Day 0 — Set up so the week doesn't fight you

Most people's first week with Revit is 60% learning Revit and 40% fighting a bad setup. This day is about deleting that 40%.

Pick your version deliberately

Check Help → About Revit and note the full version string, including the update (e.g. 2027.1). This matters more than in most software:

• Revit files only open forward. A 2027 file will never open in 2026. Ever. If you'll exchange files with a team, match their version exactly.
• Add-in compatibility is version-locked. pyRevit, Dynamo packages, and any in-house tools are built per Revit version. See the version matrix.
• Upgrading a file is one-way. Revit will offer to upgrade any older file you open. Say no unless you mean it, and never on a shared project.

If you get to choose, learn on the newest release you have a license for. If your firm is on an older one, learn on that — the fundamentals in this bootcamp are unchanged since about 2021.

On Revit LT: LT is missing worksharing, the Family Editor's more advanced tools, in-place massing, Dynamo, and the API. Days 0–6 mostly work in LT. Days 7 and 8 do not. If you have the choice, use full Revit.

The one folder

Create a single folder for the week and never work outside it:

RevitBootcamp/
  RB-Practice.rvt          ← the model you'll build all week
  Families/                ← .rfa files you make on Day 4
  Exports/                 ← PDFs, DWGs, schedules
  Shared/
    RB-SharedParams.txt    ← created on Day 4, do not delete

Revit scatters backups (*.0001.rvt) next to your file every time you save, and journal files into your user folder. Knowing where they are is the difference between a lost afternoon and a two-minute recovery. See file hygiene.

Start from a template, and look inside it

File → New → Project offers a template (.rte). Pick the architectural one for your unit system. A template is not a link — it's a starting stamp. Everything in it becomes part of your project and you can change all of it.

Before you close the New Project dialog, click Browse and note the path to the .rte on disk. Open that template file directly (File → Open, change the filter to Template Files) and look at what's in it:

• Levels and their names
• The view tree — what views exist before any modeling
• Wall, floor, and roof types
• Line styles, object styles, text and dimension styles
• Loaded families
• View templates and filters

Every one of those is a decision someone made for you. Over the week you'll learn what each is, and by Day 6 you'll understand why firms guard their templates so carefully. Close it without saving.

Now create your project and save it as RB-Practice.rvt.

Units, once, properly

Manage → Project Units (or type UN). Set the Length format to what you'll actually work in:

Two things to internalize now:

• Revit stores everything in decimal feet internally, regardless of your display units. This is invisible in the UI but very visible in the API and in Dynamo, where lengths come back in feet. It's the single most common unit bug in Revit automation.
• Rounding is display-only. If your units round to the nearest inch, a wall that's 3'-0 1/32" will display as 3'-0". Your dimension strings can lie to you. When numbers don't add up, increase your unit precision temporarily and look again.

Three settings to change right now

1. Autosave reminder — File → Options → General → Save reminder interval. Set it to 30 minutes. Revit has no true autosave for non-workshared files; the reminder is all you get. Ctrl+S is a habit you build this week.
2. Thin Lines on — type TL. Revit scales line weights with zoom by default, which makes every graphic problem look like a different graphic problem. Turn it on and leave it on while modeling.
3. Hardware acceleration — File → Options → Graphics. If your machine supports it, enable the accelerated graphics mode. On Revit 2027 it's out of tech preview and it's a large, real difference on navigation.

Orient yourself in the UI

Spend ten minutes just looking. Four regions matter:

• Ribbon — tabs of tools. You'll use maybe 40 of these ever.
• Properties palette (left, Ctrl+1) — the instance properties of what's selected, or of the view if nothing is. Edit Type at the top jumps to type properties. That distinction is Day 1's whole lesson.
• Project Browser (left) — the tree of views, legends, schedules, sheets, families, and groups. This is your file system. Learn to live in it.
• Status bar (bottom-left) and Options bar (under the ribbon) — the two places Revit tells you what it's about to do. Beginners ignore both and then wonder why the tool behaved oddly.

If you lose a palette: View → User Interface has the checkboxes.

What to expect from the week

Each day is one goal, some concepts, and one exercise on the same small building — a two-storey, ~2,000 sq ft office. By Day 6 you'll have issued a PDF drawing set from it. By Day 8 you'll be reading and modifying it with code.

The exercise is not optional. Revit has too many modal behaviors that only make sense once they've bitten you.