Tag: family

New Revit Families Guide for 2011

Luke Johnson

Wouldn’t it be nice if we got an update version of the Revit Families Guide?
Well, sadly, we don’t have it yet.


You can still access the 2010 version here and the 2009 version here.

I don’t know about you, but I would love an updated Families Guide for 2011.

Some of the information in this guide is invaluable. I have actually requested that Autodesk put together a comprehensive guide relating to Revit Categories (SR# 1-9298685321 – The help file does not describe the unique properties of each Category).

Here is an example of the information in the 2010 guide (this is copyright to Autodesk obviously):

Locking Parameters in the Family Editor

Luke Johnson

A new feature in Revit 2011 allows you to ‘lock’ or ‘unlock’ parameterised dimensions in the Family Editor.

In practice, this allows you to instantly flex a family without having to open the Type Properties dialog box.

‘Flexing’ means to test the relationships and parameters in a family by adjusting the dimensions within that family. If something breaks, you know that you have a problem. You should always flex families within the family environment, before unleashing them on a project.

Copy from Annotation to Model Families

Luke Johnson

Revit doesn’t want you to copy lines between Annotation and Model Families (see below)

However, it can be done. This is the workflow to copy lines from Annotation to Model families:
  1. Copy lines from the Annotation Family to a plan view in a Project File.
  2. Copy the lines from the Project File to a Profile Family.
  3. Copy the lines from a Profile Family to the Model Family.


Pretty tricky workaround huh?

Modeling a Stealth Aircraft in Revit

Luke Johnson

Erik Egbertson over at Inside the Factory made a comment about modeling a Stealth Aircraft in a recent post, and it got me thinking. How would you go about it?

Now, I’m sure it would be possible to do it with the Conceptual Modeling tools, but it could take a while.

Why not utilise some existing 3D content and import it into a family? I described that workflow in my post Contextual 3D Views – Shaded vs Rendered. Basically, you need to:

  • Download a Sketchup model that you like the look of (from http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/).
  • In Revit, create a New-Generic Model family.
  • Import the SKP file using Import CAD.
  • Make sure the resulting geometry is of an appropriate size.
  • Save the family and load it into your project.

Please note that there may be copyright on these models.So, about that Stealth Aircraft. Here is the link.

Copy between Project and Family

Luke Johnson

Sometimes you really want to copy some model lines from a project RVT to a family RFA, but Revit says NO!

This is the workaround:

  1. In the Project, create detail lines that describe the elements you want to copy
  2. Make New Family – Generic Profile
  3. Copy the detail lines in the Project (Ctrl + C)
  4. Paste them into the Profile family (Ctrl + V)
  5. Open / create the other family you want to put those lines into
  6. Copy them from the Profile family into the other family (lets say it is a Planting family). They will appear as model lines in the Planting family. Yay!

Sure, this method has some limitations, but it is a valid workaround in a lot of situations.