Results 1 to 5 of 5

Thread: SuperDoor

  1. #1
    AUGI Addict
    Join Date
    2009-03
    Location
    Somerville, MA
    Posts
    1,060
    Login to Give a bone
    0

    Default SuperDoor

    Anybody ever used SuperDoor? I just came across it and it looked promising. However, after watching the demo video, it just looks like four fancy families with various nested frames and panels, with a very complete library of said frames and panels. And the addition of a few nice parameters in the main families. Is that really worth $900? I'm not saying it wouldn't be "super" helpful... does anybody have any experience with it? I'd like to learn more. Thanks.

  2. #2
    100 Club
    Join Date
    2009-12
    Location
    Albuquerque, NM
    Posts
    172
    Login to Give a bone
    0

    Default Re: SuperDoor

    I have not used the ones you are referring to, but I have built my own super doors. They can either be incredibly useful or a tremendous p-i-t-a depending on how proficient you and the rest of your staff are with the family editor. It also depends on your workflow. Do you have just one person who specializes in dealing with Revit families?

    The point of super-families is that even a beginning revit user can drop in a door and tell it how many sidelites (or whatever) and the door will adjust without ever having to go into the family editor. Where that breaks down is when the user has to create something that the family can't provide.

    Say a super-door family was set up so you could have 0, 1, or 2 vision lites in a door panel. As soon as you need 3 vision lites, you have to dive into that family to make the change. At that point, best of luck trying to figure out how those panels were set up. Which reference plane is it set to? Wait, was that a nested family or just an extrusion? Was I supposed to change the "vision" parameter or the "panel opening" parameter, or both? .... You get the idea.

    In the end it's kinda hard to directly answer your question about it really being worth the money. If I were you I would take a real close look at the proficiency level of your staff specifically regarding the family editor and then make that judgement.

    Hope this helps,
    -LP

  3. #3
    AUGI Addict
    Join Date
    2009-03
    Location
    Somerville, MA
    Posts
    1,060
    Login to Give a bone
    0

    Default Re: SuperDoor

    LP,

    Thanks for the reply on this old-ish post. I had just re-encountered the idea of super families, so this was quite timely.

    Just to summarize your opinion: if my staff is NOT proficient with family creation, avoid super families; otherwise, they may be a good option.

    Cheers,
    Damon

  4. #4
    100 Club
    Join Date
    2009-12
    Location
    Albuquerque, NM
    Posts
    172
    Login to Give a bone
    0

    Default Re: SuperDoor

    Damon,

    You are correct, with one caveat. If your firm is set up where the BIM manager is responsible for *all* family creation/editing/etc. and that person is proficient with superfamilies then that can work as well.

    The thing to keep in mind is that the average Revit user can (after a bit of training and practice) jump into and modify existing simple families without too much fuss. Getting super families to work correctly is a much more arduous task until you get the hang of it. It literally took me weeks to figure out all the eccentricities of super-family creation and to develop our library of super doors and windows. The good thing is that now they are done, and most of the staff never has to go into the family editor at all to make changes to those families.

    Best of luck,
    -LP

  5. #5
    Member
    Join Date
    2007-09
    Location
    Calgary, AB
    Posts
    20
    Login to Give a bone
    0

    Default Re: SuperDoor

    I am in love with SuperDoors. Mostly because they function so much smoother than the doors we were using before. There are challenges to face that are different than individual door families, but I feel that it is worth the initial set up time to have an easy to use door.

    Obviously a Superdoor will not provide all variations that you could possibly want in a door - but if it provides the majority of the doors in a project, then we are saving time (from not creating doors every time we need a different one) and also grief because they work well and flex the way we need them to.

    However, I have not purchased a superdoor from a company like ICS. In my previous firm, I helped create a SuperDoor based off the ICS family, but with less variations as we did not require so many. So far so good.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •