Creating Wall families

[graphite]

Allright everyone,

I have seen this topic discussed quite a bit, however i have not seen an answer for my question yet. Heres the issue: I need to create a number of custom wall types which are used regularly in our office. I understand that walls are a standard family and that there is no template to create a new one, and that walls are simply edited and saved within the project. How would I go about creating these wall types so that they could be loaded and saved within our office template for quick and easy access by everyone in our group?

Thanks.

[jsteinhauer]

Allright everyone,

I have seen this topic discussed quite a bit, however i have not seen an answer for my question yet. Heres the issue: I need to create a number of custom wall types which are used regularly in our office. I understand that walls are a standard family and that there is no template to create a new one, and that walls are simply edited and saved within the project. How would I go about creating these wall types so that they could be loaded and saved within our office template for quick and easy access by everyone in our group?

Thanks.

You will need to create the types within your Template. Through Revit or WE, browse to your template location, and open it. Create or copy/paste these new wall types into the template. Save & Close. Walls are a system family and can not be edited outside of a project/template environment. Unless you know how to create elements through the API. My office has been trying to create "Standard Walls" for over two years now.

Jeff S.

[lhanyok]

We actually maintain a separate .rvt file located in the same network directory as the rest of our standards called "Interior Partitions." Within this file, we've built a ton of wall types. Users can then copy/paste from this file into their project file. We've intentionally kept these wall types out of our project template, so users only have wall types in their project that they are actually using.

[graphite]

You will need to create the types within your Template. Through Revit or WE, browse to your template location, and open it. Create or copy/paste these new wall types into the template. Save & Close. Walls are a system family and can not be edited outside of a project/template environment. Unless you know how to create elements through the API. My office has been trying to create "Standard Walls" for over two years now.

Jeff S.

Ok, gotcha.
So I duplicate and create a new wall type within the project template to get new walls into the template. Would this be the same procedure if I wanted to add a schedule to the list of schedules within our template as well? I have not dealt with template creation, I think our CAD manager had a BIM consultancy group come in and set up our templates. Now however as we (read I) am beginning to dig into revit I think I will be requesting updates to our template quite regularly as I explore/develop more customized content.

Thanks for the help

[Revitaoist]

I recommend pinning your template file to your recent documents list (the "R" drop down), then anytime you find yourself doing something that is standard to all projects, open your template and create it there, once.........once!

[jsteinhauer]

Ok, gotcha.
So I duplicate and create a new wall type within the project template to get new walls into the template. Would this be the same procedure if I wanted to add a schedule to the list of schedules within our template as well? I have not dealt with template creation, I think our CAD manager had a BIM consultancy group come in and set up our templates. Now however as we (read I) am beginning to dig into revit I think I will be requesting updates to our template quite regularly as I explore/develop more customized content.

Thanks for the help

Ah yes, hiring consultants are great to get a generic starting point, with minimal firm standards. The question I would have for your firm would be, 'Can we handle doing the rest of the project template development ourselves or do we want to hire them (the consultants) back to do the tweaks?' I would lean towards doing it yourself, if you have a clear idea of what you want to change and how to make it so. If you only know what you want changed without understanding how to make these changes, and can clearly writeup these changes, then I would hire the consultant back.

As to your question, creating a schedule maybe able to be accomplished via 'Transfer Project Standards'. You can not copy/paste a schedule from one project to another or into a template. Someone please correct me if I'm incorrect.

I hope this helps,
Jeff S.

[Joshua Kohl]

As to your question, creating a schedule maybe able to be accomplished via 'Transfer Project Standards'. You can not copy/paste a schedule from one project to another or into a template. Someone please correct me if I'm incorrect.

I hope this helps,
Jeff S.

A schedule can be copied using the copy/paste function. In the project where the schedule is located right click on the schedule in the PB, click copy to clip board. You can then paste that schedule into any view in the new project (CTRL+V) and it will apppear under the Schedules/Quantities header in the PB.

A schedule can also be "copied" using the "Insert from File" --> "Insert views from File" under the Insert tab.

A schedule however can't be transfered using the "Transfer Project Standards" or at least it's not in the list of things to select when using this option.

[jsteinhauer]

A schedule can be copied using the copy/paste function. In the project where the schedule is located right click on the schedule in the PB, click copy to clip board. You can then paste that schedule into any view in the new project (CTRL+V) and it will apppear under the Schedules/Quantities header in the PB.

A schedule can also be "copied" using the "Insert from File" --> "Insert views from File" under the Insert tab.

A schedule however can't be transfered using the "Transfer Project Standards" or at least it's not in the list of things to select when using this option.

Well tickle me pink. Did that change with Revit 2012? I don't remember ever being able to do that before.

Thank you Josh,

Jeff S.

[Joshua Kohl]

Well tickle me pink. Did that change with Revit 2012? I don't remember ever being able to do that before.

Thank you Josh,

Jeff S.

Jeff - Had to check but yes the right click option was available in 2011, not sure if it was around in earlier versions or not.