What is the idea? ( Families and Drawing Tools )

[Wagurto]

I dont get it, what is the idea to eliminated some of the drafting features in a family editor when creating a family object? there is no option to create a line style,no option to create a hatch area, I cannt copy and past from project to family, when I save an object created in a project as a family it just save another thing..... what's the idea of complicated the easyest drafting task in revit I simple just dont get!
I think revit people needs to work harder in the 2d drafting features of the program, simple things like fillet lines or walls with a radious will be nice, a better mirror command, I love revit but something i jus ask to my self, am I saving time?

[Scott D Davis]

What's wrong with the mirror command?

Also, regarding 'saving time' , remember what is happening in Revit. Anything you draw is being represented in every view and sheet. I don't see how one would not be saving time using Revit.

[PeterJ]

I think that you are referring to 2D imagery within a 3D family so that additional detail can be indicated without being fully modelled. An example would be additional internal voids in an aluminium window extrusion, for example. If that is the case then you can create these 2D details as detail component families and nest them in the 3D family and then insert them in the relevant views. Bear in mind that you may wish to control their visibility according to view resolution (i.e. off in coarse, your preference in medium, on in fine).

[jbalding48677]

I dont get it, what is the idea to eliminated some of the drafting features in a family editor when creating a family object? there is no option to create a line style,no option to create a hatch area, I cannt copy and past from project to family, when I save an object created in a project as a family it just save another thing..... what's the idea of complicated the easyest drafting task in revit I simple just dont get!
I think revit people needs to work harder in the 2d drafting features of the program, simple things like fillet lines or walls with a radious will be nice, a better mirror command, I love revit but something i jus ask to my self, am I saving time?

Wagurto -

First I must tell you that there are different features in each template you use so take the rest of this with a "grain of salt"

- To create a linestyle in the family editor go to Object Styles and create it there.
- Hatch areas or filled regions are available on some family templates and not others
- You have never been able to copy from a project to a family.
- I don't understand what you are asking for with regards to the fillet and radius walls...
- The mirror command, in my opinion, is quite elegant. What do you see wrong with it?

HTH -

[Wagurto]

Thanks for your replies guy, I was talking from my fustrations, I hope when I fully learn revit y will expend my time helping other instead of complaining.
The probblem with the mirror command has to do with mirror hosted objects or ojects constrains to other objects, when you mirror that objects wierd things happens, am I right?
- Should be a templete with all the features necesary to create simple 2d drafted family objetcs, I just trying to draw some of my objects in 2d to instead of 3d, I am doing a multistory residential building where there is a typical floor with a couple repetitive units in one floor. I dont want to draw each unit each time. I want to create a family group inserted, copied, mirrored etc. in a floor plan.
Finally, it will be nice to join two lines or a walls with a radious instead of drawing lines segments with a curve segment. Something like autocad does.

[Tom Dorner]

FYI, you can fillet a wall to a radius. The trick is you need to be in the "wall" command. In the wall command, there is an option to fillet. It is the last icon, You will see a tool tip of "fillet arc" when you hover over it. Click the icon, then make sure you check the "radius" box on and enter a radius desired. Click on the two walls you want to apply the fillet arc to.

As to the 2D drafting question, I've attached a simple family I used in my Revit Users Group this past month to demonstate how not only can 2D symbols be easily generated in Revit, but they can have much more inteligence than any AutoCAD block. In my attached example, insert the 2D rod & shelf into a project. Make three walls like a closet space and insert the 2D r&s component. Then use the align command to align and lock each edge of the r&s to each end wall. Now your rod & shelf will shrink and grow with any movement of the walls it is aligned to. This family is nothing more than two 2D lines and a piece of text that took me 30 seconds to create.

The important thing I stress to people learning Revit is to free yourself from looking at everything through an AutoCAD prism. I used to use AutoCAD for the previous 18 years for 8-10 hours a day, so I know how tough that can be.

If you run across something you don't know how to do, we are here to help. A simple post of "hey how do I do this....?" will usally get a response within minutes on this site. Even on weekends!

Tom

[sbrown]

I think you are going about things the wrong way. You build you unit group within the project and then can copy that "group" do the help files on groups. You don't make a whole unit in the family editor. You just make some of the pieces in the family editor. The detail component template is for 2d components(it has lines and filled regions). The other families allow you to load(nest 2d detail components into them). Try doing some of the begining help tutorials to understand the whole concept of revit. It sounds like you are trying to build "multi-view blocks like ADT" and not working how revit intends.