Cleaning up Families

For some Revit Families you may have received either from a consultant of a supplier (especially from suppliers) the file size may be too big or over-modeled.

 Adam in my Vancouver office came up with this flow chart showing some simple steps on how to clean up Revit Families…

Save a copy of the image to your desktop to keep handy.

Enjoy!.

Thanks Adam!

SC

Creating a new Linetype in a Family

When creating a new family you may find that you are limited in the Linetypes available to you so you  need to create a new line type. Don’t get confused with line patterns… here we are adding a new Linetype style to represent objects in your family…

We use lines in families to represent our component in a plan view.

Here’s how:

• Open the family you want to edit or start a new family from the template. (Duh!)

• Under the Manage tab select the Object Styles icon. This will open up the Object Style Dialog Box where you will see the existing linetype styles available in your family.

• Create a New Subcategory, under the Subcategory of your component. This will allow you to manage the lines latter…

• Name your category and place it in the appropriate Subcategory.

• Now you have created a new Category you can now select the line weight, colour and pattern.

When you’re done you will now have access to the linetype you created in the Subcategory linetype selection.

Updating the Family Thumbnail

So I ran into an unusual problem the other day where my Revit Family did not match the thumbnail image.... In this case the window family had multiple mullions which the thumbnail did not show, in fact the preview showed the original family of which I copied to create the new family with multiple mullions!

After mulling this over and searching the web for a solution I submitted a case to Autodesk and as usual the Autodesk support team (in this case it was Lance Coffey who has also helped me out in the past) promptly replied with the answer.

So here's what you need to do if your family "thumbnail" icon dose not match your family (direct from Autodesk support!):

1. Open the family file.

2. Save the file to a new name, and click Options on the Save As dialog window.
(Actually I just overwrote the original file and it worked fine)

3. Select the Source view that you want to use for the thumbnail preview, and check the "Regenerate if view/sheet is not up-to-date" box.
(This is the important part!)

4. Save the file, and check if the thumbnail is updated.

Easy!

SC

Keeping your Imported Families Simple

Ever received a Revit Family from a manufacturer and it is modeled in such depth that you can actually see the raised manufacturers name on the side of the piece of equipment!

The reason for this is that they are typically creating a model for "manufacture".
These models using programs such as "Inventor" are a great way to design and develop equipment for manufacture but don't reuse that model for use as your BIM model to share with consultants... it's way too big!

Autodesk is currently previewing new software that will "Shrink-wrap" and simplify an Inventor model and also removes Intellectual Property.

It's currently a Technology preview and I hope it takes off and is adopted by mechanical equipment manufacturers as part of their process when releasing a BIM model.

Check it out....

http://labs.autodesk.com/utilities/inventor_simplification/

When to create an In-Place Family

Here are some guide lines for when and when not to create an in-place family.

When to create a Component Family

• If there is any possibility that you'll use the family again in another project.
• If you want to schedule specific parameters of the family.
• If your using it in other locations throughout the project.
• If you need to be able to "flex" the component.

 

When to create a In-place Family

• If it's a unique component specific to the project.
• an unusual form or shape that will only be used once or will remain the same throughout the project.
• you don't need to schedule it.

Ummmm..... that's it!

Chances are you'll need to use it again and it's a good way to build up your component library.

Remember don't over complicate your model or your family. If you don't need the parameters or the detail in the component done include it.

The simpler these components the faster and smaller your model will be and you'll be happier.

Yes those fancy families do look impressive but so does a Lamborghini but they're a little impractical when taking the kids to the soccer field...get a Mini-Van !!

Work Plane Based Families

Here in the office we had an issues with Revit "Groups".... Some of the grouped objects were not behaving properly. :-(

When we copied the group to the upper levels some of the objects were remaining on the lower level, in some cases creating duplicate objects on the lower (original) level.

This is the solution to the problem we were having.

1. The underlying issue was that the component families (which remain at the same level after the model group is copied) are not workplane based. Because of that they are unable to disassociate with the original placed level.

2. You can work around this issue by editing a family, open 'Family Category and Parameters' dialog, check 'Work Plane-Based' and reload back into the project.

3. After that the group should be able to be copied and pasted to another level.

The underlying limitation in this case was not with groups. If we ungrouped the instances and select one of the problem family instances, and changed its level references, the 'Host' constraint remained the same and the furniture does not move to the selected level. The same behavior is seen when these family instances are in groups.

Once we checked the "Work Plane Based" parameter and reloaded it back into the project all was fine...