Revit Top Cat USA - The Results

Last week, in the stunning location of Orange County, California, nearly 300 Revit aficionado's descended for 3 days of knowledge-sharing, teaching, learning, networking and a whole lot of fun.  After several years in the planning, the inaugural Revit Technology Conference (USA) had finally arrived.

Just like at the parent conference (RTC AU) which took place in May, on Australia's Gold Coast, KnowledgeSmart was tasked with delivering the 'Revit Top Cat' contest.  A practical skills assessment, pitching Revit top guns from across the industry, where only the bravest of BIM souls can prevail.

To recap on the format; 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).

The Grand Final - where the 3 candidates with the best scores from each stream go head to head, tackling 10 advanced questions about Revit Project Process.

Congratulations to the following victors, from each heat (pictured left to right):

Charles Jolin  - Revit MEP - 96%
Brian Mackey - Revit Architecture - 100%
Priit Luhakooder - Revit Structure - 100%

And so to the finale. (And to give the proceedings even more spice, two of the three contenders were representing Autodesk ATC's!).  After 10 spine-tingling minutes, a new champion was crowned.  And the winner of Revit Top Cat USA 2011 is.....

Brian Mackey from CAD-1. (Editor's note: er, shouldn't that be BIM-1, Brian? :) ).


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

The overall average for the 40 results was 78% in 9 mins 23 seconds.

Drilling down a bit more, there were 28 results for RAC, 5 for RST and 7 for RMEP.

The average scores for each discipline were:

RAC = 79% in 9 mins 7 secs.
RST = 75% in 9  mins 45 secs.
RMEP = 76% in 10 mins 10 secs.

So how did the boys vs girls stats look, this time around?  Well, unlike the RTC AU stats, this time the boys took the title, in the Revit battle of the sexes!

Boys = 80% in 9 mins 18 secs.
Girls = 66% in 9 mins 50 secs.

So what does all this mean,  in terms of performance and training?

For Revit Architecture, the top 10 training items were, in priority order:
Conceptual Massing, Shortcuts, User Interface, Dimensions, Principles of BIM, Coordinates, Shared Locations, Phasing, Floor Elements and View Properties.

For Revit Structure, the top 10 training items were, in priority order:
Brace Symbols, Structural Settings, Repeating Details, Drawing Lists, Project Information, View Properties, Visibility/Graphics, Beam Systems, Copy/Monitor and Crop Regions.

For Revit MEP, the top 10 training items were, in priority order:
Pressure, Pipe Properties, Pipe Types, Fixture Units, Plumbing Fixtures, Routing Duct, Duct Fittings, Duct Sizing, Duct Systems and Properties Pallet.

Overall, an extremely enjoyable conference.  Special thanks to Wes, Heidi and the RTC team for all their hard work, over the last year.  Thanks to the RTC AU committee (Clay Hickling, Michelle "Disco Diva" Leonard, Rodd Perey and Simon "90% even when blotto" Whitbread) for making the trip.  And thanks to the RTC USA committee (Jim "Gadgets" Balding, Bob "Saturday Night Fever" Bell, David "Blondie" Harrington, Nicholas Kramer, Steve "Keith Moon" Stafford and Phil Read) for all their efforts in hosting a knockout first conference.  Looking forward to RTC USA 2012 (somewhere on the East coast!).

R