course, I picked 'b', never looked back, and have never been happier. Obviously, that may not be an option for those who made the mistake of going into Architecture - but, on the other hand, you will notice that most actual Architects don't use Revit (or any software for that matter), leaving that to the next generation of low-paid idiots (almost none of whom will actually ever become Architects themselves).
I posted a link to an article a while back called "Want To Be An Architect?; - Don't Learn Revit"
The thrust of the article wasn't actually anti-Revit, just that the discipline of Architecture isn't a piece of software, and tying yourself to one (whether it be Autocad, Archicad, Microstation, or Revit) is counter-productive to the real goal.
The thrust of the article wasn't actually anti-Revit, just that the discipline of Architecture isn't a piece of software, and tying yourself to one (whether it be Autocad, Archicad, Microstation, or Revit) is counter-productive to the real goal.
To hear Revitards talk about it, Revit IS architecture (or
Engineering, etc.). That's the
equivalent of saying that my roll-around toolbox IS a mechanic (or a car). To most of them their Revit model is also the 'end product', rather than the building that is actually constructed (and which the firm was paid to design). The amusing part about that, is that the second the building starts getting constructed, it will start to deviate from their carefully crafted model.
I've known a handful of people who were actually on a track to become Architects who absolutely loved Revit - but, almost without fail, they were the ones being put in charge of managing teams of Revitbots, rather than wasting their time dicking around endlessly with Revit. They might occasionally open a model to look at something in it, but the rest of the time they were looking at, and marking up .pdfs or (gasp) hardcopy.
They were also the ones who would start to venture out into the field to see how construction was being done, and seeing the problems that crop up - even on a very carefully designed building. The things that Revitbots spend most of their day doing aren't what end up resulting in costly changes and redesign - it's the stuff that only a skilled designer/architect is going to catch because they are thinking about the project as an actual building, and not simply a model.
Unfortunately, I can't offer any real help to someone who has only just now found themselves neck-deep in the Revit swamp. On the upside - if they do decide to stick with Revit, they've got the advantage of having considerably more resources (and a *slightly* less shitty version of Revit) than those who dove onto the bleeding edge a decade ago with their dicks out.
I've known a handful of people who were actually on a track to become Architects who absolutely loved Revit - but, almost without fail, they were the ones being put in charge of managing teams of Revitbots, rather than wasting their time dicking around endlessly with Revit. They might occasionally open a model to look at something in it, but the rest of the time they were looking at, and marking up .pdfs or (gasp) hardcopy.
They were also the ones who would start to venture out into the field to see how construction was being done, and seeing the problems that crop up - even on a very carefully designed building. The things that Revitbots spend most of their day doing aren't what end up resulting in costly changes and redesign - it's the stuff that only a skilled designer/architect is going to catch because they are thinking about the project as an actual building, and not simply a model.
Unfortunately, I can't offer any real help to someone who has only just now found themselves neck-deep in the Revit swamp. On the upside - if they do decide to stick with Revit, they've got the advantage of having considerably more resources (and a *slightly* less shitty version of Revit) than those who dove onto the bleeding edge a decade ago with their dicks out.
Of course, that also means you get to navigate the fifteen
metric fucktons of misinformation, disinformation, outdated information, and
other confused and frustrated attempts out there at wringing anything useful
out of Revit. If you spend any time on any of the various Revit forums, you will quickly discover that no matter how you are using Revit, it is wrong.
How you are supposed to determine (or have determined) the 'right' way to use Revit is never really discussed, which has often led me to believe that many of the people on these forums are simply trolling in order to exacerbate the pain and suffering new/intermediate users were already experiencing.
I've mentioned the way that people on these forums immediately seize on any post where someone (in desperation) is trying to communicate something that they need done - and make the mistake of referring back to how they did something in ACAD (or other software), or dare to question Revit in any way when it refuses to do something consistently (or at all).
This leads to the majority of questions/comments leading off with swearing an oath of fealty towards Revit, and then (while flogging oneself for being so ignorant and impertinent as to need to ask a question) meekly presenting ones dilemma. Even then, it's fairly common for them to be excoriated by some self-appointed 'Revit Ubermench'.
How you are supposed to determine (or have determined) the 'right' way to use Revit is never really discussed, which has often led me to believe that many of the people on these forums are simply trolling in order to exacerbate the pain and suffering new/intermediate users were already experiencing.
I've mentioned the way that people on these forums immediately seize on any post where someone (in desperation) is trying to communicate something that they need done - and make the mistake of referring back to how they did something in ACAD (or other software), or dare to question Revit in any way when it refuses to do something consistently (or at all).
This leads to the majority of questions/comments leading off with swearing an oath of fealty towards Revit, and then (while flogging oneself for being so ignorant and impertinent as to need to ask a question) meekly presenting ones dilemma. Even then, it's fairly common for them to be excoriated by some self-appointed 'Revit Ubermench'.
