Go Look it Up

This semester I got a hold of some Revit instruction books from the library (I wasn't about to buy a $50 book without looking at it first). Here's my take on them.

Introducing Revit Architecture 2008: BIM for Beginners, by Krygiel, Demchak, & Dzambazova. I only got a hold of the 2008 version, but I figure the 2009 edition is comparable in quality. This one is definitely for beginners and equivalent to a Revit for Dummies. It explains things step-by-step with lots of excellent images, which as a beginner is exactly what you want. The only issue with this book is that it doesn't get into much detail. It has very little information on customizing families, but that is more of an advanced concept anyways. It's about half the size of the other two books I'm going to mention. Overall, a good option.

 

Mastering Revit Architecture 2009, by Krygiel, Demchak, & Dzambazova. Interesting that this book is written by the same authors as the BIM for Beginners book. Although it says in its intro that it can be used by beginners, I think this book would be tough for a beginner to get through. It just has a lot of...text. Many of the concepts are not written as step-by-step tutorials. This books assumes you have a background in Revit to start with. It is far more detailed and a much thicker book; however, I dislike the way it generally says Revit can do things, but it doesn't tell you how to do it. 

Mastering Revit Architecture 2009, by Aubin. Same title, different book. You'd think the authors would want to come up with different titles. This one is my favorite. It's a good combination of detail and step-by-step tutorials. It doesn't have quite enough images for my taste, but it explains things clearly. With bulleted lists even! That's what I want to see. This book also comes with a CD but it did scary things to my computer when I tried to use it, but that might be because it's an abused CD from the library. A new one might work better. This is a book I would recommend purchasing. 

 

Residential Design Using Revit Architecture 2009, by Stine.This is the book my Arch Graphics class used for their group projects. It's just a big long tutorial. You can buy it in the bookstore, but I'm not sure if you have to be enrolled in the class in order to purchase it. Either way, if you're very serious about teaching yourself Revit, I recommend buying this and going through the whole thing cover to cover. The best part about it, is at the end you have this file you can use for a reference. It's that semi-ugly house that's on the front cover. I still use it all the time.

I've got the first three books in my studio space. If you would like to look at them before you buy come see me during my tutoring hours.