Family Organization

[christo4robin]

Just curious - when you create a family that you are using for a specific project, and that you may modify and reuse later, where are you storing it?

Example - a custom cut brace holding up an eyebrow roof. I could place it in my project folder structure with the project file,

or...

I could place it with my Revit content (separate from the "out of the box" content).

Pros/cons? Anybody reasoned this one out?

Cheers from the German organizer in me!

[beegee]

My thinking has been to place it in the "Custom" Revit Content families folder under its category _ Roof or Roof elements or whatever.

That way in a year or two, when you want to use it, you don't have to rack your brains wondering "which project was it I created that family for "?

[gnl]

For my own custom components I have my own library organized basically similar to the default libraries installed with Revit... for ease of use ... no other reason.
but I always keep the custom families made for each project also with the rvt itself, just in case...

[Dimitri Harvalias]

Store it in a location other than default, based on the category. If it's something really unique I like to include the project name in the family name so I recall which project it was used on. ( I tend to have the same racking problem as Beegee )

[sbrown]

Each job has a copy of the library directory structure in the job directory, new families for that job are place there. What we haven't figured out is how or if to incorporate these into a master library. Right now if you know you created a certain window on one job you go to that job and get it. What we hope to see is the ability for meta data to be created from the family parameters so you could set up a media bin type searchable storage database of library components.

[hand471037]

I always break it down this way:

1. I never alter or add to the standard revit libraries

2. If I alter something in the standard library, or I make a new family for a project and it's something I've got a chance of reusing at some point, it goes in my personal library (if I wasn't doing my own projects, and was in an office, this would be the office standard library). I name it with a long discriptive name, usally with a date code at the front, and I use the same sub-folders as the standard library just to keep it simple.

3. Anything that's custom to that job, and won't be reused (or would be serously altered if reused) goes into the job's project folder in a subfolder labeled 'Project-Specific Families'. Any AutoCAD plan imports and what have you go into a subfolder called 'AutoCAD Baseplans'. I'm real orginal when it comes to naming things, as you can see.

But now with 6, it's not such a big deal. Before, if you couldn't find those project-specific fams, you were in trouble. So that's why I'm so methodical about this....

[Steve_Stafford]

We're using a "dead" stock Revit library and an office "copy" (just folder structure). If we modify stock families they go in the office library (supposed to anyway)...downloaded or in-house brewed families also go here. Some folks are putting their own families in the project folder but I hope to avoid that as we continue...

What is harder still is to deal with naming and such...but that's in other posts...