Making a new family type

[MikeJarosz]

Help! After using Revit for 12 years, my memory is fading. I am forgetting a key step in adding new types to a family category, in this case workstation worksurfaces. I need a new shape that is not in the category and can't be controlled by parameters. So I click the category in the browser and select "new type". For some reason, the new type selects one of the existing types using some mysterious criteria and adds "2" to the type name. I edit the copied family, careful to select the new type, NOT the original it was copied from. I edit the extrusion in the new type then load into the project. Of course, I save before doing all this, just in case.

When I load into the project, all the existing types change into the new type. Yikes!!!! Control Z

I'm definitely missing something here.

[DaveP]

If it's a new shape, you probably need a new Family, not a new Type.
Either Save As your old one, or do New...Family & use either the Furniture or the Furniture Systems family template

[Duncan Lithgow]

... a new shape that is not in the category and can't be controlled by parameters.

I think you've forgotten that if your variations in geometry aren't to be controlled by parameters then you'll need separate families (or messy visibility settings). When you edit the geometry of one 'type' directly you're editing the whole family.

[MikeJarosz]

So, in other words, types in a category are controlled by parameters and visibility only. If I can't make variations using parameters alone, I need a new family.

Let's see if I understand this correctly. I have a category called Tables. I have cafeteria tables that are 36 inches round and 30 inches square. The round top has a pedestal base and the square top has four legs. These two different beasts cannot be in the same family of Tables.I should have a square table family and a round table family. Is that correct?

[DaveP]

Bingo!
You'll have a Round Table family that can have Types of 30", 36", 42"
and a Square Table family that could have Types of 18", 36", 48"

[k_char]

What if you've got Radiant panel. You're three options are Flat Panel, corner panel with connectors, corner panel without connectors (all set up with different families). I have been following the link below and I set up the family type for Radiant Panel and want to be able to pull down and select one of the different families but am stuck at the Inserting part. What am I inserting the nested family into?

http://www.cadsoft-consult.com/blogs/architecture/2010/06/revit-families-endless-combinations-with-nested-families-and-the-family-type-parameter/comment-page-1/#comment-2484

Any ideas?