Schedule sub-components of families

[Dave F.]

Hi

I have families with sub-elements that I need to schedule for a take-off.
Is there a way to do this?

To start with they were just solid extrusions, & I guessed they need to be properly tagged or labelled or something like that.
So I tried creating them as a separate family & nesting them but still wouldn't show up in the schedule. I did create them in the correct category, so that's not the problem.

What else do I need to do to schedule them?

Hope you can help.

[twiceroadsfool]

Instead of making them subcatagories (or in addition to, i suppose, if you wanted to) give them material parameters. Then in the project, assign the correct materials and do a Material Takeoff of that catagory...

[Andre Carvalho]

Make them shared before nesting them.

Andre Carvalho

[Dave F.]

Thanks for the replies.

Going on from your advice I faound:

http://revit.blogspot.com/2008/09/tagging-and-scheduling-nested-families.html

To check, is loading a component the same as using 'Load into Project' of an already open family?

[twiceroadsfool]

My mistake, i thought you were trying to quantify dimensions or amounts of certain *sub catagories*, hence the suggestion of materials.

Yes, loading is the same as using "Load in to project" and putting it in to the family. Just beware the pitfulls and minor issues that will arise if you start nesting, loading in to projects, and scheduling, etc...

[Dave F.]

Ah! Would one of those be that, because it's shared, I'm unable to link parameters?

Any ideas how to overcome that problem?

[Scott Womack]

Ah! Would one of those be that, because it's shared, I'm unable to link parameters?

Any ideas how to overcome that problem?

When you nest one family (element) into another, you need to "recreate" the parameters in the parent family (the one the item was linked into) then you can link the elements parameters to those in the parent. It is easier, and quicker, if the parameters in the element are switched to instance parameters. These are easier to access in the element, and can be tied to Type parameters in the parent family. The tie is made by clicking on the small gray box, allthe way to the right of the parameter in question.

[Dave F.]

Cheers Scott

I was just coming on here to answer mine own Q & you just beat me to it.

What I was unaware of was that an Instance parameter could be linked to a Type.
I changed them to instance & it all work fine.

Thanks