Loading New W Shapes after Family is Already Loaded?

[bwiab]

I'm not sure what the correct way to do this is but this is how I have been doing it. At the beginning of a project, I'll load the W Shape framing family and all the shapes I need. As the project continues, I might need to load a new shape size. What is the correct way to do this?

They only way I was aware of doing it was to reload the family and select the specific shape I need. The I am asked to overwrite the family or overwrite family and parameters. I always select overwrite family and parameters. Can anyone speak to the ramifications of these two options?

[dzatto]

I'm new to Revit and may be way off base here, but once a shape is loaded, can't you just load the new shape and not reload the existing shapes? So load your framing family, and choose the shapes you need to add. It should add those to the ones already loaded, right? Does that not work?

[eric.piotrowicz]

You are correct however to clarify the overwrite options you are given I'll elaborate a bit further. If you choose to overwrite just the family it will add in the new shapes and change any shapes that have been modified. If you choose to overwrite family and parameters it will make the previous changes as well as any parameter info the was added or modified. Lets say that you have a yes/no parameter in the family for fireproofing. Now if you edit the family and pick one of your shape types and set fireproofing to yes then it will default to place each of those shapes in to the project with fireproofing applied. Now if you went into the family and set fire prrofing to no and loaded doing a full overwrite then any shapes that had been added with fireproofing would be overwritten to not have fireproofing. Just be mindful of any parameter changes and the potential impact when doing a reload and you should be fine.

[bwiab]

Thanks to you both. I just wasn't sure if I was doing it correctly.