Download pdf - Session 10 Part B a+Revit Families Jay Zallan Handout

A+ (Revit®) Families Jay B Zallan BIM Director Perkowitz+Ruth Architects & Studio111

Class Description

A+ (Above Average) Revit Families is a class that will give new meaning to the phrase “multi use”. We intend to amplify your knowledge and inspire creators of Revit families to build Lean and Mean families…above average families!!! How far can a family go and still remain efficient? We will detail (Revit) family creation techniques; that when in balance will relieve much end user stress and the dreaded recreation of “that which already exists”. IPD, BIM, Lean, WOW!!! Sometimes we just want/need to get the job done more efficiently right now. By taking the concepts learned in this class you will be able to create Revit families that do more for your project teams.

Would you like to make 1 family do the work of 10 or more and build in scalability for the future?

Do you only know two of the three variables of a ramp or slope, yet need a quick & correct design tool?

Line based families that do what you want and that will explode the myth of limitation with families, including Details, Furniture, Entourage and more.

Session Objectives:

After completing this session you will be able to:

Create Revit families that improve project workflows Ease user frustration Standardize output and quantifications Create Revit families that break apart perceived limitations Plan future families and library upgrades

A+ Revit Families Jay B Zallan, BIM Director, Perkowitz+Ruth Architects & Studio111

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About the Speaker:

Jay is the VDC Director of BIM at Perkowitz+Ruth Architects & Studio-111. He brings unique & qualified insights into the business & creative processes of Architecture with proven strategies for production & growth. Art - Architecture - Technology - Ideas – These are Jay B. Zallan’s professional passions. He is a Designer, an Artist and a BIM futurist. Jay has more than 20 years of Architectural experience and enjoys a varied & diverse portfolio ranging from High-end Custom Residential Design to large Mixed Use Development projects as well as many practice areas between. He is the Co-President of the Los Angeles Revit Users Group and one of the few people with Autodesk ICE (Implementation Certified Expert) qualification. He frequently speaks and consults on BIM and Virtual Design & Construction. Jay is a recurring presenter at Autodesk University and presents at Universities and other industry events, as well as for the AIA. He is a certified Instructor for Revit, AutoCAD Architecture and AutoCAD and has taught thousands of Architects and Engineers how to use and integrate technology to further their business goals. As an Artist Jay works in a variety of styles & media, constantly experimenting with subject, concept and material. Most works are iconic, large, multi-panel mixed media works. Jay also teaches Art, Architecture & Creativity classes both privately and as a frequently invited guest instructor at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Enabling, empowering and inspiring others to realize their own dreams and creative potentials beyond limitations whether real or perceived. Email [email protected] Blogs http://cad-vs-bim.blogspot.com/ http://losangelesrevitusersgroup.blogspot.com/


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Family Creation

Conceptualization |Standardization |Optimization The way to create families is to not start right in. Plan it/them out first and devise what you want and how best to get it done… then build it/them. There are some things that will make content creation much more manageable and efficient; namely a good plan, knowledge of what is needed & then a framework to guide the process. One needs to use Revit quite a bit before this all may seem obvious, many users will just jump right in to either (or both) editing existing content or attempting to create their own content, even if they don’t understand good content practices; usually with only limited success. Whereas this trial & error is a seemingly necessary part of the transition to Revit & BIM (or it’s just part of being an Architect, etc.) and although important the basics of Revit Family creation will not be covered here, rather we will be working under the premise that you have a good understanding of Revit Family creation and want or need to know more about how to run, not just walk. There are overwhelming amounts of basic Revit Family creation “out there”, as well as much advanced information and one place to use (when you are ready) might be Autodesk and their Revit Model Style Guides!!! (http://seek.autodesk.com/revit.htm)...AKA: why reinvent the wheel from scratch?


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We will discuss three main topics: conceptualization, standardization & optimization. These topics will speak to the goal of this course; namely

Create Revit families that improve project workflows Ease user frustration Standardize output and quantifications Create Revit families that break apart perceived limitations Plan future families and library upgrades

Conceptualization The concepts discussed here and (maybe) all family methods can be transposed to many, many other families; at times exactly, at times similarly, at times just in principle. Nonetheless, if one wants to build A+ families or libraries of families then building content in a vacuum is not going to get it done. Here is a list of steps you might follow, along with a few examples of how to get to what you want out of your Revit Content.

