is there a way to get single elements of family symbol

[hr.193732]

Hello,

is there a way to get the single elements of a family symbol (e.g. "window","door") like glas, frame etc.
It is easy with groups but I have no idea how to do this with a family symbol.
Does anyone have an idea?

Thanks,
Holger

[Andre Carvalho]

What are you trying to achieve? Can you be more specific, please?

Andre Carvalho

[hr.193732]

I'll try...
I'm storing every element-ID in a database to access each element (after exporting to fbx and importing to 3ds) in 3ds by ID.
Selecting the element with the ID I can assign a material to the element.
But for windows there's only one ID. So when I select the window-ID and assign a material to it- both frame and glass will get that material :-(
I hope you understand my problem now ;-)

Thanks,
Holger

[mmason.65315]

It's hard to do at the type-level, unfortunately.
You can go up to the family level, then look at the SolidForms which are in the family (and figure out their material) - but due to the complexity of dynamic families, you can't guarantee that every solid is visible/used in every type.

Alternately, you can work from the instance, get the geometric solids, and the materials from there - which is accurate for that type - but probably won't give you the IDs that you would need to re-set the material in a separate file like FBX.

That's just my $0.02, though.

Good luck,
Matt

[hr.193732]

Ok, I found out a solution to change the materials in 3ds and like to share it with you.
When selecting a window it is a multimaterial. if you iterate through the materials you can assign different materials for frame, window etc.

The API in Revit doesn't make me happy- because you always have to use workarounds(even other programs-like 3ds) :-(
If you're interested I can post some code though it is maxscript and this is the revit forum ;-)

Thank you all,
Holger

[schrodingerscat]

I was going to suggest nentsel but then I remembered what program you were talking about... god this gets confusing...

[Danny Polkinhorn]

Surely you saw this (http://thebuildingcoder.typepad.com/blog/2008/10/family-instance-materials.html). And I'm not calling you Shirley. :)

[mmason.65315]

Sweet - an Airplane reference!

I think the problem with the example you mention is that it's working off of "solids" within the family instance - and solid/faces don't have IDs that you could re-figure corresponding IDs in 3DS.

-Matt