I would look over some of the AU pdfs about project template setups. This was a great start for me, and then do a test project, say a redo of a completed project, just with Revit (maybe an archie could borrow you the Revit model). When completed, you will see the speed bumps and the constraints of the program. Being a guru in Autocad can sometimes hender your experience with Revit. Just remember, they are not the same. I gave myself a time frame to complete the test project, and tried to reach that goal...it was close, but we did it. The outcome was ok, but I had a greater idea of timeframes, and what I really needed for a template. Ill say my template is more annotation families, view filters, and view templates then anything. Ive found that bloating it with family content only slows down the model in the early stages, thus forcing a purge at some point. Also, for future reference, look into family templates and converting standard details to Revit, as this will be needed at some point. And the last thing I did, and it was painstaking, was to create a schedule file, which had all of our mechanical schedules that linked to my family templates parameters. Thus when I load a schedule, and we use or create a (insert my firms name here) mechanical family, the schedule fills itself out with the information we use. This was all done over the coarse of 1.5 years and three revit projects. So, I would take it slow, learn family creation, as it will be the jewel in your crown, and remember, your on uncharted land in many respects, so most things will not be available until you create them or find a way to complete the task. Any questions, and Im always available to ask.

Please see this thread:

Building a Revit Template

Awesome guys thanks. Alex, thanks for the reference.

Just to add what has already been mentioned, I would suggest creating all of your pipe and duct systems in the template so that all color/linetype preferences are ready to go. We do a lot of DWG exports, so with the new 2012 export features, I mapped all of our pipe/duct systems so they would export to individual layers with the correct color. That has been a huge time saver for us.

I've heard from lecturers and in-company sources that I should go ahead and do a project, tweeking it as I go and once I've got the views, linestyles and all that right - that I should then make that a template file. Would that work?

Yes, but not as well.

Always in for a nice statement....

But I do agree, I wouldn't go there. When you create your project there will always be junk in it (import a family from a third party, etc). I tried this an a few occasions and it didn't sit well.
What you COULD do is give it a go for a few projects, then start a blank template but use the tweaked settings from those projects. Just don't transfer project standards since there could always be stuff drawn in that you don't want.