Families and Files

[PaperStreet SoapCO]

If I have a file with all kinds of families that were either loaded from the library or custom libraries I made myself, and I want to copy this file to another computer. Do I need to bring all of the families that are in that file along with it for it to display correctly? Or are those families now inherently apart of that file? And if so - does that cause the file size to sky rocket after a while?

[dhurtubise]

A loaded family is part of the project file. Obviously the more family you got, the bigger the file.

[PaperStreet SoapCO]

Well thats interesting - I can see the pros and cons of this. Is there anyway you can 'disengage' the loaded families to keep the file from bloating? I load all kinds of libraries and then end up not using some of them - they are then just adding to my file size.

I apologize if these are basic questions - I am not new to BIM software per se, but I am not extremely familiar with Revit's behavior.

[D.Williams]

Under the File menu you can purge unused families. It will only delete types not currently used and you can selectively choose which families and types you want the project to delete. It's easy enough to bring the families back in later if you need to (if the family is in a library/other project you have available to you).

[robert.manna]

Is there anyway you can 'disengage' the loaded families to keep the file from bloating? I load all kinds of libraries and then end up not using some of them - they are then just adding to my file size.To further elaborate beyond the purge command (which is quite useful, but should be used with care). No, there is no way to treat families as "linked" files, as opposed to having the families actually loaded in your project file, so file size bloat due to required families for a project is un-avoidable. Something else to keep in mind, since families are not really linked in any way, when you "reload" a family, the only way that Revit knows to overwrite (or not overwrite) a family already in your project is by the file name. There are no other "unique" identifiers for families (I wish there were). So, for instance (in a hypothetical world ;) ) lets say you have a new door family called "door beta I.rfa" as you are testing this new door family. You load "beta I" into a project file to see how it performs. After beta testing is complete you want to change the name of the door to just "door.rfa". Should you decide to load "door.rfa" into your previous project file that contained "door beta I.rfa" revit will actually think it has two different door families (even though as far as you the user are concerned its really the same thing). Thankfully Revit makes it reasonable easy to resolve this predicament by allowing you to do a "select all of door beta I.rfa", and then simply change the type to "door.rfa". Once all your betas are changed to just plain old "doors" then you can use the purge command to get rid of the beta door from the project file.

The only other thing that I wish (well not the only) that Revit families supported is versioning, so that it would be easy to track which version of a particular family a project has loaded. (would help alot with troubleshooting I think).

HTH,
-R

[PaperStreet SoapCO]

Thanks for your responses. That helps a lot with grasping how families are loaded and how Revit interacts with them.

[aaronrumple]

Thankfully Revit makes it reasonable easy to resolve this predicament by allowing you to do a "select all of door beta I.rfa", and then simply change the type to "door.rfa". Once all your betas are changed to just plain old "doors" then you can use the purge command to get rid of the beta door from the project file.

HTH,
-R
Or you can rename door beta I in the project browser to door. Then reload.
This is also a helpful trick if you change the type names within the rfa to void duplicates.