SE318 1 Create and Manage Your Revit Structure Contents and Library

8/3/2019 SE318 1 Create and Manage Your Revit Structure Contents and Library

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Create and manage your Revit Structure contentsand library

Damien Legrand AEC Consulting Pty ltd

SE318-1 Learn the process of creating library parts, and organizing and managing your library.Understand the diverse levels of complexity of a Revit family and relate them to a time andresource constraint. This session will cover the different techniques for creating complexparametric families and look at their direct application at a project level. It will also cover thefunctional aspect of a library to suit your work environment (type of work, number of users,etc.). Some of the examples used will include 2D and 3D details, 3D complex elements,and annotations symbols. You will gain the knowledge to optimize your library creation andexpansion. This session will be mainly structural oriented, but will benefit any advancedRevit user and CAD manager.

About the Speaker:Damien is an engineering technical consultant in Sydney, Australia. He graduated with a Master ofEngineering in Material Science from Centrale Nantes, France. He is now focusing on implementing the

Revit technology in engineering firms. Last year he worked with Meinhardt Australia on theimplementation of Revit Structure, which led to a customer success story that was presented at OTC 2008.

[email protected]


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Create and manage you Revit Structure contents and library

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Table 0f Contents

1. Principle of Family creation ________________________________________________ 3

1.1. Different type of family __________________________________________________________31.1.1. System Families___________________________________________________________31.1.2. User Defined Families______________________________________________________31.1.3. In Place Families __________________________________________________________41.1.4. Groups __________________________________________________________________51.1.5. Standard details ___________________________________________________________5

1.2. Creation Process in 3 steps______________________________________________________61.2.1. Geometry ________________________________________________________________61.2.2. Parametric _______________________________________________________________7

1.2.3. Display __________________________________________________________________8

1.3. Advance techniques ___________________________________________________________101.3.1. Nested family ____________________________________________________________101.3.2. Shared Family ___________________________________________________________101.3.3. Formulas ________________________________________________________________111.3.4. Catalog Files ____________________________________________________________11

2. Organization of the library ________________________________________________ 12

2.1. Naming Convention ___________________________________________________________12

2.2. Tree description ______________________________________________________________ 12

2.3. Template ____________________________________________________________________13

3. Development process ___________________________________________________ 14

3.1. Definition of a workframe_______________________________________________________143.2.1. Creation of a Revit Standard for the documentation _____________________________143.2.2. Enhance the documentation production and coordination ________________________153.2.3. Rethinking and adding value to the deliverables________________________________16

3.3. Challenges __________________________________________________________________ 173.3.1. Resources ______________________________________________________________ 173.3.2. Project pressure / timing ___________________________________________________173.3.3. Synchronization between teams and offices ___________________________________ 173.3.4. Integrated workflow _______________________________________________________18


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1. Principle of Family creation

1.1. Different type of family

There are many ways to save Revit contents and reuse them in future projects. From a content developer

point of view it is a matter of understanding the differences between the different family types and decides

on the best way to create a particular content.

1.1.1. System Families

They are the families that live in a project. They cannot be saved as individual ".rfa" files in an external

library.

Typical examples are walls, slabs, rebars, stairs.

In order to create a new system family, you will have to duplicate an existing family and modify the

information.

Illustration 1: Process of creating a system family

Usually the flexibility of a system family is limited as the number of parameters predefined by the type of

elements you are creating.

1.1.2. User Defined Families

They are the families that make your library. Each of them is an rfa file and can be loaded in a project.

Typical examples are beams, columns, foundations but also details components, annotation symbols,

and tags.


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When created a new user defined family, you start with a family template rft that would specify what type

of object you are creating.

Illustration 2: Process of creating a user defined family

User defined family are a lot more flexible as you can fully control the shape and number of parameters

associated.

1.1.3. In Place Families

They are the families you create in a similar way that the user defined families, but they remain in the

project file and are not exportable to the library.

The most current situation where you would use an In place family is when you are modeling a very

specific element, usually very specific to the project and when you need to reference it to some other

element of the structure.


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1.1.4. Groups

Groups are an assembly of several elements that you can make in a project and export to your library.An example is a precast panel. There is no such element in Revit. So we use a combination of user

defined and system families to create a more complex element.

