Families and Materials

[dimitri]

Hi all,
Does anyone know if you can specify two different parts of one family as two different materials?

i.e. I'm trying to create a concrete wall panel (which i've done) that has a wall joint of mortar or other material, on either side. Essentially, i want to be able to collect the quantities of the two materials separately when i export a material takeoff.

Is this possible?

p.s. i'm quite new to Revit Architecture. Only been using it for about 2 weeks after a 3 day training course at CADD Centres of Florida (a place i recommend highly).

My apologies, i should have put this in the 'Families' section. :(

[Andre Carvalho]

Sure you can. If I got it right, the panels and the mortar are two different elements as part of the same family. Just select the panel element and select a material for it and do the same for the mortar and select another material. You can even create material parameters to them...

Andre Carvalho

[dimitri]

Your reassurance worked! I went back and realized i did something wrong, instead of thinking what i wanted wasn't possible. Thanks.

[patricks]

Be aware that joined geometry in a family can NOT have separate material parameters, for whatever strange reason. Even the visibility parameters become joined when you join geometry in a family. :roll:

[dimitri]

Yeah i had a hunch that would be the case. But it doesn't pose a problem for me. What seems to be the issue is after i've created the family and place one in a project...i attempt to put another one adjacent to the first, but aligned to a particular part of the first object. However, whenever i bring the second instance too close to the first instance, it aligns to a part i do not want it to align to. I've attached a picture of what happens, and the .rfa file of the family i initially created. Can anyone help?

'Before' and 'After' show what happens when i place the second wall into the project. I'm trying to connect the two so that there's a gap between them where those two cylindrical objects lie. Take a look at the .rfa file too.

Btw, the family was created using the Generic Line Model, not the Generic Wall model.

[patricks]

Just curious, but why model concrete tilt-walls that way? Seems like many of those would impact performance since the program is having to draw all those little joint and backer rod pieces. In my opinion, it's better to just take care of that in the details

[dimitri]

What do you mean by 'in the details'? Bear with me if it seems i don't know much, really a beginner here.

We're using Revit from a Cost Management point of view at the moment. We're a project management company so we're not involved with projects on a design level. What we want to do is take the AutoCAD drawings from Architects/Engineers and utilize Revit's material takeoff and schedule capabilities to integrate with our Estimating software (Sage Timberline Office Estimating) so we can speed up and streamline cost estimation.

Hence, i took the approach of modeling each item we needed to figure out a cost for. If there's an easier way to view the process, please help!

[dhurtubise]

i miss some information for a lack of better understand use a CW panel and the mullion for the mortar

[dimitri]

I actually revised my thinking and just made the wall panel joint as one family element and stuck it into the wall at the required spots while cutting wall openings in the walls. Seems to work fine.