Demonstrating and explaining what Dynamo is

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Hi experts,

I am an intern at a building company and I am currently doing a research on proces optimalisation by implementing Dynamo in the current workflow. (mostly focused on automating repetitive tasks, placing elements with coordinates, easily adjustable gridlines, etc.)
I am willing to organize a meeting for the BIM-engineers and give them a brief demonstration and introduce them with Dynamo. So that they understand the very basics of Dynamo if they ever decide to fully dive into it.
My question is: What topics do you think are essential in covering the basics of Dynamo?

I was thinking about explaining the following;

  • The User Interface (UI)
  • Adding nodes to the workspace
  • Nodes Inputs/Outputs/Name & the Dynamo Player
  • Packages
  • Creating Groups of nodes
  • The difference between ‘Create’, ‘Action’ and ‘Query’ nodes
  • Managing lists with data, null values, filtering etc.
  • Booleans
  • Integers, strings
  • vectors, points, curves and the coordinate system

Followed by a little demonstration with a blank workspace where I create a rectangular placement of walls by using the combination of points to polycurves, using sliders to demonstrate the movement.

Am I missing some important topics for the basics? Your feedbacks are appreciated!

Thank you in advance,

Selim

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  • Time gain (compare dynamo to manual)
  • Get parameter value, set parameter value
  • Create Sheets with Views on it
  • Create views parallel/perpendicular to an object (all doors and windows)

I named a few

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It sounds like you’re trying to do two things at once, which I think could actually do more harm than help.

  1. Sell them on the benefits of using Dynamo for everyday workflows
  2. Give introductory training on the basics for actually using Dynamo

You need to get them on board before doing any training. You don’t want to water down the “wow factor” of Dynamo with all the technical and logistical information. I would recommend by starting with selling points like what @Marcel_Rijsmus suggested.

  • time saved on repetitive tasks
  • push/pull of data (within Revit and from external sources like Excel or other applications)
  • view, sheet, model setup
  • health and standards checks
  • family management and upgrades

Once you have them sold on the idea of Dynamo you can jump into the training part. The examples you mentioned are exactly what you’d want to start with. I’d recommend hitting the major topics from the Primer.

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Hmm… So basically sell the idea first and then dive into the training?
What if I show a video with some workflows I created earlier in order to ‘sell’ the idea of implementing Dynamo?
After that I could dive into the actual training and talk about the topics I mentioned.

I was thinking about starting the meeting with one of the two videos below:

Or

Which one sells better? And does this way of introducing Dynamo seem like a better idea?

Love the feedback!

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Whatever you think is best for your audience. I’m just talking from my own experience. I’ve had to make these same presentations to different groups. There are going to be people who only care about the value Dynamo brings (but won’t ever work with it) and there are people you need to train to understand how it all works so that they can assist in developing and managing these graphs. You need to get everyone (or at least the necessary people) on board before you can do any training. No one is going to care about how it works if they don’t care about what it does. That’s the only point I’m trying to make.

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Right, get them interested so they would care to spend the necessary energy into learning it.
I believe the engineers here are already willing to learn it since one very basic script which changes some parameter of all elements have already been used in some projects by these engineers, which shortly after started some discussion and raised a lot of questions for other possibilities.
On top of that, a survey which I shared a few weeks ago showed that all the BIM-engineers in my department were willing to follow a basic-course for Dynamo if the opportunity would be presented to them.
I’m taking notes of your tips! Again, much appreciated!

Selim

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Awesome. Sounds like you’ve already piqued interest. Another benefit to showing off what Dynamo can do is to get people thinking about other possibilities.

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