Could RPC Families solve the Fat Family dilemma?

[ThinkRevit]

Darn those overly modeled Revit Families that I downloaded off that manufacturer's site. Suddenly your Project slows to a craw and your BIM manager is letting you have it.

In comes RPC. If you have Placed an RPC Family, you may have noticed how small these Families are and how well they Render. All they need are Masking Regions and some Lines to make them work for your 2D Views (construction documents)

The image below shows two Steelcase Think Chairs. The Chair on the left is the RPC (450K) version while the one on the right is the one actually modeled in Revit (850K).

Keep in mind that this could potentially mean a huge shift in how firms use Revit with thousands of new RPC Families freely available from manufacturers. One would still need an RPC software license to Render the content but not to use its 2D Views made of Masking Regions and Lines. RPC software licenses are currently $249/ year

[sbrown]

I love RPC families, they are well worth the $400/year. Note you can easily make your own with the RPC creator.

[ThinkRevit]

I think this technology could extend itself to lots of Revit Categories like Furniture and Plumbing Fixtures as well as many Sub-Categories of Specialty Equipment.

[ThinkRevit]

The image below shows Furniture Families with RPC Families Nested. They are each about 450 K and use Masking Regions and Symbolic Lines for Plan Views.

[rbcameron1]

What about non-rendered 3D views we use showing the "look and feel" of the space next to our 2D drawings? Would they just be squiggly boxes? <-- like how RPC trees show up
What about power connections to furniture (or other equipment)? MEP-ready RPC's?
What if we put the RPC (non-wheeled) chair on a sloped floor? Would only half the lines would show up...?

I'd need to see a bit more dramatic savings in file size than 450 vs. 850Kb. Granted it appears to be half the size but is that consistent for ALL families across the board?

Keep posting, I'm interested, just trying to ask questions that I know I'll get asked.

[ThinkRevit]

rbcameron1,

There are two types of RPC Families

1. UV Mapped Meshes. This process projects a texture map onto a 3D object (usually a complex mesh like a car).
There is no Icon “placeholder” for these Families.

2. Cutouts. This process uses a series of flat 2d images with transparent backgrounds.
Icons are custom made from two interesting planes

What about non-rendered 3D views we use showing the "look and feel" of the space next to our 2D drawings? Would they just be squiggly boxes? <-- like how RPC trees show up

RPCs Nest into Face Based Families along with a Detail Items (Masking Region) for Plan Views. See Revit Model Style Guide link below for how to create high performance Families.
http://revit.autodesk.com/Library/RM...Guide_v2_1.zip

What about power connections to furniture (or other equipment)? MEP-ready RPC's?

Categories change as long so long as they start from the Generic Face Based Template. See thread below.
http://forums.augi.com/showthread.ph...mily-Templates


What if we put the RPC (non-wheeled) chair on a sloped floor? Would only half the lines would show up...?

Face Based Families can reside on ANY SURFACE. Families use an Angle Param to “rotate” to User defined Instance Values (see link to zipped RFA below).

As mentioned in earlier in this thread, ArchVision it is well worth the marginal fee for rendering. Non-rendered Views do NOT contain watermarks.
Feel free to download the test RFA below. Please note that Values for the Params named "Keynote" and "OmniClass Number" are from the Revit Genome Project.

http://forums.augi.com/showthread.ph...Genome-Project

http://www.erickoehne.com/Nested_RPC_Chair.zip