Add an "X" Symbol When Your Framing is Cut in Revit

 

Today's quick tutorial was inspired by a post in the BIM After Dark Community. Tom was asking about adding detail items within families so when you cut a section you can see the detail...  He wasn't talking about stud framing but it reminded me of this tip that I wanted to share with you.

We have all spent time placing those pesky little Wood Stud Detail Components in our wall sections...  Well, there is nothing worse that doing that when you actually HAVE THE FRAMING MODELED!

So... here is a tip that will show you how to get the silly little "X" within your framing model families.  It can also be applied to any family times (ie. Adding more detailed line-work into a double hung window family.. you name it.).

Continue reading to view the tutorial...

Autodesk Revit "Family Cheat Sheet": Free Printable Guide

BIM After Dark - Volume 3 is set to release on January 25th...  It's time we get our families in order!

Do you remember every single acceptable formula syntax in Revit? Do you know which family template you should start with and why?  Do you know what the recommended file sizes are for your different family types?

If you're like me, you constantly search for or browse to the same help files, forum posts, and blog posts to find the same information over and over again...  Finally, I've created a simple, printable, PDF with all the information you need when building custom Revit families... It's called the Autodesk Revit "Family Cheat Sheet".  Continue reading to download it for FREE today...

Creating Custom Revit Families Book

Michael Anonuevo, author of the Little Details Count website, has created an awesome book to help you create any Revit family you can imagine. The number of views my "Family Creation Series" of tutorials has received over the years illustrates the interest people have in creating families.  Well, Michael takes family creation to a whole new level.

I have been fortunate enough to read through this eBook already and it is packed full of great information.  For only 20 bucks you get 751 pages of fantastic content all related to Revit families.  Not to mention Michael teaches you how to create an alto sax at the end... I am absolutely mystified by the amount of time this book must have taken to write.

I promise you that it is a 20 dollars you will not regret spending.  Don't forget to mention that you heard about the book from "The Revit Kid.com!" during checkout.

Click here to read a PDF with a sample chapter and Steve Stafford's forward...
Click here to purchase the eBook...

Revit Tutorial – Family Creation Series – Part 13 - Adjustable Angle Curtain Wall Door

Topics Covered in the final part of the series (See the first and second video tutorials here)...

• Loading the nested family.
• Locking the instance parameters.
• Adding and using the nested parameters.
• Flexing and testing the dimensional and angled parameters.
• Loading into project and testing.

Click here to view the tutorial video via YouTube.

Click here to view the tutorial video via Screencast.

Revit Tutorial – Family Creation Series – Part 12 - Adjustable Angle Curtain Wall Door

The second part of our creation of an adjustable curtain wall door series explores the following topics:

• Adding parameters.
• Flexing/Testing the parameters.
• 90 and 180 Degree issues and resolutions

**Note**  One thing I did not show in the video was that I locked the swing angle to the horizontal and vertical reference planes...

Click here to view the tutorial video via YouTube.

Click here to view the tutorial video via Screencast.

Revit Tutorial – Family Creation Series – Part 11 - Adjustable Angle Curtain Wall Door

This is a topic that always comes up... I don't know why Autodesk does not simply put doors with adjustable swings in the content library... Anyways, I have explored the topic of adjustable swinging doors in my own post here and a repost here...  

I wanted to use the example of an adjustable curtain wall door for my Family Creation Series.  I thought this would be a good example to use because it requires nested families, angle parameters, and shared/nested parameters between families.

Topics covered in this part of the series:

• Load the curtain wall door.
• Edit the curtain wall door.
• Creating the nested family for the floor plan visibility.  

Click here to view the tutorial video via YouTube.

Click here to view the tutorial video via Screencast.

Revit Tutorial – Family Creation Series – Part 10 – Create a Door

Topics Covered:

• Creating the door panel in 2D (Plan View).
• Creating the door swing in plan view.
• Exploring visibility of door in plan view.

Click here to view the Revit video tutorial via YouTube

Click here to view the Revit video tutorials via Screencast.com

Revit Tutorial – Family Creation Series – Part 9 – Create a Door

Topics Covered:

• Creating the door panel in 3D.
• Creating a door stop.
• Importing the family into a project.
• Understanding Visibility and the Door panel.

Click here to view the Revit video tutorial via YouTube

Click here to view the Revit video tutorials via Screencast.com

Revit Tutorial – Family Creation Series – Part 8 – Create a Door

Topics Covered:

• Modeling a Door Frame inside the door family.
• Adding Parameters to the frame.
• Using a Sweep by 3D Edges.
• Having your door frame wrap the wall that hosts it.

Click here to view the Revit video tutorial via YouTube

Click here to view the Revit video tutorials via Screencast.com

Revit Tutorial – Family Creation Series – Part 7 – Create a Door

In an ongoing effort to continue my series on creating Revit families I decided to show you how to make a door from scratch. I decided to not practice or setup before the videos in order to show you all how common certain mistakes our and the problem solving that exists… Enjoy.

Topics Covered:

• Understanding Family Category – Door
  
• Why is there a wall in here?
  
• Adding Reference Planes
  
• Adding and Testing Parameters
  
• Creating the Door Opening.
  
• Testing the Opening
  

Click here to view the Revit video tutorial via YouTube



Click here to view the Revit video tutorials via Screencast.com

Revit Tutorial - Curtain Wall Door (If/Then Statement)

Hunter emailed me the other day with some interesting family creation questions. Through emails we worked through an issue he was having with an “if/then” statement. I cannot take a ton of credit for the solution because Hunter discovered it on his own… But, I guess I sort of pointed him in the right direction and gave him some ideas of resources to search. Well, I asked Hunter to make a quick write up of the issue and solution. Below is his write up.


Revit Tutorial – IF/THEN Statement

I was working on an aluminum door for a project and I wanted the visibility of the center mullion to be controllable. I also wanted the center mullion size to be controlled by an instance parameter. I had first thought of just using a graphic yes/no parameter to change the visibility. But then thought what would happen if someone typed 0” for the center mullion size. The center mullion is created with an extrusion and if you use “0” as a dimension for an extrusion the family stops working and there are errors to check through.

Now came the tough part; I could turn off the visibility of the center mullion by using the formula {center horiz mullion > 0”} (when the center horizontal mullion is less than 0” turn it off) simple enough, but the 0” was causing the family to break.

So, I created 3 parameters;

• -“center horiz mullion” and set it to 6” as the default.

• -I created a graphic yes/no parameter for the center mullion and assigned “mullion” to it.

• -I then dimensioned the reference planes for the center mullion and assigned the “formula” parameter to them.

I had to find a way to use 0” but not break the family. Solution: an IF statement. IF(center horiz mullion < 0' 0 1/2", 0' 0 1/2", center horiz mullion). IF this, do this, else do that. IF the center horizontal mullion is less than 0’ 0 1/2" make it 0’ 0 1/2" and if it’s not less than 0’ 0 1/2" make it what the user wants it to be. FYI – I used 0’ 0 1/2" because if you try and use 0.01” the family breaks because the extrusion can’t be smaller than a particular size, I don’t know what that is but 0’ 0 1/2" works.

Remember parameter names are case sensitive. Do not use numbers for parameter names. Avoid using a dash or a hyphen, Revit may think you are trying to subtract.

Thank you to Hunter for the great email conversation and post. Look forward to exploring more family creation with you. This has inspired me to continue with my family creation tutorial series… Stay tuned..


Contact him at: HunterVanLeeuwen@dsraenvision.ca

Revit Tutorial - Family Creation Series - Part 6

Topics Covered:

• Adding a material to your family components.
• Creating a new material.
• Adding material parameters.
• Using material parameters.
• Creating different family types with multiple materials.

Click here to view the Revit Family Creation Series - Part 6 video...

Revit Tutorial - Revit Family Creation Series - Part 5

Let us add a little flair to the table... using a nice sweep.

Topics Covered:

• Creating a sweep.
• Creating a sweep by chosing 3D edges.
• Manipulating a sweep using Parameters.
• Making a sweet ass little table.

Click here to view the video...

Revit Tutorial - Revit Family Creation Series - Part 4

Creating and using nested families will also help save you time, money, and frustration.

Topics Covered:

• Using Nested families.
• Loading a Family into a Family
• Using Instance Parameters
• Creating a chair leg family.

Click here to view the video...

Revit Tutorial - Revit Family Creation Series - Part 3

Here is a little one all about Family Types, etc...

Topics Covered:

• Creating Family types.
• Manipulating Family Types
• Loading your family into a project.
• Using your family within a project.
• Creating family types in a Project.

Click here to go to the Revit Kid's Revit Family Series - Part 3 - Family Types

Revit Tutorial - Revit Family Creation Series - Part 2

Here, I turn our box into a table.

Topics Covered:

• More Complex Geometry
• Paramter's
• Use of Voids and Extrusions

Click here to the view the Revit Family Creation Series - Part 2 

Revit Tutorial Series - Family Creation - Part 1

Finally!!! I know... Finally, The Revit Kid has made a new video... I would like to deeply apalogize for the lack of original videos.  I have been super busy with tons of new and old things going on in my life.  I am still quite busy but I should have a few spare minutes to create some videos for you guys.

This is the first of a series of Family Creation Tutorials I will be doing.  I originally starting writing out exactly what topics, families, and steps I would take in the video but decided that would not be realistic.  A realistic model of instruciton would include me messing up, improvising the steps of creation as I would in a real world work situation, and ultimately problem solving to create a high quality family.

One of my biggest pet peeves of the advent of Revit picking up traction is the lack of good families.  The great thing about Revit is the ability to share these high quality models from manufactures or costum built designers.  I garuntee you that more than half of the models you grab from RevitCity and even Autodek's very own SEEK are garbage.  Some are simply 3D masses imported from CAD and Max while other throw error and crash your machine when you try to change a dimension.  With this series I hope to put an end to crappy families and start a revolution of good quality, parametric, and useful family creators... Enjoy..

Revit Tutorial Series - Family Creation - Part 1

Topics Covered:

• Starting a Revit Family Project
• Understanding Reference Planes
• Using dimensions as constraints and parameters.
• Manipulating Reference Planes.
• Manipulating Geometry using dimensions, reference planes, and parameters.

Click here to see the Revit Tutorial Series - Family Creation - Part 1 video...