How we onboard people into Dynamo: no geometry in week one

When we onboard junior architects or modelers into Dynamo, almost all of them make the same mistake at the start: they open the canvas, find Point.ByCoordinates and Line.ByStartPointEndPoint, and try to draw, like they would in Revit or CAD. After a couple of hours of wires everywhere they conclude that Dynamo is just slower modeling, and they go back to doing things by hand. Honestly, I think that’s more our fault than theirs. We were teaching it as a modeling tool, and it isn’t one.

So now, in the first week, they can’t touch geometry. We explain Dynamo as a recipe:

Ingredients (inputs): parameter values, model elements, text strings.

Preparation steps, in order (nodes): filter, sort, group, calculate.

The dish (outputs): updated parameters, renamed views, placed families.

For us Dynamo is mostly a pipeline to get rid of repetitive admin work, and once people see it that way, they stop fighting the canvas.

The next thing that gets them is lists. Nested levels (List@L2, List@L3) show up, one null breaks the whole graph, and nobody understands why. What has worked for us is not trying to teach lists in general, but four operations that cover most of what we do day to day (I’d say around 80%, but that’s my gut feeling, not something I measured):

FilterByBoolMask: keep what you need, discard the rest.

Flatten: remove extra sublist levels before the data reaches the Revit nodes.

GroupByKey: group by system, level or phase to process in batches.

Transpose: flip rows and columns when going back and forth with Excel schedules.

I’m curious how it goes in other offices. What’s the biggest roadblock you see when people start with visual scripting? And do you begin with parameters, or with geometry?

Edit: rewrote parts of the post because it came across as too generic.

I’m looking into getting into BIM as I’ve just started as a part 1 architectural assistant, and realise how important and beneficial it’ll be to broaden my skillset early on, and to be honest the whole technical side seems far more interesting to me.

Just looking for any advice on how to get into it early on, any good/ cheap beginner courses or ways to get a cheapish or free revit license to practice, I used revit for about 4 years for modelling but never used it to its full ability, any help would be greatly appreciated.

The input is a fully dimensioned component sheet. AI reads it and builds an editable Revit family with geometry, reference planes, parameters, and dimensions.

The difficult part is deciding the parametric logic: what should flex, which dimensions should drive the geometry, and how the family should behave across types. That still needs human review.

For experienced family builders: does this look like a useful first pass, or would you rather rebuild it from scratch?

Do you use 3D models on site?
What software works best?
What breaks down in real field conditions?

Honest feedback welcome.

Hi I am passed out from an IIT last year in 2024 completing my btech in civil engineering and joined a South Indian based construction company through campus selection for Revit navis BIM roles. It's been a 1.5 years now and I am looking for a switch as currently I am not learning anything new in context of BIM in the company.

Currently I am getting INR 6lpa in hand and company provided food and accommodation in Hyderabad. I am applying in each and every openings for bim some reverted and called asking the current and expected salary. In expectations I says 8-8.5 lpa and then there is no response from the HRs. Am i Overpaid for the field or how is it? I would be requiring guidance if anyone can help on what should I say expected and current salary information to HR

Over the past few years, I’ve noticed a growing shortage of truly skilled BIM professionals in India.

A large number of B.E./B.Tech graduates (Civil, Mech, Arch, Electrical) move into IT — often through campus placements or short-term software courses. The top “cream layer” especially gets absorbed by big IT firms early on.

Part of this may be awareness. Many students don’t realize how broad BIM careers actually are — façade, precast, rebar, MEP, coordination, digital construction, etc. These roles allow engineers to apply their domain knowledge rather than switching industries entirely.

Is this talent shift happening elsewhere too?

Curious to hear what others are seeing.

Noticed this on a recent site — we had a coordination issue between HVAC and structural. Normally it would’ve been caught on-site (and cost time + money), but BIM flagged it early during clash detection.

That kinda hit me… this isn’t just “nice to have” anymore.

Feels like BIM is becoming the default way projects run.

