Cannot select "line Styles" in family editor (Revit 2014)

[tbryanm]

I briefly search for this topic and found nothing, forgive me if it has already been discussed.

Why am I not able to select Line Styles in the family editor? This is the case for both creating new families and editing existing ones. See attached image for clarification

[L.Maas]

This is by design (not a bug). The line styles are defined in a project(template) not in the family.

I think it is done so that similar objects/categories will get a similar look in the project and therefore more consistent look and feel. It also prevent that you will get many linestyles in your project when importing lots of families into the project.

[tbryanm]

What you say makes sense. But oddly enough its the inconsistancies that have have me wanting to make line style changes. So, if I define the line styles in my template how does that translate to the object? For instance, I insert a 2x10 detail component and it's perimeter line is just way too heavy. How do I change that?

[L.Maas]

It depends a little bit on your workflow. I tend to work with object styles

In my family, I assign different objects to different object styles. If needed I create additional object styles.

If I insert that family into the project those object styles are carried over to the project.

I can now override the different object styles in my views by making modifications in"Visibility/Graphics Override".

It is even possible to make (some) modifications for each element, by selecting the object, right click, "override graphic in view", "by element".

[tbryanm]

Not really sure what you just said, but thanks anyway.

[L.Maas]

I will try to clarify. I added 5 sccreenshots in a zip file as at the moment I seem to be able to attach one file only. Screenhsot 1 I created a simple detail item family by opening the detail item template. This family template already has some object styles (e.g. heavy lines, medium lines). I made some settings for these (e.g. colors, thicknesses). Because I want to have some extra control I added a new sub-category "Perimeter" and made some initial settings. I assigned to the of my detail different object styles. For example the top line I assigned the "Perimeter" object style. Screenshot 2 I opened one of my project templates and started a project. As you can see this already has some object styles present for detail items. In this project the Heavy Lines have some different colors and thicknesses (compared to the family settings). Screenshot 3 I loaded the detail item into the project. On the left the detail item inside the project, on the right the detail item family. You now see that one of the lines (Heavy Lines) changed. In the family it was dash dot dot and in the project it became thicker and solid. Further you see that the new object style was created in the family is now added to the project. As it did not exist in the project it carried over all the properties from the family. Thus the project settings override the settings from the family. Screenshot 4 In the view of the project I made some changes and selected visbility/graphic overrides. The hidden line is switched off and cahnaged the "Medium Lines" to dotted. Thus the view settings override the project settings. Screenshot 5 I copied the detail item in the view. I then selected the first one and right clicked. Then selected "Overide graphics in view", "By Element". I chose to make lines red. As can be seen, only the left object changed and all lines are now red. The other properties remains the same (e.g. type, color) So here you can override settings based on element. Thus element settings override view settings, view settings override project settings, project settings override family settings. So in your case an option would be to assign your perimeter in your family to a different category. Otr maybe you could make the changes on the project level. I hope this clarifies things.

[L.Maas]

I will come back to my previous post later. Unfortunately at the moment I have problems with the forums resulting in that my message is one long string. I am also not able to attach documents/pictures. As soon as I am able to reply properly I wil get back to this thread. Sorry.

[WHarbison_RY]

Add new line styles in a detail family by:

Manage > Object Styles > Modify Subcategories > New !