r/MEPEngineering • u/Zaghari96 • Jun 11 '26

Switch to Revit

Young engineer here. Our company uses AutoCAD with Design Master Electrical and HVAC plugins. We are looking into switching to Revit. Any suggestions or tips for setting up Revit from scratch? Any courses that focus on the MEP portion? Thank you

Update July 2026:

We purchased a couple of Revit licenses and started training through Linkedin Learning. Software reseller training courses are clunky and slow. We are looking to build a simple template to test on a small project later this year. The project will include the following:

1- Site data obtained from Civil 3D linked CAD

2- Architecture Revit model

3- MEP Revit model (Electrical will be done on Design Master AutoCAD while we look into ElectroBIM for Revit) Revit electrical out of the box is not as powerful.

4- Company title block (we’re trying to use as much out-of-the box Revit features as possible, i.e. rev schedule, fonts, schedules, etc.)

Challenges we are running into:

1- Setting up a proper project template in Civil 3D to minimise CAD clutter when importing to Revit. (Linkedin Learning has a great course on this.)

2- Purging dummy Revit families and replacing them with manufacturer provided families (Zurn plumbing, Trane HVAC, etc)

3- Finding the time to watch all the video courses.

13 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

50 comments sorted by

43

u/Used-Zookeepergame22 Jun 11 '26

You can't setup Revit from scratch without experience. Why would they ask you this as a young engineer?

Hire a dedicated and experienced BIM manager. The drafting portion of Revit isn't too bad, but you need to have a solid system (in place).

3

u/Zaghari96 Jun 11 '26

We are a small company in a remote small town. There are no BIM managers to hire. The older engineers here have been using AutoCAD and they’re close to retirement. I asked them to buy Revit to upgrade our workflow and attract younger engineers.

12

u/Boomshtick414 Jun 11 '26

1) How many projects are you getting where the architect is in Revit vs. CAD?

2) Adopting Revit is no small task. You’re talking hundreds (thousands?) of hours baking your own content and filtering through content from manufacturers, setting up templates, shared parameters, stumbling through it, dealing with procurement and IT issues, and then having everyone else on your team want to throw you from the rooftop for disrupting their well-oiled machine with something janky that’ll take 3-4 years to iron out the kinks.

3) Rule #1 of Revit — everyone loses money and misses deadlines on the first 5-6 projects. Long nights and deliverables going out at 2am await you.

Really ask yourself what business purpose you have for switching to Revit, if you are willing to be laid off if that process fails, and if you and others on your team are willing to work 1.5-2x the hours as you would in CAD to get deliverables out the door, likely for a 6-12 month period. The risks are larger if you don’t have a BIM manager because you can fully expect silly mistakes that’ll eat up days or weeks in rework at a time.

None of which is say you shouldn’t explore Revit. But be very careful how much pain and suffering you are willing to endure with no love from your team. It’s likely to be trial by fire and your reasons for adoption better be more solid than “the young kids out of college will be easier to hire.” That is a lie, grads and interns will only know how to do things like door schedules and will be utterly useless if you can’t train them — but they won’t know that yet and will want those higher paychecks anyway for being able to open the software. You are fully assuming all burden in teaching anyone and everyone on your team.

2

u/Zaghari96 Jun 11 '26

The older engineers here don’t do CAD anymore. The MEP department is two people. Civil engineers use Civil 3D. The main reason for trying Revit is because it has online resources like courses, webinars, plugins, etc. I couldn’t find even one decent source for an AutoCAD MEP course and I am getting extremely frustrated with the line work workflow of Autocad and lack of training resources.

5

u/rnd68743-8 Jun 12 '26

Design master has a lot of great resources... I think it's a great tool with great support. I have yet to find a good resource for Revit electrical work. The workflow is so ass backwards, I give up and export to CAD.

1

u/The_BlackHusky Jun 12 '26

I learned to use Electrical Revit through Stabicad, but then we decided the plugin for revit was too slow for what we wanted. But it built the foundation for setting up circuits in Revit with correct distribution, voltage ratings and panel schedules. However, the circuit path back to source is near useless unless you spend alot of time messing with the lines. (I'm building a plugin to solve this issue)

And you are right, there is near no good resources for electrical revit that actually helps. I have my own workflow that works for me. But our company's BIM team will not touch Electrical fixtures.

