Revit Top Cat AU - The Results

In the beautiful setting of Australia's Gold Coast, last week saw the gathering of almost 500 enthusiastic Revit professionals, for 3 days of learning, networking and general BIM shenanigans.  The seventh annual Revit Technology Conference was, in short, a tremendous success.

As part of the proceedings, KnowledgeSmart organised a practical skills contest for Revit gurus - from all 3 disciplines - to demonstrate their Revit knowledge and credentials.  And so 'Revit Top Cat' was born. (Recognition must go to RTC committee members Rodd Perey and Wesley Benn for their role in conceiving and naming the competition!).

The format was straightforward.  Round one - a skills assessment comprising a mix of 14 knowledge and task based questions, using Revit 2011 across 3 streams (Architecture, Structure or MEP, as appropriate).

The candidates with the best score from each stream would qualify for the grand final on Saturday. In the event of a tie for best score, the user with the fastest time gets the nod.

After some technical challenges (it's tricky to run a web-based assessment when you have no web! :) ), we eventually got everything set up.

36 brave souls stepped up over the course of the Friday afternoon, going toe-to-toe with their fellow Reviteers.  The results were tallied up and on Saturday morning the winners were announced, ready to take their place in the final.

Congratulations to the following victors, from each heat:

Andrew Bagnall - Revit MEP - 93%
Glenn Sinclair - Revit Architecture - 96%
David Harrington - Revit Structure - 100% *
Adam Sheather - Revit Structure - 100% *

(* David's time was a bit faster than Adam's, but as they both did so well, and we had an extra PC, Adam was also invited to take his place in the final.).

And so to the finale.  A new assessment module, comprising 10 questions about Revit project process.  Not for the faint hearted!  After 10 tense minutes, a new champion was crowned.

And the winner of Revit Top Cat 2011 is.....

Andrew Bagnall from GHD.  Many congratulations to Andrew and indeed the winners from all 3 streams!


So let's take a look in more detail at some of the results from the competition..

The overall average for the 36 results was 74% in 9 mins 17 seconds.

Drilling down a bit more, there were 24 results for RAC, 7 for RMEP and 5 for RST.

The average scores for each discipline were:

RAC = 80% in 8 mins 49 secs.
RST = 66% in 9  mins 27 secs.
RMEP = 56% in 11 mins 37 secs.

At the risk of courting controversy, we thought it might be interesting to see how the boys compared to the girls.  You could argue that this is an unfair comparison, as there were more scores posted by the boys than the girls overall, however a counter argument might be made that this was also reflective of the wider demographics at the conference.  Either way, we think it's a relevant metric, so here it is... it turns out that the girls comprehensively beat the boys - for both accuracy and speed - so no great surprises there! :)

Girls = 84% in 8 mins 40 secs.
Boys = 72% in 9 mins 33 secs.

So what does all this mean,  in terms of performance and training?  Well, not surprisingly, the overall level of performance, across the 3 disciplines, was very high.  But you might expect that to be the case at a user conference.

So what were the main training issues that were highlighted, in a detailed analysis of the results..?

For Revit Architecture, the top 10 training items were, in priority order:
User interface, Conceptual Massing, Shortcuts, Principles of BIM, Dimensions, Phasing, Coordinates, Floor elements, Shared locations and View properties.

For Revit Structure, the top 10 training items were, in priority order:
Drawing lists, Project information, Brace symbols, Crop regions, Roofs, Structural settings, View properties, Visibility/graphics, Repeating details and Floors/slabs.

For Revit MEP, the top 10 training items were, in priority order:
Plumbing, Fixture units, Pressure, Pipe sizing, System inspector, Pipe properties, Pipe types, Duct sizing, Duct systems, and Creating supply systems.

So, overall a thoroughly enjoyable conference, with many new friends made along the way.  A robust contest, across the three main disciplines of Revit.  The structural engineers posted the only maximum scores in the heats.  MEP engineers won the overall contest.  And the girls comprehensively beat the boys, in what may now turn into a Revit battle of the sexes!  And it all began in a small town on Australia's Gold Coast...

R