Nova guides / Free and independent

Practical guides for moving CAD knowledge into better BIM.

Fifteen in-depth guides for BIM managers, technicians and firm leaders: migration planning, detail libraries, Revit standards, information requirements, exchanges and the people side of change.

Start with migration Lead the practice

Free to read. No sign-up, no tracking. Independent educational guidance, not Autodesk documentation.

An exploded architectural model linked to standards and decision diagrams, connecting practice knowledge to delivery. — Guides / Checklists / ExamplesConcept illustration

Move CAD knowledge into Revit

Plan a migration, choose a route for each detail and keep the result organized.

Guide 01 / 7 min read

A CAD to Revit migration roadmap that survives contact with projects

Five phases, from inventory to review, with an owner, an effort cap and a stop condition for each step of the move.

Guide 02 / 7 min read

DWG detail migration strategies: choosing a route for each detail

Link, import, explode, redraw or convert: what each route produces, what it costs to clean up and when to choose it.

Guide 03 / 6 min read

CAD layer to Revit standards mapping, decided once and reused

Build an explicit table from CAD layers to Revit line styles, text types and filled region types, including what to skip and why.

Guide 04 / 6 min read

Organizing a Revit detail library people actually trust

Choose a storage model, classify and name details consistently, and give every detail a visible approval state.

Set standards people can follow

Naming, templates, families and a right-sized standard for a small team.

Guide 05 / 6 min read

Revit naming conventions that stay readable as the firm grows

Patterns for files, views, sheets, families and types, plus how to choose separators, abbreviations and a change process.

Guide 06 / 6 min read

A Revit view template strategy that keeps sheets consistent

Decide what templates control, how many you need, how to name them and who may change them.

Guide 07 / 6 min read

A Revit family QA checklist for content you can rely on

Check category, origin, visibility, parameters, flexing, hosting and file size before any family enters the library.

Guide 08 / 6 min read

BIM standards for small firms: start small, write it down, keep it alive

The first decisions to write down, the template as the standard, and how to grow it without bureaucracy.

Plan and exchange information

Agree what the model must contain, share it in open formats and keep it healthy.

Guide 09 / 6 min read

BIM execution plan basics, without the boilerplate

What a BEP is for, the sections most plans need, how it connects to client requirements, and how to keep it alive.

Guide 10 / 6 min read

LOD and LOI explained, and how to use them without overpromising

Level of development versus detail, the LOD 100 to 400 steps, LOI and level of information need, and a practical matrix.

Guide 11 / 6 min read

IFC export basics: sharing Revit models in an open format

Schemas, model views, class mapping, property sets, coordinates and a pre-share check for IFC exports.

Guide 12 / 6 min read

Revit model health checks: a routine, not a rescue

A weekly and milestone routine covering warnings, imports, purging, families, views, links and file size.

Lead the practice

Choose tools carefully, bring drafting teams along and build a practice that lasts.

Guide 13 / 6 min read

A Revit add-in evaluation checklist for careful firms

Ten areas to check before an add-in reaches live projects, and how to structure a fair trial on test data.

Guide 14 / 6 min read

Moving a drafting team to BIM without losing the people who know the details

Expectations, roles, training by doing, pilot projects and support structures for a CAD team moving to Revit.

Guide 15 / 6 min read

Building a BIM practice deliberately, one decision at a time

Purpose, ownership, standards, pilots, evidence and governance for a firm building a deliberate BIM practice.

Editorial approach

How these guides are written

Original guidance written for small and mid-sized architecture and engineering teams.
Examples are synthetic. We do not publish client data, invented statistics or promised savings.
Software behavior changes between releases: confirm details in your installed version.
Where a Nova product is relevant, we say so plainly and link to its page, including its limits.

Autodesk, AutoCAD and Revit are registered trademarks of Autodesk, Inc. These guides are not affiliated with or endorsed by Autodesk.

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