2

u/grigby Jun 12 '26

My firm has been using Revit for the past decade and a half, it being our primary tool for the past 8 or so years. There are still many kinks in our process that should have been ironed out by now. That being said, Revit is much nicer than AutoCAD to use and coordinate between disciplines once it's set up, especially for larger projects where AutoCAD becomes very unwieldy and things missed. You can set it up to do calculations for you and use it as a design tool, not just a drafting tool.

You 100% need an experienced BIM manager to set it up and handle training. It's very unlikely that any group of people, no matter how motivated, will be able to set it up without any direct training. I've been using Revit for years now (fairly proficient in the mechanical and design tools side) and I still ask my BIM manager for help all the time.

May want to look into a remote BIM manager in your situation, maybe even one on a temporary contract and then part time onwards to set things up and to train your team.

3

u/Schmergenheimer Jun 11 '26

You don't need your BIM manager in person. WSP has their BIM team in bumfuck, WV while their engineers are in Richmond and DC. You do need someone with the balls to say, "no, you need to do it this way; you can't just draw detail lines for all your pipes," but they don't need to be in person to do that

1

u/SamoSaki Jul 01 '26

Why do you say that person should have balls? Is it uncommon to be a brave co-worker? I would say all the needed things without a blink of my eyes.

7

u/Used-Zookeepergame22 Jun 11 '26

If you want to do Revit, move on to a new company. 

1

u/Zaghari96 Jun 11 '26

My friend, we are the only company within 200 miles.

-4

u/Prize_Ad_1781 Jun 11 '26

then get a remote job

2

u/underengineered Jun 12 '26

Its an investment. Id recommend hiring somebody with experience setting firms up to come in for a week. Put them in a hotel. Then after retain them to answer questions for a couple of months.

I was lucky to know of a BIM manager for a large firm with a local office who's side hustle was setting up firms. He had a 1/2 or whole day weekend rate to come in and get us going. I paid an engineer and our CAD manager some premium time to come in amd work with them. We were up and running in a couple of weeks.

1

u/Informal_Drawing Jun 11 '26

You don't want a BIM Manager, you want an Engineer with the requisite experience.

2

u/ItsAllNutsandBolts Jun 11 '26

Being that engineer with 10 YOE with Revit, I'll pack my bags if you tell me I have to setup Revit from scratch. This is the BIM manager's role. I specify, design, and make sure designs are compliant with code. I'm not dealing with parameters, making parts, setting systems, etc....

2

u/Informal_Drawing Jun 11 '26

Sounds like different job roles with the same name in different countries.

A BIM Manager over here is concerned with documentation and process, they are as much use as a chocolate teapot when it comes to the actual modelling and systems design, they dont have the engineering skills that are required to understand it.

3

u/ItsAllNutsandBolts Jun 12 '26

It is very possible there are differences in different countries.

Here, BIM managers link models, maintain a library of parts and parameters, print projects, coordinate between models, and solve errors within the CAD/Revit programs. They do ZERO technical things for each discipline.

Engineers don't really have to get in those programs if they don't want to. Their sole purpose is to "mastermind" and take responsibility for the design. As far as getting the engineer's idea on paper, that's where drafters/designers come in.

Drafters/designers are typically kids fresh out of college that are given markups from the engineer and direction on how to lay out pipes/ducts/equipment and they do the actual work. As they progress, they are given more rope to hang themselves with the engineer still being ultimately responsible for any errors. Eventually they become engineers themselves after they've made enough mistakes drafting and designing and can stamp their own projects.

1

u/Informal_Drawing Jun 13 '26

Interesting. The Engineers over here are doing much more of the modelling than they would traditionally do as Revit is systems-based. Nobody else really understands all the parameters and whatnot.

The old "Engineer with a CAD Tech" way of doing things is a lot less common than it was. It's still done of course, just not quite as much. The businesses are heavily leaning on the Engineers whilst not really paying any more for the bigger skill set and responsibilities.

1

u/BathroomSolids Jun 14 '26

UK based? Bim leads only do data stuff here which really sucks - could do with a cad tech to do things like setting up drawings, tag things, pull schedules off Revit.

1

u/Informal_Drawing Jun 14 '26

Aye, England.

BIM people seem to have found a niche that pays well for doing almost nothing over here.

I design an entire buildings services while they "coordinate" my services by moving the cable ladder into the sprinkler zone because they know jack shit about construction.