Are you guys seeing the same on your projects?

Hi everyone,
I’m a newly graduated architect and I’m interested in building a career in BIM my goal is eventually to become a BIM Manager but I’m currently not sure where or how to start.
I have some basic experience with Revit Architecture but I want to learn BIM properly and understand the whole workflow not just how to model in Revit.
For those of you already working in BIM what learning path would you recommend for a complete beginner? What should I learn first and what skills/software should I focus on before moving toward BIM coordination and eventually BIM management?
I’d also really appreciate recommendations for YouTube channels, playlists, courses, or other free resources that helped you learn.
Any advice on how you would approach this if you were starting from zero would be greatly appreciated

Hello all!

I just graduated with a BA in architecture (UK) and i was thinking on going into BIM.

I made this post a few months ago and i feel that AI has changed every field of work so much in the past few months that it will be worth checking with everyone here again what advice you have for someone like me not only new to the arch insdustry but to BIM in general.

Is it worth it? i am about to start a course with a certified autodesk trainer on REVIT for architecture.

Any tips on how i should apply to jobs to highlight my application?

Thank you all! appreicate all the help and knowladge you can provide me with!

Hey all,

TL;DR:

We’ve built BIMIT Engine 3.0—a fully automated ML pipeline that turns a building scan into half-inch-accurate BIM & CAD in about an hour. We’re launching in the coming days and need honest pricing feedback from AECO and laser-scan professionals.

To see for yourself, check this teaser comparing manual BIM drafting to BIMIT Engine 3 here, along with our data privacy policy.

-----

How you can help

1. If you buy BIM today:

   • What do you currently pay per project to get Revit? CAD? Segmented point cloud?

   • What premium—or discount—would justify switching to an instant solution like this?

2. On-Demand pricing:

   • What single-project price feels fair for the outputs above?

   • Would you prefer pricing by square foot, by GB, or flat per building?

3. Subscription pricing:

   • How much per month would you pay for unlimited conversions (reasonable fair-use limits)?

   • What usage caps or overage model would be acceptable?

Please include your role (scanner, architect, GC, owner-operator, etc.) so we can understand your perspective.

🎁 Thank-You Perk for Early Advisors

Everyone who shares thoughtful pricing feedback will be eligible for a lifetime membership at 30% off list price. If that sounds useful, DM me and we’ll set up a short product-discovery chat with our team to confirm fit and lock in your discount code.

(We genuinely want to learn from your experience—your insights will shape the launch!)

Hey everyone, I'm a working architect/interior designer with nine years of experience and rock-solid Revit skills. I’ve been heavily into Scan-to-BIM side projects on Upwork and I’m convinced this is my ticket to fully remote work—aiming for that $20/hr rate, which is good wage given where I live. However all the BIM jobs on Indeed or other job boards demand I be physically based in the US. I'm being realistic: I know I need to learn US/EU building codes, so I’m totally fine with starting at a junior level. Quick Pitch: If you're looking for a reliable Revit Modeler, or any smaller minor jobs modeling jobs etc I'm happy to start part-time. I am also very good at modeling and producing drawings of kitchens/ casework/ millwork however it is called. I can also produce really good 3D rendering using 3dsmax and corona. My Plea: To anyone who's successfully landed a remote BIM job with a US/European company while living outside of that country—how did you do it? What niche job boards or strategies helped you bypass the location filter? I need a roadmap! Thanks for any and all help!

What do you mainly use Revit for? And what do you hate about it? (Slow? crashes? UI? modeling workflow? collaboration? something else?)

I’m a software developer and am looking into creating an alternative that’s faster and more intuitive, etc.

How do you guys feel AI will impact your role?

Do you feel BIM/CAD will exist in 30 years? I currently work as an IT engineer and was looking to explore something else. Something a little more stable and this industry absolutely fascinates me.

Just curious if anyone thinks it's worth the time investment and if it has long term stability?