Wall Object to

Model the Panel

Wall Reveal tomodel the chamfer

Lock Constrain tomaintain assembly

when stretching ormoving

Illustration 3: Process of inserting a group and modifying it

1.1.5. Standard details

Standard details and to a certain extend standard detail sheets can also be saved in your library.

You can create a project file with drafting views where you will put your standard details. When you work

on a job and need to import a standard detail, you insert from file the corresponding view.

Illustration 4: Process of inserting a standard detail drafting view


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1.2. Creation Process in 3 steps

Satisfaction

Geometry Parametric Display

Line missingHatching not displaying

Illustration 5: Satisfaction VS Phases of Family Creation Process

1.2.1. Geometry

Revit has 5 ways to generate solid/void shapes. If the geometry you are trying to create is too complex to

be done with one of these methods, you can creat e simpler pieces of geometry and use the join/unjoin

and cut/donotcut tools to rebuild the final assembly.

Extrusion:

Profile(sketched or

preloaded)

Extrusion Depth(start / end)

Blend:

Top Profile (sketchonly)

Base Profile (sketchonly)

Blend Depth (start /

end)

Solid Revolve:

Revolving AxisProfile

(sketched only)Revolve Angle(start / End) Sweep:

Path (Sketch or PickProfile (Sketch or

preloaded)Swept Blend:

Path (Sketch or Pick

Profile 1 (Sketch or

preloaded)Profile 2 (Sketch or

preloaded

Illustration 6: Different way to generate 3D shapes in Revit


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1.2.2. Parametric

The parametric concept is a great tool of Revit and this will allow you to parameter and control thegeometry you are created.

The concept is to create a parameter that you access later on in a project through the element property

dialog and to relate it to the geometry.

Locking the extrusion sketch onto

the reference plane enable to drivethe dimension of the column just by

updating the value of parameterwidth and depth

Creatingparameter to

drive a dimensionbetween two

reference plane

Illustration 7: Creation of a family parameter

Revit makes a difference between type and instance parameters:

An instance parameter should only have an effect on the particular instance you are editing

A type parameter describes a property of several element of the same type.

Instance parameters Type Parameters

Illustration 8: Difference between instance and type parameter

When creating a parameter you also have the choice of a family parameter or a shared parameter.


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A family parameter will relate to a property of the family you are making but wont be able to be retrieved

in a project in a schedule or a tag for example.

A shared parameter can be common to several families and would be accessible for scheduling or

tagging

Shared Parameter can beused across multiple

families which allow you toretrieve this information in

tag or schedule

Illustration 9: Benefit of Using Shared parameters

1.2.3. Display

Once your geometry is created with all the parameters need, you need to make sure that your family will

display correctly on your drawings.

For every pieces of geometry you will be able to set the level of detail, the type of views where it should

be visible.

You can also associate a piece of geometry to a subcategory and use to object style setting once in

project to drive the line type and pencil thickness to be used.

In case these options are not giving you a good result, we can add some symbolic representation to

correct the display.


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The 3D Sweep is visible only atmedium level of detail

The Symbolic representation canbe moved to display Purlin lap

Illustration 10: Example of Display Settings for a Concrete beam Family

As part of the family category and parameters, you will be able to modify some advance properties that

will help drive the general behavior of you family in a project file.

Representation in Plan with

the show Family precut inPlan deactivated

Representation in Plan withthe show Family precut in

Plan activated

Illustration 11: Family Category and parameters Settings


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1.3. Advance techniques

1.3.1. Nested family

When creating Revit contents it can be a good thing to categorize the object by their level of complexity.

For example a bolt would be a low level 1 of complexity and a steel beam with connection plate at both

ends would be a high level 3 of complexity. The idea behind this classification is that you do not have to

create all the geometry in one single rfa file.

You can use existing families and nest them into a more complex family. This process will also allow you

to drive the parameters of the nested family directly form the main family.

The Pile is nested in the Pile Cap.This enables to reuse a family in multiple

other

Parameter of the nested family are driven inthe main family using the = feature of the

element property dialog

Illustration 12: Example of a Nested Family

1.3.2. Shared Family

To extend the nested family concept described before you can share the nested family into the main

family. This will enable you to schedule this family on its own even if it is nested into a more complexfamily.


