Link Access Price Database To Objects Library?

[benveasey]

We use a "drag & drop" library of parts (ie elbows, valves etc). Is it possible / how easy is it in Revit to do the following:

1) Convert a DWG library of parts to a revit library?

2) Use Revit to pull the prices from the Access database (if the part decriptions are the same in Access as they are in the revit library)?

[Steve_Stafford]

It is easy if not time consuming. Are you talking about 3D or 2D? If you have 2D top, side, front and back elevations in dwg format you can import them into a family template of the appropriate category. Place and orient each dwg view in the corresponding view.

Be aware that mirroring these types of families has a latent bug that will/may mess up the appearance of them. If it is just 2D linework you can use the dwg file as the basis to sketch new native lines in Revit or explode the dwg to convert to native lines.

Lastly, the objects you are using may be as easy to create a 3D object of, in which case I'd recommend that route (you can also place a 3D dwg in family, see the Modern Medium catalog of families on the Autodesk Revit Content site)

You can not "pull" data into Revit from an Access database directly yet. However, if you store the data in Access and your families use the catalog feature you can provide this data to a family through a middle step of exporting txt files from a query of your database data. Review the information on catalogs in Revit's help documents and take a look at how the structural steel framing families are constructed to get a sense of how it works.

Downside is, dragging and dropping a family from Windows Explorer won't effectively import a family with catalog data associated to it. You'll need to use Revit's Load Family command to properly access it. You can drag and drop from the Project Browser family category however, but you won't get a preview of the family so names will have to be pretty meaningful.

[David Conant]

For pricing, a better strategy is to work with data exported from Revit rather than trying to import prices into Revit. Prices are a very fluid thing and change more frequently than the physical description of the object. If you put them directly into the Revit object, you will have to reload all your content for every change in pricing.
The strategy we find works best is to use other applications such as Excel or Access to link an external pricing table to elements shown in a Revit export.
The Excel method uses exported schedules and requires a set of macros and scripts to run efficiently. Excel lacks some of the features of a true database, but the final result uses an application familiar to many. Ken Stowe here at the factory has a demonstration of this method that he shows periodically. Others may be able to demonstrate it as well.
The Access method requires some setup work by someone comfortable with database work. In Access, you maintain a pricing table keyed off any unique value in a Revit element. This table can be altered at any time and should be kept external to a specific project allowing usage by many projects. Based on the unique key, prices in the table are applied to elements in the export. Access provides a rich set of tools for calculating results and constructing reports.
As a true database application, Access can do a great deal more with the information. Since it uses the ODBC export feature of Revit, a system can be built so that the user interaction is very direct, simply export when pricing is desired and open the database in Access to see the new pricing.