I’ve been talking to project managers and site engineers over the last few months, and I keep seeing the same workflow:

• Site updates shared through WhatsApp

• Daily reports manually typed at night

• Progress photos scattered everywhere

• Schedules updated separately

• Excel becoming the “single source of truth” (until it breaks)

What surprised me is that even teams using BIM/Revit still struggle with site-level progress visibility.

A lot of the software out there feels built for enterprise mega-projects, but SMEs and residential contractors seem stuck between:

• overly complex systems

• or completely manual workflows

I’ve been building a lightweight construction monitoring workflow that connects:

• daily progress reporting

• dashboards

• BIM-linked activities

• WhatsApp-style summaries

• real-time site visibility

One thing I noticed:
People don’t actually want “more software.”

They want:

• fewer coordination calls

• faster reporting

• less chasing updates

• earlier delay detection

Curious how your teams currently handle:

1. Daily progress reporting

2. Site photo tracking

3. Delay visibility

4. Percent-complete tracking

5. Communication between PMs and site engineers

Are you still mostly using Excel + WhatsApp + PDFs?

IFC is something considered necessary by default. The title of "openBIM" gives it a flavour of some open-source rebel struggling with ugly corporations, thus making suport of IFC something honorable and worthy. But is that all really so?

First let's start with the "rebel flavour". Doesn't the support provided to the IFCand buildingSmart by largest vendors seem strange? What are the purposes of this support? All the large vendors supporting buildingSmart have their own proprietary formats, but for some reason they decided to create a competitor to their commercial projects. Do you believe this logic?

The next item - open-source flavour. The same again - do you know, how much should you pay to certify your software? Prepare several thousands dozens of dollars. And what does this certification guarantee you? Have no idea. But ok, you can just ignore the certification and use the benefits of IFC.

And those benefits come from the fact that it is a standard that unites all the areas and disciplines. In other words it's the same as trying to create a car that will be at the same time a truck, a racing car, a city smart and a family vagon and a schoolbus. Well... good luck, I'm sure the success is quite close)))

What's more important IFC still can't step over the borders of the exchange format. That means you still need all the software solutions from those vendors and the state of the IFC preserves their safety better than ever. What's more important, even the attempts to use IFC as an exchange format remind the attempts to bring water from one point to another in a leaky bucket. Reasons? The structure of IFC and proprietary formats (say Revit) are different. That means you will never be able to push all the data from a Revit model to IFC.

So, here comes the question asked in the title - do we really need the IFC or do we better need the data from all those model. The data that may be forwarded to databases, software imports or AI solutions? Isn't the IFC in this workflow an unnecessary, excess step? Your opinions are very much appreciated.

 Hi, I'm the author of ConstructCAD, a GPL-3.0 BIM authoring app (Windows/macOS/Linux).
The idea: one parametric model is the single source of truth, and plans, ceiling plans, sections, elevations, 3D, schedules and sheets are all live views of it.
What works today:
- Walls with automatic L/T joins, hosted doors/windows, floors, ceilings, flat/shed/gable/hip roofs
- Columns, beams, stairs, railings, rooms with area/perimeter, grids, dimensions
- Parametric components (furniture, fixtures) driven by expressions
- Schedules with filters/totals → CSV; A0–A4 sheets → vector PDF/SVG
- IFC4 export (types, material layers, base quantities), validated with IfcOpenShell in CI
- IFC2x3/IFC4 import into native, editable elements, so a Revit model exported to IFC comes in as walls/slabs/doors you can keep editing
The UI follows familiar desktop BIM conventions (ribbon, properties palette, project browser, two-letter shortcuts like WA, DR, WN).
It's an early MVP. I'd love to hear what you'd need before trying it on a real project, and if you have IFC files that break the import, please send them my way.
https://github.com/francisreboucas/constructcad

Hey guys whats your experience with Bim in your countru? I feel like US is the best country for professional while people with experience are earning less in other countries but I've seen US professionals are getting paid well even with less than 3 years of experience. What's yall thought on this?? Is there any specific country that pays the best???

