Is there a way to make a family into a detail component

[jsteinhauer]

Hi All,

I am wondering if there is an easy way of making a family component into a drafting component. What I need to do is take a elevation of a typical sink situation and draft up some changes. The issue is I don't have my families as drafting components, so using a drafting view is problematic. I didn't want to do this in an elevation view, because then the tag would appear everywhere. So what I was thinking is make an elevation view then 'Freeze?' it and copy the line work into the drafting view. Does this sound like a legit option? Anyone have another idea?

Thank you in advance,
Jeff S.

[jsteinhauer]

Freezing the view did not work the way I thought it would. It make a .dwg then re-imports it back into Revit. More ACAD in Revit ******... I thought it would make a drafting view with Revit lines.

Please let me knot if you know of another way.

Thanks,

Jeff S.

[tomnewsom]

Freezing the view did not work the way I thought it would. It make a .dwg then re-imports it back into Revit. More ACAD in Revit ******... I thought it would make a drafting view with Revit lines.

Please let me knot if you know of another way.

Thanks,

Jeff S.
This would be a nice tool to have, but I can just imagine the abuses it would lead to!

"Why isn't the main elevation updating any more?"

"Oh, I couldn't get the windowframe to look right so I turned it into a Drafting view"

"AAAAAAAARRGH!"

[jsteinhauer]

This would be a nice tool to have, but I can just imagine the abuses it would lead to!

"Why isn't the main elevation updating any more?"

"Oh, I couldn't get the windowframe to look right so I turned it into a Drafting view"

"AAAAAAAARRGH!"

Well they kind of did that with this Freeze view tool. It just sucks that it loads back in an ACAD .dwg. Now, I have to trace over the top of it and delete the garbage.

Still looking for something that will take a family and convert it into a drafting component.

Jeff S.

[twiceroadsfool]

Why dont you just put in an Elevation and tell it (in its properties) ti hide at scales coarser than 12"=1'-0"? Youre never going to have a plan less coarse than 1:1, so itll never show up anywhere.

[jsteinhauer]

This would be a nice tool to have, but I can just imagine the abuses it would lead to!

"Why isn't the main elevation updating any more?"

"Oh, I couldn't get the windowframe to look right so I turned it into a Drafting view"

"AAAAAAAARRGH!"

I just thought of a great use of this tool, RFI Sketches. Think about it. You have a sketch from the model and you need to keep it for your records. If you left it attached to the model then when new things happen it might affect your older RFI's. Then you're stuck without your backup data. If you could drop an elevation tag into plan, then sketch over top of it, then freeze it on an 8.5x11 sheet w/o it being CAD. That would be awesome!!!

Jeff S.

[twiceroadsfool]

We use PDF's for that. :) You have the PDF if you ever need to reference the actual RFI or SK or whatever, and if things in the model changed that affected it, the only issue is you cant alter or change the as-issued RFI/SK. Which makes sense, because... uh... the condition has changed. So that RFI/SK is invalidated, isnt it?

On the few occasions that weve needed this capability for technicalities sake, we've simply archived the model whenever items get issued. That way the *entire* project exists at that milestone, so we can recreate/edit/alter the "RFI." But even that, i dont agree with in principle.

Frankly, i dont EVER want someone *in the model* to be able to "freeze" things. Too many opportunities for the Model to loos integrity and infallability. We arent even using the Freeze Drawing tool, for anything. ASIDE from the technical issues (it being CAD, it adding erroneous parameters to everything), theres just no need for it, for us.

[wmullett]

jsteinhauer wrote "Well they kind of did that with this Freeze view tool. It just sucks that it loads back in an ACAD .dwg. Now, I have to trace over the top of it and delete the garbage."

Why do you do that?

For CAD files you want to import into a drafting detail to clean up, you should do some prep work in CAD. But even before that, start a new project to use for your CAD cleaup that has your text and dimension styles as well as linetypes. The following assumes you have only three line styles in your CAD file... Light - Medium - Heavy so adjust this process as appropriate.
In CAD
1. Flaten 3D
2. Explode all blocks and xref's
3. Delete all hatches, polylines dimensions and leaders.
4. WBlock to a new file only what you want.
In Revit
1. Create a drafting detail of correct scale
2. Import your CAD detail from the new file
3. Explode the CAD file (THIS IS A VERY BAD THING TO DO IN YOUR PROJECT FILE - THAT IS WHY WE DO IT IN A TEMPORARY FILE)
4. Now - CAD lines are now new Revit linestyles named according to their layers.
5. GOTO VG and turn off everything then turn back on the main line category and thin lines.
6. Nothing should be visible.
7. Goto Settings/Line styles - expand the lines category and repeat the following:
8. Start with your heaviest line style in CAD. Find that linestyle (assuming A-DTL-Heavy) and delete that sub-category.
9. All those lines will now be Thin Lines and will be visible
10. Select them all from your detail window and change them to your Revit Heavy Lines and they will disappear.
11. Repeat 8 - 10 above until you have converted all and your finished with thin lines.
12. Convert all your text and clean that up.
13. Add leaders to text notes
14. Add dimensions
15. Add filled regions.
16. Click on File/Save to Library/Save Views and Pick your Details that you have cleaned up to save into your library.
17. You can also transfer these views directly into your project.

[twiceroadsfool]

Hes talking about using the Freeze Drawings tool available in the Revit Extensions pack. It does it all behind the scenes, so you dont get the chance to do cleanup.

[jsteinhauer]

Hes talking about using the Freeze Drawings tool available in the Revit Extensions pack. It does it all behind the scenes, so you dont get the chance to do cleanup.

You make it sound like we're missing out on a great deal of fun. ;)

Jeff S.

[twiceroadsfool]

I still dont see why you dont place an elevation and tell it to hide at coarse view scales? Using that method, you can make the elevation marker never show up anywhere...

[david_peterson]

Why do you do that?.
Why bother with your method either. Simply create a jpeg of your cad detail from the correct view and insert it as a jpeg. Looks much better, no need to clean anything up.

[jsteinhauer]

I still dont see why you dont place an elevation and tell it to hide at coarse view scales? Using that method, you can make the elevation marker never show up anywhere...

I used your elevation method, it worked very well. I am just concerned about what others may model that would interfere with my elevation detail...

Thanks for the tip Aaron,

Jeff S.

[twiceroadsfool]

Yeah, but... If it interferes with your detail, im going to go out on a limb and say your detail (or what they modeled?) is wrong? :)