Customer Reviews

Revit Architecture 2010: No Experience Required

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is an excellent book.
Mr. Wing should be commended for presenting the information organized in a systematic way in which by the end of each Chapter you will have a clear understanding of what was covered and what you should have learned.
It is obvious, by the approach of this book that the Author is not just a teacher of Revit but has actually used it in an office setting for production purposes. This is the only book that I have on this subject where I can tell that author has us; the working everyday Architects in mind when presenting the information.
The book is set up so that you (right from chapter one) begin the process of creating a building. You are directed and instructed on how each command works as it comes up during the process of creating the model.
Unlike other books on the subject the author limits the amount of required reading but adds plenty of images to make points. I learn visually as I believe many other Architects do. You are first explained what it is that you are about to do and then you proceed to follow step by step on how to do it, at the end of the exercise you get a final review with additional comments for additional comprehension.
Although the book is not as comprehensive as the Aubin books, the two books would work well together. Aubin's book although excellent in my opinion are a little to wordy, sometimes frustrating me because it is very easy to miss a step by getting caught up on information which would be better left for after you complete the task.
Again this is in my opinion where this book trumps all the others. The author guides you and once you actually learned or figured out what it was that you were doing are you given more information BECAUSE NOW YOU ARE CAPABLE OF DIGESTING IT.!!!!!
If I was to rank the books on Revit Architecture I would rank this book and Aubin's as the top two 1a and 1b. L. C. Fox I would rank as number 2, the Stine books are excellent for a beginners and I would rank those # 3.
Most of the rest are not worth the money I spent on them.
I encourage Mr. Wing to give us another book on the more sophisticated portions of Revit such as content(family)creation, the use of the new 2010 way of making mass objects, specialty walls, custom doors, custom windows, etc. If presented in the same organized ways as RAC 2010 No Experience Required it will be a winner.

What with the interface changes and what I have forgotten since I took the Revit class at the local CC, I felt the need to refresh my Revit skills. This book was the only one available that addressed the 2010 release.

As a refresher, it is fine. It might not be adequate for a complete novice, though: there are a few cases where the instructions refer to the old interface and a few where the instructions are inaccurate. The strangest thing is that "east" and "west" are often reversed. Unfortunately, they are not always reversed, so one must consider each directional reference on its own.

This book is written from a practical work-flow viewpoint which helps the reader to start from a blank sheet as it were, and continue through to detailed plotted drawings to meet the standard one expects. This is a practical guide to using the software with no exaggerated frilly descriptions or endless variations of the same tool/command one is accustomed to in a manual. The book's project cleverly incorporates most, if not all, of the regular details in a building or project we all deal with in our daily work and not necessarily an exaggerated project we might aspire to. This book is more about the building than the software, as BIM should be. The author's sense of humor throughout is noteworthy, and appreciated.

Book is layed out pretty well and is easy to read. The sample project is good because it takes you through a lot of the everyday work you'll do with Revit at the office. The main problem I had with this book is that there are a lot of errors. In the project there is an East wing and a West wing. The book confuses itself by mixing these labels back and forth so you don't know where you are. Also, some of the step by step commands they take you through are well planned out, but some are calling out the wrong term for the command or button or miss steps that you have to figure out for yourself. I really think that someone should take at least a paid beginners course before jumping into this book like I did. It will real help. Another problem I had with the sample project was the floor levels. They have you copy the first floor and create 4 more. That's fine until you label doors. Every floor labels the doors with 100, 100AAA, 100BBB. It drives me nuts. I have to go into every door and change the mark manually. The book should have covered room names and door numbers right at that point. Instead it goes into schedules where every door is 100+. I haven't used any other book, so I can't compare. I like this book in general and would still use it as a reference at work. I wish they would go back and edit through this book and correct all the mistakes. I got to the point where I wanted to highlight and correct everything and send them the book when I was done. Fire the editor / proofchecker.

Although I'm just about 60 pages into this ginormous book, I very pleased with the way the author breaks down the various explanations and exercises used to get accustomed to the Revit interface. The previous posters are right about the author's confusion about north/south/east/west directions but there are plenty of screen shots that compensate for that. Definitely good for people who just wanna get right into modeling!!!

I had previously bought 'Mastering Revit Architecture 2010' and found it to be inappropriate for newbies, like myself, who want more of hands on training with the software.

This book is very informative form the novice to expert level. It is written in a manner that doesn't sound like a manual, but also doesn't go above your head thinking you might be an expert. This book helped me completely understand Revit Architecture.

I've been studying Revit with this book and I like it's step-by-step approach. It's written from the perspective of a long time CAD user, which I appreciate. It's difficult to change your tools, but Eric's sense of humor makes it bearable. The east-west, left-right errors are so annoying though! How easy it would be to fix this, and how funny that under Acknowledgments, Eric actually thanks his technical editor for keeping this "straight". Somebody didn't quite do their job! There also are several references to older versions that should be updated (please! please? I paid for the 2010 book!) I'm just about to finish chapter 10 and move on to the really dry part of drafting. I'm very disappointed that the book doesn't seem to go into in-place modeling, for say, custom windows, and creating my own wall assemblies. When designing, I don't want to go manufacturer's websites to look for windows - I want to create my own look! Maybe it's the program itself that doesn't lend itself to expressing creativity with drawing, and just wants to sell you its templates. There has got to be a way to do this, I just wish the book would explain it sooner. I also have Paul Aubin's book but I found it a little too academic and difficult to read and follow. The first 2 chapters are such a dry dicussion of the benefits of BIM - ok already, I'm accepting BIM, so teach me already... unfortunately, these 2 books seem to be the best on the market. If you really want to learn this program, get both and do the program's own tutorials.

Eric Wing's superb book had me up and running on Revit immediately. His approach makes it easy to ingest information, building on skills as you go. You jump in and start to create a model right away. Each exercise builds upon the same model. The saving grace of this book is the easy access to support files. If you don't get the exercise just right you can start with one of Eric's files at the next exercise and move on.

I'm an experienced AutoCad user and have been resisting Revit for quite awhile. (The thought of moving architectural design to a data based software process destroys all hope for the future of design.) Eric takes the sting out of the learning curve and sets you up for confidence in facing the inevitable.

This book cover lots of Revit items and tools with great step-by-step instructions for the average beginner to mid level user. Recommended!!

This book is good for beginners. I'll also continue to use it as a reference in the future - I actually have revit 2011 and it worked just fine.