Creating railings in .rvt or .rfa?

[machiel]

We are a stainless railing company and new to Revit. I want to revit our railing designs and make them available for architects on our website and Autodesk Seek.
I am not sure what format I should create. I have seen both formats made available by competitors. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

[pfaudler]

.rvt railings project file, like a master catalouge file. Have alook at OOB railing master file.
for UK, 64bit windows XP, C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Revit Architecture 2011\Content\Metric Library\System Family Files\GBRENU_Railings.rvt

hope that helps.

[machiel]

I will check that out. Thanks for the response.

[dhurtubise]

There is simply no other then an .rvt file. Railings are system famillies so they cannot be shared as an .rfa.
Keep us posted :-)

[cliff collins]

I believe the OP was asking which format of Revit files to provide, as a product supplier who wishes to provide Revit content for designers/architects?

If so, a Revit Project ( .rvt ) would be an all-inclusive, wholistic deliverable / product
that the railing mfg could provide. It would include the system families (stairs and railings), as well as Profiles for railings, baluster posts and panels, etc. It could also include 2D Details in Revit format--i.e. Detail Components, etc. The project (.rvt) would be the preferred file for download from a mfg. website.

I suppose that some Families( .rfa) could also be provided separately--such as Rail Profiles and Balusters, Panels, and Detail Components as mentioned above.

I would NOT recommend creating any stairs, railings, or balusters as "standalone"
generic models, which are outside of the "system family" of Revit Stairs and Railings. i.e. "dumb generic models" which do not have parameters and are used from within the Stairs and Railings tools in Revit.

Just my 2 c worth

cheers

[jimijherndon]

I believe the OP was asking which format of Revit files to provide, as a product supplier who wishes to provide Revit content for designers/architects?

If so, a Revit Project ( .rvt ) would be an all-inclusive, wholistic deliverable / product
that the railing mfg could provide. It would include the system families (stairs and railings), as well as Profiles for railings, baluster posts and panels, etc. It could also include 2D Details in Revit format--i.e. Detail Components, etc. The project (.rvt) would be the preferred file for download from a mfg. website.

I suppose that some Families( .rfa) could also be provided separately--such as Rail Profiles and Balusters, Panels, and Detail Components as mentioned above.

I would NOT recommend creating any stairs, railings, or balusters as "standalone"
generic models, which are outside of the "system family" of Revit Stairs and Railings. i.e. "dumb generic models" which do not have parameters and are used from within the Stairs and Railings tools in Revit.

Just my 2 c worth

cheers

Completely second this approach, one or multiple .rvt files with all of your rail types in it and 2D revit style details in the same file. Families are relatively useless as rail objects.

[machiel]

Cliff and others, thanks a lot for your responses.
Still learning the Revit environment now, but hope to start modeling our actual railings soon. At least I know I am on the right track.

[Scott D Davis]

There are some railing families on Autodesk Seek. http://seek.autodesk.com

Direct link:

http://seek.autodesk.com/search/viva?q=manufacturer:VIVA+Architectural+Hardware&source=NEWCONTENT

These are good examples as they are complete railing systems drawn as stairs, and downloadable as RVT files.