I ran across a "hack" a while back which I posted on the AUGI forums, and thought I'd add it here too.
We all know that we don't have rft family templates at our disposal for some system families such as walls, roofs, ceilings and floors. But using the following technique, you can create a template for any system family category that is available as an in-place family:
a) In a project, create an in-place family of the category you desire. For example add a simple extrusion, but then do not exit from Family Editing mode;
b) Group the solid;
c) Go to the project browser under Groups and save out this group. Notice that it will be saved as an rfa file;
d) In Explorer, rename the extension to rft. Now you can use this template to create custom parameterized walls for example, that can be re-used from project to project. If you had any geometry that you do not want in your template, make sure to delete it before you rename the file.
It is important to note that you place this family using the Component tool or straight from the family editor by dragging the family, which will be located under the corresponding category. The family itself will not report what category it is when you go to the Family Category and Parameters dialog. See this little video clip for how simple it is to get this done. Enjoy!
RFT Family Template for System Families
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13 comments:
Very, very good!!!! Certainly made me smile. :)
That's good news =) You never know when something like this might become useful to someone...I personally like uncovering this stuff!
Has anyone found a use for this? I can't seem to think of one. If, for example, you want to reuse a ceiling, why not group that instead of the 15 extra steps here. Maybe I'm missing the point.
Well, you do this once and from there on, you have a template. If you feel there's a better way to achieve your goals, then that's perfectly acceptable :)
I don't see how a group is any better....you still have to save it out and then link it/import it back into another project. By having a template, you can create re-useable, parametric families. Performance is also typically better with families vs groups. I think one of the primary uses would be to have your own, reuseable battered wall families for example. Or sloped walls. For ceiling, you could create "furrdown" families for example, complete with vertical sides and bottom sides. I've used a similar family in the past for repetitive arched furrdowns, but I had to use a Generic Model family back then. With this technique, I could build the same parametric family, but in this case it would actually be recognized as a ceiling.
hi dave,
i know this is off the subject.
when creating a Jing video the only way i can see to adjust the display size is adjust the size
of my display. i saw not info on the wedsite help on this. so i was wondering if you knew of any
other way or is my assumption correct.
Not a problem :)
I use a free little app called "Sizer", which you can download from the site below:
http://www.brianapps.net/sizer.html
I don't mess with my screen resolution. With this app, you can right click on the window you want to capture and select the resolution you want. The window gets sized to your selection. The videos I posted so far were set to 1024 x 768, while my laptop display is 1920 x 1200 pixels. Then with Jing, I just click on the Revit window and it sets the capture size automatically.
thankx dave
Resizer works great
Wonderful trick Dave!
But i got stuck trying to host doors/ windows in my custom wall family. Revit gave the following error:"There is a circular chain of references among the highlighted elements."
You have any idea where i went wrong?
thank you for your help
i tried to do that on a wall as an example and i was able to make wall template family
but there is a problem with some elements like stair ,cable tray...
the problem is :
when you want to create a new in place family you should determin which family category you want
but some category don`t existed in the list like stair and cable tray
what can we do in this case?
Hi, is it possible to add a room calculation point to this new wall family?
Hi Jasper, you cannot as it's not an available option in this case. That is reserved to only certain categories. Back a couple years ago the Factory exposed that functionality to additional categories that were not part of MEP (which is where the functionality originated), such as doors.
I failed to reply to some other comments, my apologies! I'm not sure what the problem is with hosting doors and windows in mohit's case. I can host just fine as of Revit 2015 without any errors (even tried on a non-uniform wall). I wouldn't be suprised if this workflow failed in some cases though since it is a hack after all.
Ahmad, you cannot create templates for categories that are not available to model in-place. In that case, using Generic Models is the only way to go. Then you can build filters that work with them (ex: via Assembly Code parameter etc.) for further flexibility in visibility and graphics control.
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