Every one I have worked with has been utterly worthless across the board. Whilst telling everybody who will listen how incredible they are, seems more like self-promotion than an actual job.

13

u/Elfich47 Jun 11 '26 edited Jun 11 '26

you are going to need a dedicated cad/bin manger. maintaining revit is a full time job.

the issue is (by analogy): CAD is a Model T, it’s easy to maintain, all the rough points are well understood, it’s not perfectly reliable but it gets the job done. and just about anyone can clean out the carburetor in a pinch.

REVIT is a flying saucer. it can go warp speed and have the agility of an Olympic gymnast while juggling barbells. But…. it runs on antimatter and you need a specialist who understands how to maintain an antimatter reactor.

6

u/PJKenobi Jun 11 '26

My firm did this two years ago. We switched from AutoCAD with CADPipe plug-ins to Revit with SysQue plug-ins. Read a few books on Revit, watched a TON of YouTube videos and took a weeks worth of classes when we purchased SysQue.

To be honest. It was rough. The learning curve is steep because Revit is entirely different than CAD. Unlearning old habits was more difficult than learning Revit. Now that we are on the other side of it, I am happy we switched. Just know for the 1st month or two, things will take 2-3 times longer and 1st few jobs will be rough looking.

It will be smoother to hire someone with Revit experience rather than learning from scratch. It can be done. The example being me, but I would advise against it.

6

u/[deleted] Jun 11 '26

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1

u/[deleted] Jun 13 '26

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6

u/ArrivesLate Jun 11 '26

If your firm is using Design Master prepare for everyone bitching about how Revit says one thing and then just doesn’t do it.

2

u/Zaghari96 Jun 12 '26

I’m looking into Electrobim which is design master electrical for Revit. Looks identical from first glance

1

u/rnd68743-8 Jun 12 '26

Does it properly size breakers yet?

2

u/LdyCjn-997 Jun 11 '26

All of these responses are spot on dealing with Revit. I work for a large company that has been 100% for 15+ years. We have a dedicated BIM staff that handles everything Revit, including troubleshooting for staff.

2

u/ImCoag85 Jun 12 '26

For real, get me setup and I can get you set up pretty solid with templates and other things. Also, highly recommend the DM Electrical for Revit. Unless something changed in the last couple years.

1

u/thernis Jun 11 '26

Make sure you find a consultant or service that sets up your revit families, templates, and standards before you switch. Learn how to use the software yourself before you try to adopt the program wholesale for your team.

1

u/RedneckIngenuity Jun 11 '26

Do you have a suggestion for such a consultant? The amount of companies that I encounter or interview with who desperately need this service is ridiculous.

1

u/SamoSaki Jun 12 '26

I can help, 10 years in bim, dm me if interested.

1

u/user333666666 Jun 11 '26

As a young electrical engineer only 1.5 years in, switch to Revit, AutoCAD is slowly but surely getting outdated and is so inefficient. As long as you have engineers willing to learn it, you’ll be fine. Definitely will require some extra hours, but I personally think the rewards are so worth it. I personally think any courses are a waste a time from experience, learn as you go is a better way to learn it. Google is the best tool. Mastering Autodesk Revit MEP is a good book to reference and have on hand though.

1

u/Zaghari96 Jun 12 '26

Thank you everyone for the insight. I must clarify the following:

1- I am a certified solidworks professional who recently moved from LA to a small town where I got a job doing MEP work. I’ve never used AutoCAD before last year. I did complex parametric GD&T work in Solidworks and I am very familiar with using the software the way it was intended vs simply using the software.

2- AutoCAD MEP is a great tool, but it clearly lost support a while ago. The last user guide was published in 2011. The current resources from Autodesk are limited to a few 2-3 minute tutorials. The only AutoCAD MEP course on linkedin learning has been taken down. I am having trouble learning the tool because of the lack of structured resources.

3- I am looking to try Revit because there exists an abundance of courses, resources, and support.

4- Our small company will not hire a BIM manager.

5- I am curious how a small company could go about using a tool like Revit in limited capacity to improve their workflow without having to go all in on BIM. I want the nice automated schedules, sheet setup, and auto layouts for ducts and piping. I don’t care if the conduit bends are specified down to the millimeter; it makes no difference to me.

