Hello group,
I am creating Revit content for a manufacturer of motorized equipment as a contractor using Revit 2011 Architecture. There are many product lines that include hoists, various blocks, arbors, tracks, etc.
Initially I used the company catalog and product and part drawings and models for the information to build the families and the type catalogs. In the family I used the applicable ordering options that someone would use to make a selection, like Recommended Working Load, Gross Capacity, Motor Horsepower, Motor Speed, the electrical stuff like Voltage, Frequency, Phase, Motor FLA, quantity of lift lines, line diameter, and sheave or drum diameter. The type catalog was similar in the content used with the above parameters, except for the electrical stuff, as the first column headers.
After I was well into the project, I was told that all the designers want and need are “place holders” for their designs, and would also not read instructions how to use the families.
Now, I am going back through the created families to remove things to make the families only “place holders”, but am struggling with it because I don’t think that is really what will be required by all. I know what information / instruction was needed at my former employer, where I also created product families and with the required parameters in the families using Revit MEP, and was trying to match that content.
So the first question I have is: What detail is suggested? / What parameters would be suggested? The geometry on the models is very simple for the obvious performance reasons, but from there it was Building Informational Modeling, with what I thought was appropriate parameters.
Would you say for the most part, those using these models will only want “place holders” and not the other BIM information? Then, what information / parameters would you say would be required? Then, what instructions do you think should be offered? I bought a table saw, it came with instructions. I bought a drill press, it came with instructions. We bought a new TV, a better router for our home computer, and a coffee maker, not all at once of cource, but they all came with instructions.
Is there a reliable source for beta testing, someone who would do their due diligence to test the families and provide the, possibly detailed, feedback needed to make this content “top shelf”? Does Autodesk provide such a service? One of the beta testers used at my former employer was a “top shelf” tester who provided that type feedback. I believe I read he went to work for Autodesk but don't remember his name.
Thank you for any advice given, it is greatly appreciated.
I have read that Autodesk Seek provides some kind of service in regards to checking if a family meets a set of standards. You may want to ask Scott Davis, who is surely more informed than me on that.
It seems that in this case there was a lack of communication between you and your clients in regards to level of detail. That needs to be talked about very clearly from the beginning because that affects your time and your profit. They just needed place holders, simple objects with correct dimensions, and you created families with complete information, both in model and data, that they did not need.
About the instructions, I have never seen a family for which a user has to read instructions. Probably you could separate the stuff that you have done so far into levels of detail (coarse, medium, fine), so that if they want "place holders" they would see a simple box in coarse level, and if they want more, they will see the rest in fine mode. That applies well for the model part, not for the data parameters, though.
Yes, Scott Davis works for Autodesk. Please use the search function of this forum and you will find one of his posts.
Based on what you said, it seems to me that you tried to do one of those "all-in-one" families that contain all the possible combinations for a family, hence the need for instructions? The consensus about that in the community is that it is better to have simpler families by type than super-families, precisely because the latter ones are complicated and have a long list of parameters.