Ken Schriever
Director-Network Services

Ross&Baruzzini
6 South Old Orchard
St. Louis, MO 63119
T: 314.918.8383
C: 314.616.1801
www.rossbar.com
 

Choosing the Right Revit Partner Makes All the Difference

For the past couple of years we have been partnering with a company in Florida called CADD Centers, Gregory Arkin being our key contact. For those of you who know Gregory he is very passionate about his work, which happens to be anything tied to Revit. Once we started training with our new partners at the CADD Centers everything started clicking. We began by training our users the Revit basics with a three day on-site class for which we flew the trainer to St. Louis. We then followed up with an advanced class, as well as a Revit Family editing course.

Once the training was complete we were at a crossroads: Trained users but no project to start. Our Revit team met monthly to try to determine projects that we could target but were struggling with the Owners, Clients and Designers on various items. The project was too big, too small, too complex, or not complex enough. We just could never get the go-ahead until recently.

We have just completed a full Revit MEP project partnering with SOA architects. The project was a great success that I would like to share. It has been over a year since the original Revit training, our Revit team was working on families and training models to stay involved, but we had no actual projects so most of the hands-on training was lost or forgotten. We had to do something to get everyone back on track short of retraining the users. We contacted Greg at CADD Centers and discussed our solution to have the trainers online while working on the billable project to saving us money and time and by only covering the areas we needed.

The plan was implemented, and the training (or work sessions) was scheduled for the beginning and end of the project. This way we could get started on the project and have time to create a list of problems or areas that need to be addressed to maximize our time with the trainer. We would have another remote session again at the end of the project so we could address all of the outstanding questions to ensure that the final deliverables were complete.

With Joe Vivirito running the sessions from the CADD Centers side the process worked very well. Joe is another passionate individual who is driven by Revit knowledge and challenges. If you have a problem Joe will find an answer. For collaboration purposes we put all of the users in a conference room with a phone and projection screen so Joe could post his computer. With these simple capabilities, Joe was able to spend three days helping our guys through the Design Development phase of the project to get everyone's deliverables out the door. This was a great approach; we were not only learning but doing while on a billable project hence creating a small return on investment. We then repeated the process with an additional two-day training webcast for the final document review before the project went out the door. The overall process was a great success due to the dedicated MEP Revit users along with the partnership of CADD Centers, proving that choosing the right Revit partner really makes the difference.

If you are at all concerned with putting out a Revit project because the training needs to be refreshed or the confidence is not quite there, I have three words for you "GO FOR IT." Take that step, you can always give CADD Centers of Florida a call. I can speak first hand experience that they have the capabilities, KNOWLEDGE and drive to make your project a success. They are very professional with a professional and positive attitude; no problem is too small or too large. If you have any training sessions just call CADD Centers, 954-491-8570 I'm sure Gregory or Joe would love to hear from you.

Greetings David,

I just wanted to let you know the AutoCAD Civil 3D 2011 training went really well! Mary Peterman was marvelous at guiding the class and is obviously extremely knowledgeable. Her personable and affable nature put everyone at ease. Her skill and expertise really helped find the right explanation if our students were having a hard time grasping a concept. Tim Long was also a great asset, helping individuals who were experiencing hang-ups along the way.

I feel that the training was an unqualified success. In my past experience, students have completed software training only to return to their offices with little confidence and no clear understanding of the next step in the adoption of the new techniques they have learned. In this case, I believe that all of the attendees acquired a firm understanding of the software and because of the quality of the instructor and the narrowed focus of the class on significant core technologies, the primary tools that we will use can be immediately implemented. I can see that an immediate boost to our productivity on plan and profile projects is possible.

Dallas E. Pryor
Drafting Supervisor/Utility Coordinator
City of Tampa, Wastewater Department