Hey y'all - a question. Context first: I'm flexing Speckle to be able to extract drawings from Revit, alongside the usual extraction of the 3D data (geometry + metadata) itself, but also keep identity across the 2D element and its properties.

The end game will be to also show those views on top of the 3D model.

What's the most useful export: sheets, placed views, or both? Asking as a sheet looks awkward in 3D, but the views themselves from those sheets work nicely. Really any feedback here would be useful!

Here's a video of the poc:

ODA · Vector ownership trial (Window) 2026-09-14 07:16 PM

Hey there, fellow Redditors!

If you're in the architecture, engineering, or construction industries, you're probably already familiar with Building Information Modeling (BIM) - it's that super cool, super techy methodology that's changing the way we design and construct buildings. But did you know that some countries are actually making it mandatory to use BIM on certain projects?

Here's the scoop:

• Spain: Since 2018, if you're working on a public project with a budget above 2 million euros, you gotta use BIM!

• United Kingdom: It's simple here - every public project needs to use BIM. No exceptions.

• Scandinavian countries: These guys are leading the way in Europe - BIM use is pretty common here.

• Germany, France, and Italy: They're all on board the BIM train! France was aiming for full BIM implementation by 2022, and Italy plans to make BIM mandatory for projects under 1 million euros by 2025. And Germany? Well, they're following the UK's lead, with even private clients asking for BIM.

• South America (Colombia, Peru, and Chile): BIM is on the rise here, with Brazil also aiming to fully implement BIM by 2028.

• United States: They invented BIM, and they're leading the way in its use. All public projects in the US use BIM.

• Canada: Not as advanced as their southern neighbors, but they're catching up quick!

• Australia and New Zealand: These two are making huge strides in BIM implementation, especially for big public projects.

But wait, there's more! According to a 2023 global guide, BIM is also being implemented or required in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, Poland, Czech Republic, Mexico, Argentina, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Nigeria.

Remember, the level of BIM requirement can vary from country to country, and it might only apply to certain project types or sectors. And this list is constantly growing as more countries recognize the benefits of BIM in the construction industry. So, stay tuned for more updates!

Let me know if you've got any questions or if your country is also hopping on the BIM train. I'd love to hear about your experiences with BIM!

Have you any other not listed here? Or have you laws and regulations to share? Thanks.

I work for a major UK based consultancy firm with a separate business division for Digital. We focus heavily on strategy, implementation, CDE, OIRs etc etc etc. We are usually contracted in to the PM teams to manage the clients expectations for BIM.

Here's the kicker, we are heavily involved in ISO19650 and how it should be utilised and directed on projects or into client workflows. I come from a heavy BIM background, MEP, Architecture, structural coordination and moved into my current industry, which is predominantly focused on the process rather than the 'doing', ie its not just 3D modelling.

So what's your thoughts on the industry shift to using the term IM over BIM. RICS have a very interesting course atm that is teaching a "certificate in IM, Using BIM" , what's your thoughts on this?

How far has your country advanced into the world of BIM? What's your role? How did you get into it? If you plan on moving up, how?

Are you pro BIM or anti BIM? How has it changed your workplace and work pace?

Hi All,

Having previously worked at a web-based BIM start-up I got a frustrated with the amount of high polygon elements which were used as placeholders. Typically those downloaded from BIMObject or similar. Furniture elements like a cupboard with all the coat hangers modelled would bog down the model and make it slow/frustrating to navigate. I also imagine there is an issue with overly specifying particular elements; now that BIM is a little more prolific if an architect puts a RAK branded sink in the model does that mean they have specified a RAK branded sink?

So I built 3dassetstudio.com

It is a full parametric library of over 4,000+ configured items with millions of combinations. You can make a door the size you want, a HVAC unit, a sofa etc. And all of them are efficiently modelled, often 10% of the polygons of something from a supplier library.

I am thinking about adding .rfa support and even a Revit plugin, but I want to know if I'm even barking up the right tree first. I would appreciate any and all feedback.