Materials in Families

[mmiles]

What is the most efficient way to get materials placed into a family?

I have materials defined in project that I would like to apply in a family file. Is there a way to transfer only a selection of materials from the project?

[Scott Womack]

What is the most efficient way to get materials placed into a family?

I have materials defined in project that I would like to apply in a family file. Is there a way to transfer only a selection of materials from the project?

You have two choices to transfer the materials, use Transfer Project Standards to transfer ALL the materials inot the family, or create a series of objects with the materials applied to each for the subset of materials you want, and create a group of those objects, and save that group out to file. Now using Transfer Project standards from that file will only bring in those materials that you had save out to that file.

[clog boy]

Have you considered using Object Styles? You can make new ones in your family, then load them in your project and then define materials for that object style.

Working so consistently will enable you to keep track of your materials, all the time, and keep them up to date. For instance, different families using the same object style will always look similar if that's what you want. Or you could create a material parameter for that object.

Bottom line is that you won't have to bother about materials in your families, rather make sure you can manage them in your project as efficiently as possible. It's one of the things that will pay off eventually and you'll never want to look back.