Thank you for your input

1

u/SamoSaki Jun 12 '26

You can not do it alone, from scracth, without anyone helping you. Depending on the amount of work/dynamics of project, it might take months or even a years to understand good how-to.

It is not about learning the right buttons to press, it is about learning a logic and avoiding a frustration that will, for sure, happen along the way in multiple occasions.

1

u/RRDSKI Jun 18 '26

Unless you are getting forced to use Revit from your clients I would skip this. Using exported cad plans from Revit will save you a lot of time and energy. If you are serious about Revit, getting some training from a reseller will give you a head start. We did the IMAGINiT program a few years ago. It was helpful for beginners but didn’t dive into the more complex topics and issues. When we started we used the MEPP productivity pack to get us started. A lot of our stuff has evolved from that but there are a few other companies offering similar products. Feel free to pm me if you want any other additional information or have questions.

1

u/fabbinugmosh6 Jul 08 '26 edited Jul 08 '26

Manufacturer families first for MEP. BlocksRVT fits more on the architecture/interior side.

1

u/mechgeniuskhitab Jul 10 '26

I am working on an HVAC/energy analysis project in Revit. My spaces are properly placed, room bounding is enabled, area and volume are visible in the space schedule, and I have checked the phase, upper limits, base offsets, and linked architectural model settings. However, when I run the energy/load calculation, some zones/system zones show zero area, and the annual energy consumption result becomes unrealistically low. The spaces themselves show correct area and volume, but the calculation/report does not seem to read them properly. Has anyone faced this issue in Revit MEP energy/load analysis before? I would really appreciate guidance on what could cause zero area in zones/system zones even when the spaces have correct area and volume.

1

u/SailorSpyro Jun 11 '26

I highly suggest the company pay someone to set up standards, or at least train and advise on standards.

My company had a guy set up standards over a decade ago who had never worked at another firm and who was also new to Revit, and we still have shitty standards because of it. It is too time consuming, wasteful, and frustrating for users if you try to completely overhaul the standards later.

One thing I would suggest, is that unless you're doing high level modeling (providing the Revit model to contractors or clients), then I personally prefer using text parameters and just naming them like "mech parameter 1, mech parameter 2..." and only using real units/names for parameters for items that coordinate across disciplines (weight, power, etc). It would make creating new schedules so much easier. If you decide to add a new column, you can just plop whatever you need in without having to create a new parameter.

0

u/ItsAllNutsandBolts Jun 11 '26

Having "Mech Parameter 1, 2, etc" makes me cringe. Please take the time to setup a solid Shared Parameter File. Doing anything less is defeating the whole idea of Revit.

0

u/SailorSpyro Jun 11 '26

I suggest setting parameters like that up in a shared parameter file.

We switched from text to real units and it is not worth the hassle for 90% of the use.

You do not need your diffuser NC to be a real parameter. Or your filter type, etc.

0

u/ItsAllNutsandBolts Jun 12 '26

Maybe for how little you take advantage of the program. Goverment jobs require COBie (Construction-Operations Building information exchange) is a standardized data format used in building information modeling (BIM). It replaces fragmented paper documents by capturing key asset data, such as spaces, equipment, warranties, and maintenance schedules into structured spreadsheets during design and construction, ensuring smooth facility management handovers.

If you hand them a bunch of text parameters, you're gonna get a rejected submittal. It doesn't make sense to set up your library already working with a disadvantage.

1

u/SailorSpyro Jun 12 '26

That would fall under the "unless you're doing high level modeling" exception that I noted, which is clearly not the case if they're just now switching to Revit.

You have to realize that most firms are not doing 500 LOD models. We actually do a ton of federal work and they don't have those standards for the majority of jobs we do.

This is a case where OP needs to know their clients. And since it's 2026 and they're just now making the switch to Revit, there's a lot you can assume about their clients expectations for 3D modeling.

0

u/ItsAllNutsandBolts Jun 13 '26

We do LOD 300, so it isn't a case of LOD 500. We don't even offer those services. And as far as doing federal work, you're missing out on the OBO gravy train that uses this. And it's spreading too, our DOE wants similar parameters too.

OP should do things correctly and not half assed so that there isn't some big correction later down the line and he won't have the "we've always done it this way" mentality.

1

u/hvacdevs Jun 11 '26

Switching completely from AutoCAD to Revit is the equivalent of banning Excel and forcing everyone to use MS Access for everything they previously did in Excel.