Introduction

Architecture is a business. If you're young and impressionable and still in school, you really need to learn this now. We are absolutely not suggesting that you compromise your integrity and embrace mediocrity for the sake of financial gain. What we're suggesting is that you fully embrace BIM in order to realize the best and the highest you can offer within the time and budgetary constraints. More to the point: If you're not using BIM, you're doing a severe disservice to your client, your community, your profession, and your future.

The reason this is such a great book is because of its holistic approach to BIM. We have taken great care to help you understand the context of what you're trying to accomplish within the application of important design principles. Many books mistakenly view BIM as mere “technology”—or even one particular technology. It's not. BIM is a philosophical approach to architecture that emphasizes the integration of the design, development, and delivery process. It's about understanding the implications, complications, and context of design decisions as early as possible.

It's about being accountable for your own design decisions.

As a result, you can't fully implement BIM without rejecting one particularly insidious and conceited notion (espoused by so many signature architects) that Great Designers don't need to understand the tools that are used to implement their designs; they just need enough pencils, paper, and staff. As if tools the rest of us choose to embrace somehow stifle their creative genius. How does this make better buildings?

So we're hopeful these notions are a dying breed and the sooner, the better. BIM isn't just about the integration of technology but also about the integration of people and processes. And if Michelangelo could mix his own pigments and plaster and paint while lying on his back, then I suppose it's not too much to remind some present (or future) signature designer he may do well to learn to move his own mouse.

Because most importantly, architecture isn't about buildings. It's about what we are able to accomplish with what little time we have. This is the elegant essence of Revit.

All the tutorial files necessary to complete the book's exercises plus sample families are hosted online at www.sybex.com/go/masteringrevit2012. To download the trial version of Revit Architecture, go to http://usa.autodesk.com/revit-architecture, where you'll also find complete system requirements for running Revit.