Learning Revit as I Go

Start Point: Site Plan (modelled in conjunction with my friend Sian)
As I honestly had no idea where to begin with modelling the site.

Day 1: Adding Floor Plates, columns, shafts and stairs
(didn't know how to put in elevators or how to do ramps)

Day 2 + 3: Adding more shafts and walls
(still couldn't figure out ramps)

Day 4: Using walls and floors to create elevator shafts
(as suggested by peers), and creating skylights
(ramps still a mystery)

Day 6: Adding windows and parking spaces
(ramps still a mystery)

Day 7: Finally figured out ramps!!
Adding more walls, materials and construction lines

Day 8: Adding roofs, making components for seating,
editing floor plates and adding landscaped ramp from level 2 to level 3

Day 9 + 10: Adding columns to roof entry points and railings

Day 11 + 12: Adding trees and entourage

Day 13 - 15: Moving entourage around for use in particular views and renderings

Started in Week 11, I allocated myself 2 weeks to get my Revit model finished in order to start rendering views in Week 13. It was lucky that I did start so early as learning the program as I went took far longer to do certain things than I had anticipated. However, as you can seen from the above images, it was around Day 7 (when I finally figured out how to do ramps, as this was causing me much stress and I freaked out because I thought I wasn't going to be able to do certain design elements that I wanted to) that I finally picked up the pace and really started to get things done.

At first, getting up each morning to jump on the computer and model felt like a chore, but as the days went by and I got better and better I started to really enjoy what I was doing as I could see what I was creating. It was hard to put aside that fact that it would be easier for me to do some elements by hand, however I just had to keep looking at the big picture and the final desired outcome to realise that I wouldn't be able to hand draw the entire entity to a level that would reflect my project intention and my own aspirations for my project.

The next hurdle after designing the model was to start rendering, and as I had to turn-off certain aspects of my graphics card to run the program on my computer in the first place the first 2 renders took 3 hours each to do and had to run my computer over night and hope that when I woke up in the morning that they didn't crash my computer (which they did occasionally). The 3rd render I tried 3 times as it kept crashing my computer, so I resigned myself to the fact that I would have to go into uni to try rendering there. The stress levels started to rise yet again, but I got into uni early one day, used 2 computers and got them done. I don't know why people complain that rendering at uni takes so long...20mins per render is nothing compared to 3 hours minimum only to find its crashed your computer!!

All in all, using Revit has been a very worthwhile experience as I now feel I have the skill to use the program effeciently and can now add this to my resume. I do find it sad though that I had to go to TAFE to get an introductory course for Revit as we aren't taught the program or even ArchiCAD for that matter at our university. Knowing a program/s is one of the main aspects that people will hire you on, and yet it wasn't included in my course curriculum?? Weird!!