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The Sharing Option

allow you toschedule everynested familydirectly in your

project file.

Illustration 13: Concept of a shared nested family

1.3.3. Formulas

It is possible to relate to parameter together using a formula. This enable to control the family parameters

with a minimum user input which reduces the chances of mistakes.

Illustration 14: Example of Formulas in a Truss family

1.3.4. Catalog Files

In case you are creating a family that is based on a manufacturer catalog, you do not need to create all

the different type in the family file or the project. You can combine you rfa file with a txt file where you

input all the values from the catalog.


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2. Organization of the library

It is very hard to describe the best way to organize your library as it depends much on the type of work

that you are doing, the number of users within the organization and how much content you have at the

time.

2.1. Naming Convention

A clear and understandable naming convention is essential to allow other users to fully use the potential

of your library.

MH-S-Step Symbol.rfa

Company Name Shortcut

Discipline

S: Structure

M Mechanical

0: Common

Thumbnail : giveuser more claritywhile loading thefamily in the

project

Name as short andprecise as possible

Illustration 15: Example of Naming Convention adopted by Meinhardt Australia

Your naming convention would differentiate your own contents to the one coming from external sources.Renaming contents is the very first step of putting in place a QA system

2.2. Tree description

On a similar basis the tree of your library is a key point of making all your work accessible and useful to

other Revit users. It is necessary that the majority of the Revit users throughout the organization are

feeling comfortable navigating your library

Components or CAD Standards Related

Engineering Discipline

Revit Object Type

Revit Object Subcategory

Material

Engineering Discipline

Revit Object Type

Revit Object Subcategory

Material

Illustration 16: Examples of library roots


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2.3. Template

This presentation is not to describe the way to build up a company template however the template would

contain a certain number of the contents that you have created.

The template is a great tool to make sure that all the families that control your CAD standards are used

widely throughout the organization. All the annotations families that are specific to your company should

be in the template file and used to create section marks, view titles, titleblocks

On the other side it is interesting to limit the number of object that you leave in your template to limit the

size of your template. It is also a way to force user to go and browse the library which eventually help to

maintain consistency in the way the documentation looks.

Standard information is preloaded to

the starting template.

This ensure consistency in thedocumentation

All the project components are to be

loaded as you are building the model.

This make sure that are only using what is

necessary.

Tip: Drag and Drop from the library folder

Illustration 17: Example of families preloaded in the starting template Robert Bird Group Australia


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3. Development process

3.1. Definition of a workframe

When talking about content creation, it is very important to define a workframe for all the work to be done.

They are a lot of circumstances that need to be taken in consideration to make sure that the development

work that you are doing is going to give you the best return on investment.

3.2. Benefits / Goals

Families being the core elements of the Revit environment, there are multiple advantages developing

your own contents. However it is critical to identify what is your first priority.

3.2.1. Creation of a Revit Standard for the documentation

If you are in the early days of using Revit to produce documentation, the very first step is to start building

a library of component that will give you the correct output for your documentation.

On way to start is to modify the object of the default library (the one supplied with the software).

Starting with the defaultZ-Purlin.rfa

Adding two model lineson each side:

line type set to define byinstance

visibility controled by two

parameters Lap1andLap2

Result in project

the purlin displays with thecorrect line type

you can represent the lap

by choosing to turn off or on

lap 1 and 2

Original Customized

Illustration 18: Customizing a family for documentation purposes


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If you are coming from a numerous years of using AutoCAD, it is also a good thing to start transferring

your entire AutoCAD legacy to Revit

By matching yourACAD color to Revit

penweightyou canbenefit from yourAutoCAD legacydrawing

Illustration 19: Example of a library of Standard Details imported from AutoCAD

Tip: Even if you match color and pen weight some issues can still occur:

AutoCAD polylines with a weight are not coming across to Revit

AutoCAD Single Text will loose its formatting while imported to Revit

This ongoing development works very well in a project environment as it is not time consuming and you

can see the immediate result while you are still working on your project.

