If you have ever loaded in a family and a strange dialogue popped up that allowed you to choose which family types you want to load then you have had experienced a "type catalog". This is a quick little tutorial extracted directly from BIM After Dark - Volume 3 (set to release January 25th, 2016).
A type catalog lists all of the types in a family, allowing you to select and load only the types you need for the current project, resulting in a smaller project file size and less headaches. Creating a type catalog used to be a major hassle and required some serious notepad use... As you will see in the tutorial it has become MUCH easier...
BIM After Dark - Volume 3: Family Creation

Are you tired of downloading low quality Revit families that are not parametric and slow down your models? Instead of settling for poor content, or waiting for manufacturers to catch up, create your own parametric Revit families! Using practical, real-world examples, Volume 3 will give you all of the skills required to get started today.
@tucker_arch · 479 weeks ago
I rename the Type Catalog from .txt to .csv; open in Excel and edit. This allows copy-paste, sorting, and quickly adding new types. After the changes are made I save and rename to .txt. In the Excel UI, I can quickly see all the Types together and not have to tab between the Types.
Also in Creating Type Catalogs, I try to only put in the parameters need to be changed and not all the parameters that get exported. This helps the user pick exactly what they need an not be overwhelmed.
TheRevitKid 72p · 479 weeks ago
Cheers!
Jack L. Watson · 479 weeks ago