7 Signs You're A Revit Productivity Expert | Applied Software, GRAITEC Group

According to Jeff Goins in his July, 2016 article The 7 Differences Between Professionals and Amateurs, “. . . success in any field is more about commitment to a process than it is about finding one magic trick that will make it all come together.” That’s what it’s like when you’re becoming a Revit productivity expert. The more you work at getting better using Revit, the closer you become to being an expert. The following is Revit expert Matt Dillon’s short list of the tell-tale signs of a true Revit productivity expert:

You don’t lose data in workshared projects.
If you have set the number of backups to a reasonable value (20 is the default, don’t go less), you’re on the right track. You get another star if you also regularly perform central file maintenance on non-cloud projects (AUDIT, PURGE and COMPACT). Protecting data also involves creating local files regularly (daily, if not every time you open the project). In addition, if you are working in a cloud-workshared project in BIM 360 Team or BIM 360 Design, you should publish regularly and frequently to guarantee backup versions in the cloud. The on-demand Applied Software webinar Cloud Worksharing, Design Collaboration & Data Management is a great resource for more information.
You can predict when you are going to get a warning that needs to be resolved, and you know how to fix it.
Unresolved warnings will slow down a project in a huge way when they’ve built up beyond a few hundred. Since the warning verbiage can be somewhat confusing, resolving these can be a challenge for new users. Visit these web sites with tips on common warnings, and learn how to resolve them like a pro: How to understand and address warnings” on the Autodesk Knowledge Network; “Reviewing and Resolving Warnings in Revit Models,” by Matt Dillon.
You don’t have elements that mysteriously disappear without any explanation.
A thorough understanding of critical view properties includes: V/G Overrides, Discipline, View Range, Phase, Design Options (not a view property, but it can affect visibility of objects).
You have cut the AutoCAD umbilical cord.
To be an expert user, you must work in Revit – not jump back and forth from AutoCAD to Revit. You should no longer import CAD files and leave them in the file. Rather, you will link to CAD data when you absolutely must have it referenced in your Revit project. You also need to convert your standard details to Revit drafting views and import them into your projects when needed. A less-than-expert mistake is to link from AutoCAD then convert each time you use the details. This is explained by Matt Dillon in detail in the Applied Software on-demand webinar How to Keep Your Job Using Revit.
Your projects don’t live on Saturn.
Expert users understand how to use Shared Coordinates to reference a civil/survey AutoCAD file that was created using State Plane coordinate systems. This way your Revit project stays close to the Revit origin, and you understand where it exists relative to a benchmark.
Your Revit Project Template is not bigger than most Revit Projects.
Experts do not store component (loadable) families unnecessarily in their template. These components should be loaded only when needed and kept in a well-organized external library which is easily navigated to and accessed. Expert users do not have unused group definitions and other “clutter” in their template project.
You’re not spending unnecessary time managing your views, yet you somehow maintain consistency of appearance and adherence to standards.
As an expert user, you have a good library of View Templates to automate the configuration of your views. You utilize View Types to automate the application or assignment of view templates to your views when they are created, and you use these to facilitate better organization of views in your Project Browser.

Ready to take your Revit mastery to a higher level? Request Matt Dillon’s popular new e-Book “How to Keep Your Job Using Revit” from Applied Software today.