Consider | Plan | Think |Re… |Create Consider what you and others want, balanced with need(s)

o Mix-in conversations with others... this always helps prove or disprove perceived concepts and usually saves overall project time

Plan the parametric needs, detail levels, flexibility, look/feel, etc. Think about what is needed NOW... Remember you can always

make the family progressively more complex

Re… Re-Consider how complex the content needs to be… now:later Re-Think the final output needs...don't put in any more than you need but do not put in any less either Revise (the) Plan adjust expectations, quantities, etc.

Create Create the best families you can

In addition to the Style Guides linked to above; more useful items for the content creation are listed below. These examples stem from my desire to create consistent libraries of content for both individual specific project needs as well as overall


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firm needs. These are by no means the only items in a necessary palette of considerations, but they do provide a good place to start from!!!

Consider Use Surveys!!!

o http://www.zoomerang.com/ is a great asset What does everyone:

…Have already …Say they need (Now | Future) …Say they want (Now | Future) …Not Think About (but should) …Actually want/need (Now | Future)

o Organize the scope of creation based on survey results There may be existing content that can be useful

into the future, there may not There may be redundant content that needs culling

You can be guaranteed that you will learn a lot about your firm/practice/people, as will everyone else.

Plan Content Aggregation

o Visual Catalogues (right side image below) https://www.box.net/shared/kcbiqbihcvm9p36f1l7q Review content

Use Multi-Category Tags Distribute content (???)

o Family Planning Form (left side image below) https://www.box.net/shared/txpelny83l

Examples of Family Planning Form & Visual Catalogue


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o Source Files System Families Details Visual Catalogues (???) Some teams and/or people like these as a single

point for content retrieval. More on these later in this document.

o Libraries Use similar folder structure as the Autodesk libraries Consider how many libraries may be truly useful; some if

not all have merits Choose wisely (here are some possibilities):

o Firm-Wide library Distinct from other libraries Regional variations?

o Practice Area/Studio Specific libraries Perhaps part of the firm wide library

o Project Specific libraries Perhaps part of the firm wide library

o Client Specific libraries Perhaps part of the firm wide library

o Pending Content library Organized dumping zone for staff generated &

downloaded, (etc.) content for QA/QC review prior to placement in official libraries or future projects

Must be QC’d o Autodesk Installed library

Should be QC’d USE THOSE DETAIL COMPONENTS!!!

o Manufacturer libraries Should be QC’d

Think Combine the survey results with what is believed to be necessary

to create from the plan portion and finalize the first draft of the content creation scope.

o If you are just building one family these steps may just take a few minutes.

o If you are considering entire libraries of project or project type, or client specific or firm specific, (etc.) libraries this


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initial legwork may be very in-depth, thorough and a bit time consuming.

Set expectations correctly, for both you and your firm.

Re… The “Re…” idea is straight forward enough (check your work!!!).

Once the plans are created you should double check that they

are realistic, feasible and correctly planned objectives…

Create (Finally!!!) -

The Revit Family concept and methodologies we are about to create (well similar parameters to this, at least) can be used for many other families, so keep those minds open for use cases.

Now as you go through this please note that many of the screen grabs were from prior versions of Revit. This tutorial was originally written for teams using Revit 2009 but do know this: Everything systematically is still current for creating Line based families, so why change what is working, I say…

Also since capturing these I have switched to using only

“Modified Sentence Case” for parameter names, no more ALL CAPS or underscores, etc. it seems to flow with the rest of Revit IMO…

So with that said; on with the (Cabinet) show…


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Line Based Nesting Family

1) Create a new 'Generic Model Line Based' family.

2) Change the "Length" parameter to 8'-0" by using the the "Family Types..." button... (yeah I know I said no fundamentals but that’s how it is…I just want to be clear )

Hey 2012!!!

…just like in the following 2 images...


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Good so far... Now we need a component (in this case a cabinet)...

"But when I try to use the component tool there are none loaded" (yet)...

3) Load a Cabinet (…this is what is called a nested family).


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I am using the Double Door & 2 Drawer, as you can see below.

Note how this cabinet comes in at its default size... that's OK, we'll be associating and locking that parameter to another parameter later but

since we haven't created that new parameter yet we'll do other necessary work first...