Are you using third-party families? Well, goddamned you are a stupid fucking idiot for doing that - you should design them all yourself!!! Are you designing them all yourself? Well, that's why you are running into problems dumbass - why aren't you using one of the brazillion existing families out there? Running into text problems? Oh - that's a windows setting, unless it's a known bug that was fixed in the 2017.2 patch (unless it doesn't), or are we actually talking about two different issues?
Oh - but that's fixed in the 2018 release, (except that it's not). Apparently the text tool (which was a piece of crap from the get-go) was replaced (another tacit admission that they KNEW it was a piece of crap from the get-go), and so now YOU the user get to suffer while you get the size of your older text boxes corrected (not to mention any projects that might pop back up in the future and require converting, before being fixed).
And that's before you get to problems with the googolplex of view settings.
('b' is looking more and more appealing all the time isn't it?)
Fuck Revit, Fuck everyone propagating Revit, and just... eat a bag of dicks or something (and no hiding them in your ass - EAT YOUR DICKS!!!).
Sincerely,
-Fulks Luck
Next Time: The Ever Morphing Nature Of The Revit Model.
oh man you crack me up, good read! XD
ReplyDeleteYou capture the situation just as it really is, as usual. 18 months on my own now as an independent residential designer, after 33 years at various architectural firms. Working with AutoCad LT and SketchUp primarily. The three years I spent struggling with Revit are now like a nightmare that happened long ago, and the details are getting fuzzy. The guy whose project I was helping with back in those days might come by my desk and ask, how tall are the side walls that frame the proscenium? A half hour later, tweaking view settings, cutting temporary sections in different places and no closer to the answer. If you can get to the information at all it's probably not correct. We used to think about sequence, appearance, integration of M&E items, how to avoid poorly executed or unsightly details and sketch different conditions on the fly, or go directly to 2-D AutoCad details, coordinating the other drawings and communicating with the team members inside and outside the office as plans progressed. Revit doesn't give a shit about any of that. It asks you to be concerned about stuff like whether walls and floor and roof planes are joined or not, or broken into segments that can be individually revised to accommodate other elements... and a shit-load of other intricate, nested BS that has absolutely nothing to do with what the contractor will need to understand the project, estimate it and build it. I was working on an office building renovation with a $5 million construction cost. The contractor has not ever even heard of Revit or had any idea of the core concept of BIM. But you bet your ass he knew he could no longer expect to get revised elevations the same day he requested them, after a round of various revisions were hammered out in meetings and emails. 20 years ago I was taking on lots of tasks and responsibility, and was as good [mostly better] than anybody else there at what I was doing. I could detail a building envelope like nobody's business, and never failed to ID problem areas and resolve issues in the best possible way. And then later in the Revit era I couldn't get anything done anymore. Having too much knowledge about the actual construction process was actually a liability. Or at least, when I needed help with something I was often told, oh, it doesn't do that, or why are you trying to do that? It was a Twilight Zone, end up in hell sort of thing, every day of the fucking week, in an environment where I used to thrive and succeed.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on 1-1/2 years of independence and freedom from Revit! It can take a while for the lingering effects to wear off (oh wait - I CAN do that!), but nothing compares to the immediate feeling of the boot heel coming off your neck - not to mention looking back and seeing the other poor suckers trying to convince themselves (and others) that boot heels on necks are the future, and people without boot heels on their necks are 'dinosaurs' who need to drink the kool-aid and lay their heads down on the floor to accept the inevitable boot heel.
ReplyDeleteFunnily enough I found your blog by googling "Autodesk bullshit" out of anger and frustration after having connection problems while uploading images to Autoshit servers for computing a 3D model (ReCap). Im pretty sure most find it searching similar phrases. Only if my stupid employer shifted to another software but no, thats what big boys use! plus you have Autoshit representatives policing what the company up to and if we aren't using rival products offering "promotions" if they see you have products from the competition, talking marvels to my boss and fooling him into thinking its a good deal. Stupid fat fuck.
ReplyDeleteYou have to love software companies that can come in and play 'gestapo' - we had Microsoft come and do an audit of all of our computers at the last firm I worked at. We had to purge our machines of any software that was not licensed to the company. Our IT guy said that most companies (regardless of efforts) would end up with $10K or so in fines. I don't think they actually caught anything, but just the fact that they can come in and do that is pure 100% unadulterated bullshit.
ReplyDeleteI'm still using ACAD 2014 (and plan to do so for the foreseeable future). The funniest part is that if I wanted to, I have access to student versions of Autodesk software - and while it will put a watermark on the drawings, simply opening them with 'TrueView' and saving/converting them will remove it.