Oh come on.. I’m talking about REVIT families.

*Storytime*

In an interview for a job as a Revit lead at an architectural firm, I was asked: “What do you think your greatest strengths and weaknesses are in what you are applying for?”

Me: “Definitely making families, I am very comfortable making families…” I look up and all three of them have their mouths hanging open.

Me: “Um.. making REVIT families… o.O ”

*/Storytime*

So at request of some fellow chatters I’ve decided to start yet another series of TotDs. I may actually one day finish one of these series. For now I’m thinking this will be a good one to at least get some momentum back up on. There will be a few goals I want to hit along the way:

1. Familiarize you with Families and their Creation.
2. Get you started on geometric modeling inside the family creator.
3. Cover Constraints and geometric parametrics.
4. Look at the functionality of family parameters and family catalogues.
5. Differentiate between model and annotation families.
6. Experiment with Nesting and Shared Parameters.

I will probably NOT get into Conceptual Design Environment families (adaptive components and such) just so I have something to discuss in yes another series down the road. Besides, I think Zach over at Buildz has that pretty well covered. I will probably also avoid covering EVERY single little parameter and detail that is available for family creation. Remember, 5 minute tips!!!

So let’s get started shall we. Let’s keep it simple to begin with. Family Editor, and how to get there 🙂

When I tell people they will be working in the Family Editor, I can sense the panic and fear that ensues. It’s ok, it’s just Revit, with a few different options. To get there we either open a family or start a new family. While I suggest constantly looking at families both out of the box and that others have created (usually to see what NOT to do!) as the best way to learn about families, we’re going to start this series with looking at the new family template options.

From the recent files page you can select new from the families or go old school and go R > New > Family.

So here you are presented with your first “Oh shnap!” moment. That’s a large list of options and a lot of people probably just give up here and go find a book or blog that tells you what to do next. Do not fear. We’ll get to what all these templates mean, but for now let’s just pick the “Generic Model.rft” template.

Tada! Family Editor. DON’T PANIC!!! You’ll notice that your ribbon has some new options that are not available in your normal project mode, and some options are missing, like most of them.

This is basically a Family Creation workspace (if you are familiar with Maya or 3DS, this term should be familiar). As we go through the series you’ll begin to understand why you can’t make walls or schedules in the Family Editor mode (in fact you may be ashamed to remember that at one point this was all alien technology to you!) but for now open a few families that come with Revit and pay attention to their category, available parameters, the geometry, how the views are set up, etc, etc.

I would suggest taking a look at a few families before moving on to the next post just to familiarize yourself with the environment and the options that are available. I can’t speak for you but this is how I learned the best when it came to families; by reverse engineering other families to see what makes them tick.

Until then, thanks for stopping by and I look forward to seeing you around for another RevitTotD!

.Carl