3.2.2. Enhance the documentation production and coordination

The next step you can reach in your development process would be improving the workflow process of

the design team. This mean improving the time spent creating model and documentation, improving the

ability to adapt to changes

Developing parametric families will allow you to cover multiple situations with the one family. The flexibilityof the family should really be driven by the changes it is likely to accommodate in a project environment.

You do not want to send too much time developing some intelligence that you do not have any use of.

The choice between family/shared and type/instance parameter is critical as it will condition the way you

will manipulate the family in the project.


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Tag Family

Beam Family

The use of the Shared parameter hensure the coordination between

the beam sixe and the text value onthe drawing

Illustration 20: Reducing error risk and improving documentation quality

It is also important to understand that the time you can save in a project is in the model creation and

management through the project life. Things like tiding up your drawing (cropping view, moving text),

creating drawing sheets, are very hard to compress in time.

Your library should also help you reduce the process of checking drawing and marking them up for

inconsistency in the way to represent things. Unlike in ACAD where it is still up to the user to assign the

right layer Revit can take control of this and limit or even eliminate this type of errors.

3.2.3. Rethinking and adding value to the deliverables

As Revit becomes a more integrated platform throughout the organization it can be time to think of

implementing some other aspects of the BIM concept.

Looking at the analytical as pect of the model and putting in place the processes to help engineers

and drafters to share the same model will bring a spectacular improvement in you design

methods

Using 3

rd

party software to do costing on a project will also help in your project managementtasks.


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3.3. Challenges

3.3.1. Resources

One of the first challenge you will face when starting creating and managing content s is the resourcing of

this process. You will need to have in house advance users that will create the contents.

Communication between these power users is a key as it will guarantee a faster development process. It

will also help passing on the knowledge to all the Revit users in the organization. In some companies we

have seen the creation of a BIM committee which is a very positive thing.

3.3.2. Project pressure / timing

Out of all the challenge, the most obvious is the time issue. It is clear that project work will have to be

completed first before spending time on creating contents for the future. This time constrain will limit the

scope of development that we can aim for. If a user is only creating contents on his non production time,

then we can only plan for a very limited development over the years. However if a proper time is allocated

which means the production time will be decrease slightly temporarily, then the result will be much

greater. Of course the development work undertaken should allow the user to do his production task in

less time.

3.3.3. Synchronization between teams and offices

For big organization with several offices in different region, it is a real challenge to make sure that the

development is ongoing in all offices but also that the result of this development is passed back to all

these offices.

MH LIBRARY

MH LIBRARY

MH LIBRARY

MH LIBRARY

State Revit Team Leader

Revit User

National Revit CAD Manager

Head Office (VIC)

Branch Office (VIC)

Deployment of the library on to

the branches offices servers

NEW CONTENTS FOR MH LIBRARY

to be checked and added to the mainlibrary

VIC

SA

QLD

NSW

New Library Parts created byUser or Request for Contentcreation

First QA check by the Team Leader

Final QA check by the Revit CADManager

New Drop of Content on to themain MH LIBRARY

Illustration 21: Multi locations Management System


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3.3.4. Integrated workflow

The key success of the implementation of a solution like Revit is very much related to readiness of the

organization to deal with this change.

Managing director: At this level a clear understanding of the benefits of the Revit technology need

to be acknowledged. As a result the time and cost of such an implementation will be taken in

consideration in the financial activity of the company.

Project director: At this level the technology and its utilization need to make return on the

particularly project they are used on. It is a matter of analyzing on one side the skills of the

resources and on the other side the development work already completed to decide the extends

of the use of Revit in a project.

Project Engineer: At this level a clear understanding of the BIM workflow and consequences indrawing production time and model creation is critical. This will help the engineer to overview the

documentation and plan for drawing issue all along the project.

Project drafter: At this level an in depth knowledge of the software is necessary to set up the job

properly and ensure a continuous production of quality drawings.

CAD / BIM Manager: Navigating between all these roles the BIM manager will build up a

development plan in accordance with the workload and the experience and feed back of people

involved in the production tasks. He will then get his plan approved by the more senior

management.

Documents

SE318 1 Create and Manage Your Revit Structure Contents and Library