In most cases there is only one template to use based on the category. The category also determines how Revit treats the element for scheduling and controlling the visibility and graphics of the element. For example, a window must be hosted by a wall (it can’t exist by itself), while a column extends up from one level to the next. The category – window, door, furniture, etc. What is variable? What is not variable? What needs to stay in place? I can see how things might be related to one another and can start a list of parameters or information needed for the family.Įxample: Planning a Revit family for a table The first step is to select category and template Start by doing some planningīefore creating Revit families, I personally like to organize my thoughts and plan what I am doing very simply on paper to give me an outline that helps me understand the geometry I will need. In this article I will outline the basic workflow of making a Revit family and what to consider as you begin to create custom families. If you need a different size of an element, the DNA in the family remains consistent and tells your element how to create a different-sized version.

When you place a family into a model, this DNA is used to make the element.

The family describes the basic geometry of the element, the behavior/relationships of the geometry, and defines the element’s parameters. Simply: the family contains the DNA of how to make an element in Revit, and when you author Revit families, you are writing the DNA code for an element. However, as I have learned more about Revit, I’ve realized Revit families are at the core of Revit and not only does the term itself have much more meaning to me but it helps me understand how Revit works. When I first started using Revit, I had a hard time with the term Revit “ families”.

Autodesk revit mep for dummies