Revit Family Linestyle Purging

[S.Momo0204]

Hi All,

First time posting here on AUGI.

My issue is in regards to Revit families and the purging of unwanted linestyles.

A new BIM manager has recently been employed who has rolled out a new revit library. Upon loading in these new families I instantly noticed that my project was bombarded with unwanted linestyles/line patterns.

I'm quite pedantic when it comes to model maintenance and upkeep, so as you can imagine this has got me quite frustrated.

I have begun doing my own audit of each family, however the first family I opened I noticed that the correct linestyles are within the family. It's only upon loading in the same family into a project that these rogue linestyles appear (over 40 of them).

Has anyone got any idea where these unwanted linestyles could be coming from if it appears as though they have been deleted out of the family?

Thanks for any help.

[RobertB]

First, welcome to AUGI!

When I'm troubleshooting families, I find it's best to start a new project based on the <None> "template" so that there is very little in the project. If you load the family there in that blank project and the undesired line styles appear, then you know it is the family or a nested family in that family. If the undesired line styles don't appear, then you know the issue lies somehow with your real project.

P.S. you could post the family and let us poke at it, if you tell us what "bad' line styles to look for.

P.S.S. As a DTS Manager, I would be unhappy if my users didn't come to me with this issue with my own families. It doesn't make much sense to fix things project after project vs. dealing with it at the family level, nor to have users auditing the families.

[S.Momo0204]

Thanks for the response Robert.

I followed the same process when testing the family initially. So it must be at a family level.

I've attached the family. There are multiple unwanted linestyles that appear (actually too many to list). Basically those linestyles which appear in the family are the ones we want, its upon loading the family in a the blank project that all these extra linestyles within the family become apparent.

I've definitely raised the issue with the manager and do so on a regular basis. Unfortunately I feel as though he lacks the knowledge to fix/find the problem. I should have noted that the whole library has come from another company and unfortunately I think the deployment of it was rather rushed/poorly audited. I am, with his knowledge trying to do some damage control and isolate/fix all these problems.

Considering some of these families could potentially have been created in much earlier versions of REVIT (2008,2009, etc), could it be that some linestyles have embedded themselves within families and cannot be seen nor purged in the later versions?

Thanks for your help again.

[RobertB]

Yes, it is the issue that I thought it was.

The problem is that Revit makes it easy to import line styles into a family using Transfer Project Standards. But the Family Editor give you no way to manage or purge the line styles.

The only way to get rid of the undesired line styles is to load the family(ies) into a new project, delete the undesired line styles using Manage > Settings > Additional Settings > Line Styles, and then SaveAs > Library the family(ies).

See my attached updated family.

[S.Momo0204]

Wow!!!!!!

You are a legend Robert!

This method has saved me so much time!!

[S.Momo0204]

Just another quick note to add to this thread.

DYNAMO will be your best friend if you have to delete line styles, line patterns, fill patterns and Materials.

I managed to get some dynamo scripts running in a matter of hours which were capable of deleting all of the above (unfortunately I couldn't find a solution for object styles). Refer attached

This guys work is great reference if you want to put it together.





Attachment 103150

[Steve_Stafford]

Did you try the package on families? Everything I've seen works on projects. The UI doesn't wake up for line styles in a family so it seems to me that it might be possible that the API doesn't offer a route to them for a family,

[dbartlett]

This is my reply on Steve's blog: Hi Steve, I am very pleased to see this issue raised. Attached is a tool I wrote specifically to clean up un-purgeable family line styles, with a few enhancements. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...StylePurge.zip
Currently for 2014 and 2015, I will include a 2016 version early next week. I am not overly altruistic, but want this to be a small measure of thanks to yourself and others who provide a wealth of information to the community at large. Regards, Dale

[Steve_Stafford]

Cool, thanks for sharing that Dale!

[artejon]

I have written an add-in that can purge unused line patterns and line styles, it can also find, list and delete selected CAD files. Add-in works both in a project and in a family and is compatible with Revit 2015-2017. If anyone is interested then please contact me.