Door Family Parameters Family vs. Project

[jsteinhauer]

Hello All,

I was tasked several years ago to create our firm's "Standard Doors". It involved meeting with several PA's to determine what was "Needed" in the families. We came up with several basic frame families that hosted nested shared panels. The Panels were preloaded into our Project Template, with the most common sizes per Panel Family. Our Frame Families have an associated Type Catalog, which when used, pulls from the project the appropriate panel/s to complete the door assembly. We create several Parent Frame families for our most typically used doors. After that, we would expect project teams to use those as a starting point to create more families, and we would build our library from them.

Now we are revisiting the door families which have brought up more questions than answers. I'm not sure when it was added, but it appears that there are some hard coded parameters that get applied to the doors when they are loaded into a project. These include but are not limited to: Panel Style (Type), Frame Type (Instance), Head Height (Instance, Other). What I can't figure out is why are these parameters are not available back at the family level? Why is "Frame Type" an instance parameter? Why is Head Height grouped under Other, instead of Dimensions?

When we create our Door Legends Sheets, we typically have the door panels separated from the frames. The configuration of panels inside of the frames can be any combination provided. I would think that the Frame Type would be a Type parameter, because we would be dealing with a Frame Family Type, followed by the door panel configuration, followed by the door size. This would give you the basic building blocks of doors for your project. Any special type variation (fire rating) from these standards would mean duplicating the type most appropriate, renaming the new type to convey the differences, and go from there.

Some of the changes that have been suggested are:
Add "Frame Type" parameter to door families, door family templates & project/schedules as a Type Parameter.
Add "Panel Style" parameter to door families, door family templates & project/schedules as a Type Parameter.
Add instance, text parameters for Head, Jamb & Sill details.
For Double Doors, create a separate swing angle control parameter for each leaf.
Remove the "Type Mark" parameter from our project template door schedules.
Purchase a Super Door generator app, and scrape our prior development.

Please let me know your thoughts and experiences on doors, because this is becoming a zombie issue (risen from the dead, and that won't die).

Thank you in advance,
Jeff S.

[dkoch]

I will not claim what we do is necessarily the best way (it is unlikely to be the most Revit way, as it started out in AutoCAD Architecture), but we use an instance-based parameter to hold the frame type data to avoid compounding the already numerous door types (one for each opening size/door type combination used). Note that in general, we are not modeling specific frame types in the door families, the same rectangular graphic works for most all our our comercial/institutional projects at 1/8" or 1/4"=1'-0" scales.

[CAtDiva]

This will probably send you into overload, but this thread at RFO has extensive discussion on door families: http://www.revitforum.org/architectu...ew-thread.html.

[Chuckyd67]

We create complete door families at the administrator level. This diminishes the need for everyone in the department to know how to generate families, particularly families that feed schedules. The door family starts with the panel type, and door frames are added to that family. Our most popular frame types, by far, are all double rabbeted frames, metal, inset for masonry, wrap around for drywall, and inset for structural framing. The door panels start out as generic families, but then are changed to doors so that door features can be added. The frames are created as another generic component, or as a part of the door family.

We have created a door "starter" family that includes all the parameters required for every door we have generated so far. After the family is created the unused parameters are deleted. The door panel is a type. The door frame is an instance, only because we do not currently have permanent numbers for the frame types.

Instance parameters for doors include the details, hardware set, notes, fire rating, glazing type, and frame elevation. All other parameters are types.

[cdatechguy]

This will probably send you into overload, but this thread at RFO has extensive discussion on door families: http://www.revitforum.org/architectu...ew-thread.html.

Was tempted to post that link....lots of great info there!