Re-loading families into project

[Adam Mac]

Hi all -

I'm not sure if this is "usual" behaviour although i've never noticed it before.
I've purged a project and then realised i need to re-load an annotation family (room tag) back in, of which i already have elements of the family within the project.
Basically i can't do it. Revit goes through the motions and i don't get any error messages BUT nothing is actually re-loaded.
I've found that i have to open the family and then "load into project" from there. That works.
Anyone else notice this?

[D_Driver]

Could you clarify?


I've purged a project and then realised i need to re-load an annotation family (room tag) back in, of which i already have elements of the family within the project.
If the family is already in the project, then you are needing to reload it because you need a type that you have purged?

[Adam Mac]

...then you are needing to reload it because you need a type that you have purged?

Yes - exactly. (Sorry, couldn't think of the correct terminology earlier!)

[D_Driver]

yeah, some weird stuff going on here...

I just did a test with a room tag in a default template

made some rooms
added the standard room tag
added types while in the project
edit family, saveas ddroomtag, closed

purged project
loaded family, got the standard "family exists"
then just out of curiosity
purged again
and then now, when I reload family, I get just what you describe (this is with the 914_0100 build up recently)
no messages, none of the original types are available...
Open the saved rfa file, and use Load into Project, then types are available

don't know what to say other than you are not going crazy...

[Adam Mac]

...don't know what to say other than you are not going crazy...

LOL - that's all i need to know for now!
Looks as though this needs looking at though..... Factory?

[crispin.schurr]

There is something seriously weird happening when reloading family types.

We had a similar situation with casework handles, and tried all of above to no avail (many times).

However, what DID work, was to select a different family type, before hitting the "Load into Project" button.

Crrrazzzy

[The Sweg]

I've been getting this alot, and just dismissed it because I always have issues that nobody else has.

What I tend to do, is open the family, change the current type , save and close - then reload--it usually works, then.

Glad to hear I'm not the only one!

[sbrown]

Please send this into support, since you can easily reproduce it they can fix it.

[cmvdesigns]

Has anyone seen a resolution to this problem. I am coming across the same scenario where a family (electrical outlets) has been updated with additional family types and then reloaded into the project, but the family types do not become available. (using V9.1). I have also had an outlet family which shows a graphic of a typical outlet, and a text parameter diplaying the type of outlet (a/c, 20amp, etc..) but when the new family is loaded in it displays textual information that is not even in the properties of the outlet - very weird. This client had not upgraded to 2008 due to the mirror function being removed, but will upgrade to 2009 now that it is available again, I am hoping that will be the cure.

[crispin.schurr]

The work around is to open the family in the family editor from the original, change something minor (some text etc), save it and load it into your project. All the types will come back.

The big danger is that when you have purged out the unused types, you then edit the family from within a project, make some changes, and then save the family overiding the "master" with all the types in it.

Family version co-ordination is extrememly hard to control, especially with no intelligent version number or save date built in.

[Jshaver]

I recently created a support request due to this behavior. I tlooks like the consensus is the same conlclusion I had in that if a user purges unused types from a non-catalog based family and the default type within the family still exists in the project (with the same default instance parameters) the purged types can not be reloaded. My resolution is to include a "default" type in all of these families that is simply named "Default" and will there for never be used. As long as that type is purged from your project and it is still set as the default type within the family Revit will always load the previously purged types.

In summary Revit only looks at the default type within the family to compare what is in your project. It does not look at all of the types. However if it "sees" a discrepancy or doesn't see the type at all then the family will load properly.