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Thread: Revit Family Help

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    Default Revit Family Help

    I am trying to create a steel stud family with multiple types similar to a beam or column. I have laid out my reference planes, flexed them and they move the way I want, labeled the dimensions with the parameters, and created a small catalogue to test it. I have created the sweep and that seems fine, however, when I load the family into a project and try to switch the type it remains drawn as the sketch although the type is changed and all the parameter values show as the second type. Any ideas? Am I just missing a step in here somewhere?

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    Default Re: Revit Family Help

    Welcome to the AUGI forums.

    Is the sweep (or its sketch) aligned and locked to the reference planes?

    If you did that, you might consider posting the family file (noting the version in which it was created) as an attachment to a reply post to this thread, for others to examine and offer suggestions on how to fix it.

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    Default Re: Revit Family Help

    Thanks David, the sweep was sketched based on the reference planes. I also tried creating a separate family profile and inserting, using it to create the sweep. I thought sketching the profile using the reference planes would lock them to those places (don't laugh if this is not the case, I am a new user and still getting use to how Revit handles things). I have attached the family (used a structural framing template Revit 2013) and the text file for the 2 shapes I was using as a test.
    Attached Files Attached Files

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    Default Re: Revit Family Help

    Okay, I have started fresh and have been playing around a bit. I have now used an extruded shape in stead of a sweep. This is working but I don't know why. I haven't tried applying the catalogue yet, but at least my geometry is flexing the way it should.
    My next task is to cut the voids for the punch outs. I have seen some threads about how to get these to array, but if someone has a good solution to arraying geometry in a family please let me know.

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    Default Re: Revit Family Help

    How will you be using this family? I ask because I can start to imaging thousands of these in a project and with the combination of the extrusion and the voids, it will start to add some serious overhead. I'm not saying you shouldn't model the entire stud, but it may not be necessary given how you want to use it.

    For example, you could use a simple rectangular extrusion with length, width, depth, and whatever other parameters. But the model is a simple rectangle extruded. Then in the family, draw symbolic lines in plan (and each elevation if you'll ever see it in elevation/section) to represent the stud and hide the extrusion in plan. That way, you could get a visual representation in 3D of the location of all the studs since they are simple extrusions. In each orthogonal view you'd get a more detailed representation. And the parameters would take care of any scheduling/calculations you want to use.

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    Default Re: Revit Family Help

    Thanks for your reply. By "overhead" i take it to mean a lot of unneeded information to the model. i thought of that too. I work for a structural engineer and some of the work we do are structural steel stud shop drawings. I am trying to have the studs modeled correctly to provide our clients quantity take offs and cut lists. the voids I imagined being placed for our bridging channels. Our model (like our 2D drawings) strip away the architectural elements and just show the structural framing. An architectural elements i was thinking could just be simple 2D line work in our model.

    If you think the voids would still clutter the model i can leave them out, let our bridging just run through and just use a masking region on the section details where the bridging is

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    Default Re: Revit Family Help

    Yes, by "overhead" I mean clutter and use of computing memory. A rectangular extrusion has six faces. A steel stud-shaped extrusion (no rounded corners, which would add A LOT more faces) has about 14 faces. If you cut 10 voids, you'd add 40 more faces. So each steel stud with voids would have over 50 faces... as opposed to 6.

    If seeing the profile of the stud in your stripped away 3D views is the goal, then that's what you have to model and it makes perfect sense. If you can get away without the voids, I'd definitely avoid them.

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    Default Re: Revit Family Help

    thanks for the tips Damon. Greatly appreciated and makes perfect sense.

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