What's the best way to make a Door/Window Assembly

[clintr]

I'm a new Revit user coming from ADT. In ADT it was really easy to make a Door/Window Assembly but w/ Revit if I use a Curtain Wall, then I can't tag the window as a window, I only get a Wall Tag. We use the same Door/Window Assemblies in every project. How is everyone doing this so that they can be tagged appropriately.

[clintr]

The other problem w/ Curtain Walls is that you can't copy it and use it over again. There has to be a easier way.

[Mr Spot]

You can swap out the panels to use families that are defined to door and window categories. For the actual wall I'd tend to use a multi-category tag and use that to tag my windows and doors as well, that way i can separate my aluminium schedule from a conventional door schedule...

[clintr]

Mr. Spot,
Hey, thanks for the response. I understand what you are saying about the Curtain Wall Door/Window Families, but I need to play around w/ it some more.

Clear something up for me, if I understand this correctly, everytime we want to create a Door/Window Assembly I need to create a Curtain Wall, make grids inside of it and then change the panels out to Doors & Windows. Is it possible to make a Curtain Wall that is reusable w/o having to redo the work everytime?

I feel like I'm missing something as everything in this program tends to be somewhat straight forward, but this is "blowing my mind up"! Do you have an example that might clear up my confusion w/ a multi-category tag, I can't find one of those anywhere?

Thanks,
-C

[patricks]

Mr. Spot,
Hey, thanks for the response. I understand what you are saying about the Curtain Wall Door/Window Families, but I need to play around w/ it some more.

Clear something up for me, if I understand this correctly, everytime we want to create a Door/Window Assembly I need to create a Curtain Wall, make grids inside of it and then change the panels out to Doors & Windows. Is it possible to make a Curtain Wall that is reusable w/o having to redo the work everytime?

I feel like I'm missing something as everything in this program tends to be somewhat straight forward, but this is "blowing my mind up"! Do you have an example that might clear up my confusion w/ a multi-category tag, I can't find one of those anywhere?

Thanks,
-C

Maybe I missed part of it, but there are door and window families that you just place in a wall, no need to create curtain walls, grids, etc etc.

Also a curtain wall/storefront can easily be copied. I do it all the time.

[clintr]

Maybe I missed part of it, but there are door and window families that you just place in a wall, no need to create curtain walls, grids, etc etc.

Also a curtain wall/storefront can easily be copied. I do it all the time.

Yes you are right there are door and window families, but I want a combo one that I can customize the layout of the window grid/pattern to be a office standard and not have someone have to create a Curtain Wall grid everytime and screw it up.

The curtain wall storefront may be able to be copied around once you make it but we are looking for a certain look/style, so you have to first create one and that's where the problem lies, I need it to be more automatic than that. Nested Families appears to be the way to go to achieve this. It seems to be just like ADT's Door/Window Assembly feature.

Thanks
-C

[greg.mcdowell]

I think what you'll be wanting to do is make the door/window assembly a family, or series of families as the case may be, with nested and, I think, shared window and door components. It's the closest you're going to get to ADT's methodology and really not that different if you take the time to properly parametrize (That is a word isn't it?) your family including some arrays to add/remove mullions as necessary.

[clintr]

I think what you'll be wanting to do is make the door/window assembly a family, or series of families as the case may be, with nested and, I think, shared window and door components. It's the closest you're going to get to ADT's methodology and really not that different if you take the time to properly parametrize (That is a word isn't it?) your family including some arrays to add/remove mullions as necessary.

Yes that sounds like what I want, but how do I make a door/window assembly a family. Do I use a Door Template or a Window Template? Do have an example?

[Mr Spot]

Yes that sounds like what I want, but how do I make a door/window assembly a family. Do I use a Door Template or a Window Template? Do have an example?

It all depends how you want to schedule it.

To create a nested family door and window component you would setup each of the families to be nested to have "shared" counting in their "settings-->family category and parameters".

That way any door or window included in this assembly will also be scheduled as a separate component in the project.

For example you place one of these new compiled door and window elements in the project. Each of them have 1 door and two fixed glass windows. If you place 3 of these in your project, in you door or window schedule you would have 3 doors and 6 fixed glass windows, make sense?

Alternatively if you want the whole element to schedule as one item, then I'd change the nested door and window families to be generic models and then nest them into a door or window template depending on what the final schedule was going to be.

You could setup a cut & paste template project of your presetup curtain walls... Most of mine tend to be quite different so i'm happy with just having the appropriate mullion profiles and panels loaded ready to swap out when needed. If there are a lot the same, then a compiled family is probably your best bet.

HTH.

[clintr]

Wow this stuff is way more complicated than they show you in the demos and training classes. I've been reading about nested families and that makes a lot of sense. I'll give it a shot, thanks for the help.