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Thread: Families from Manufacturers

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    Post Families from Manufacturers

    How important is it to Revit users to have manufacturer specific families? Do most people visit company's websites looking for Revit families or do they tend to keep it generic during the drawing process. What about BIM information, how important is it to have that information attached to the product symbols?

    Thanks.

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    Certifiable AUGI Addict Dimitri Harvalias's Avatar
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    Default Re: Families from Manufacturers

    Hi Sean,
    Welcome to the forums.
    Speaking from my own experience, at the preliminary stages of a project designers tend to keep things as wide open as possible. I think I can safely say that from a spec/procurement standpoint this is generally the case in industry.
    That said, once a decision has been made, or if the design team has a specific product in mind, then having content available can be helpful if renderings are required or certain product data (model numbers, color options, exact dimensions etc) needs to be part of a schedule.
    In the case of a systems furniture supplier (sorry, I had to Google you to figure out what angle you might be coning at this from ) it can't hurt to have it as a 'service' to designers but be careful how you go about developing these families and have a target 'market' in mind. This will help you decide how detailed the families should be, what parameters you might include, the formatting of those parameters etc.

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    Default Re: Families from Manufacturers

    Quote Originally Posted by Dimitri Harvalias View Post
    Hi Sean,
    Welcome to the forums.
    Speaking from my own experience, at the preliminary stages of a project designers tend to keep things as wide open as possible. I think I can safely say that from a spec/procurement standpoint this is generally the case in industry.
    That said, once a decision has been made, or if the design team has a specific product in mind, then having content available can be helpful if renderings are required or certain product data (model numbers, color options, exact dimensions etc) needs to be part of a schedule.
    In the case of a systems furniture supplier (sorry, I had to Google you to figure out what angle you might be coning at this from ) it can't hurt to have it as a 'service' to designers but be careful how you go about developing these families and have a target 'market' in mind. This will help you decide how detailed the families should be, what parameters you might include, the formatting of those parameters etc.
    Sean,

    In addition to Dimitri's experience, I work at a mid-sized A/E firm. We do a lot of government work and need to keep our families pretty generic. Additionally, we have had our template in use/development for years now. We have most of our common schedules built into our template to work with our family/project parameters. Most content from Manufacturers are loaded down with information that we would need to delete or remap to our own parameters in order to schedule properly. It's just not worth it for us to use this type of content.

    Where you might find the most acceptance is with Facilities Managers. Know purchase date, model/serial number, color, preventative maintenance, warranty information would be helpful to them.

    Cheers,
    Jeff S.

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    I could stop if I wanted to jeff.95551's Avatar
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    Default Re: Families from Manufacturers

    Sean -
    Speaking as a small firm partner who does all private work, I look for manufacturer-developed families. I don't have time to build every family by hand, so getting them from the manufacturer gives us reasonable assurance that the product is correct. We don't always spec that product, but all other things being equal, that gets your product in the door, and if it is a quality-built family, well thought out, that reflects well on your company. At this point we don't use a lot of the parameters - there doesn't seem to be a real coherent system for applying that information yet, but it doesn't help. We always include internet addresses in our product schedules, so including that information in the data is useful.

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    Thumbs up Re: Families from Manufacturers

    Thank-you to those who replied. Hopefully some more Revit users can give me some of their experiences to help me figure out what we as a manufacturer can provide. I want to make sure it's something that users want to see and will use.

    If anyone would like to share with me their take-off templates to see what fields of data are being used that would help me to understand better what information I need to make sure is included and what information is not needed.

    Thanks!

    BTW - Do most user check the manufacturer sites directly or search for it on Seek?
    Last edited by BenPudge72; 2012-02-10 at 09:08 PM. Reason: Added another question

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    Default Re: Families from Manufacturers

    I know you manufacturers want to create a visually appealing product as a Revit family to promote your product, but when you load a couple dozen of these families into your project, just the materials alone become a burden. The families need to be stripped down to just simplified geometry, with absolutely no materials and minimal parameters. I would recommend offering two versions of your families, a "deluxe' version, and a 'stripped down' version

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    Certifiable AUGI Addict Dimitri Harvalias's Avatar
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    Default Re: Families from Manufacturers

    Naming conventions and modeling practices for everything from parameters, to materials to the families themselves can vary widely from office to office, manufacturer to manufacturer and content author to content author. That's part of my original point regarding the 'target audience'.
    At the very least any catalogue of families should include a document that describes, in full detail, what the family will add to a project, what parameters are defined and how they are intended to be used, if they are shared parameters then the SP file should also be included for the end users benefit.
    The most common manufacturer content I see loaded by new users are the Kwaneer mullion families. Users unknowingly load these over detailed, totally non-parametric families into projects without realizing they now have every Duranar and Duracron finish material as well as complete spec section data in their project for each and every one of these families!
    Not cool

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    Thumbs up Re: Families from Manufacturers

    Thank-you! Appreciate the dialog surrounding MFR content.

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