…Such as Locking the Cabinet to the Ref Planes. (Note: To get this line based family to work this time I did have to re-do this locking after I constrained the objects to the upcoming parameters, (last time I


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showed a colleague this it worked fine, without re-locking...It's all about process and order of steps) so be ready for the family to potentially fight you as you go...Flex every step of the way so it's not too painful.) Align & Lock using the “align” tool, obviously…

Align & Lock to the insertion point (Yes, the intersection of these Ref Planes is the insertion point, so if you need an offset insertion please be aware of that): Such as if the length wants to incorporate a countertop side overhang, etc… we are not including such overhangs herein to maintain a bit of intended clarity.


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Locking the cabinet

Where are now? Step 4? No matter… the next step may seem odd no matter the number.

Array the cabinet 3 times; constrained, grouped & associated. Then select one of the array group members and select the Array Control Line, (the odd part is the Array Control Line disappears when you're able to select it) add the parameter "NUMBER OF CABINETS" (similar to the one that follows the next image) and it will then be associated to the array.

Below is an image of the Control Line selected...The oddity is that the Control Line seems to disappear or at least go invisible when hovering over it, so if you want to select it (and we do) and that control line disappears then click there, you are sure to select it since it looks like you can't. Yes that IS what I said. Perhaps at I can get an answer from a developer as to why this is the case...If I ever bother to ask…


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Below is the "NUMBER OF CABINETS" parameter setup:

5) -Or is it 11?...Anyways, again Via clicking the "Family Types..." button

we can and must set up the following additional, necessary


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Parameters "CABINET SPACING" and "MAX CABINET SPACING" thus:

This last parameter (MAX CABINET SPACING) we associate to the

dimension below:


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Now, you should know that when I entered the formulas, per the following image (which you can and really must consider as being the next step!!!) the dimension (shown above) needed to be deleted. I let that happen and didn't question it later on since the family works without it (as long as you don't set the overall length below 6'-0"... yes we could place more constraints via a conditional statement to allow for that but for this particular family I didn't find it necessary to have a multiple, double cabinet be so small...I say let it break in that case, it's just too illogical. So now make the parameters be the following formulas and values, making sure to hit APPLY (not OK) after inputting each formula. (Remember formulas ARE case sensitive!!!)


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This time while I was creating this line based cabinet family (and after letting the dimension be deleted during the error/warning stage) the middle cabinet disappears...There is actually a good reason for that and I alluded to it earlier, way back in step #3... Even if you don't care to go back and look; here is the 'fix'... Step Whatever): Edit one of the Array Groups and select the cabinet and click the Properties button:

When you get down into its Type Parameters look for the Width parameter and click the tiny little = (equal) button... Actually I think Autodesk tried to hide that = button from us they just love hiding big things in tiny packages!!!


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Now set that equivalence association of the component's "Width" parameter to CABINET SPACING.

Now everything seems to work brilliantly!!! Right???


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Oh by the way, did we mention that we need to associate the material parameters? Well I just did mention it and we do!!! So select any of the cabinet groups, chose to edit the group, go to the properties window and associate all Material Parameters to new material association Parameters, so they can be changed at the project level. WOW I am glad we didn't forget that... I call this making a parameter exposed in the Project Environment… If all families that will be nested use only instance parameters this exposure can be more automatic, but that’s not really possible to do with the myriad of content “suppliers”…


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One final note: unless we previously changed the category from “Generic Model” we must use to the Family Category and Parameters button again... Set your new Line Based Families' Category to be Casework, like below:

Hey, that 2012 image again… sweet!!!

Now we can load our new Line Based family into a project and place them via the Component command.

In case you are getting a symbol like this: ø when trying to place a family in your project, then look up at the Options bar and select the "Place on Work Plane” button, instead of the "Place on Face" button.


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Now make a hundred more nested, line based families and enjoy!!! Oh wait!!! Can we use a "Family Types" parameter associated to the cabinet families and load a bunch of other individual cabinet families into this and then have the ability to swap out one kind of cabinet for any number of others??? YES!!! Adding one of the Family Types parameters we can have one single line based family take on the job of including (most) every possible cabinet choice…flexible to be added to in the future simply by loading those cabinets to the family (or even project) environment!!! Yes but would this be smart to load a bunch of cabinets into a family of this sort or shall we just add them at the project level? That answer is gleaned from your needs and your prior plans!!! I think it best to load the different cabinets at the project level since the resulting family would become way too big and I want keep better flexibility into the future... But who knows; maybe just a few!!!

To recap: Consider | Plan | Think | Create