Air terminal family

[brane1012]

Hi all!

I am starting to make air terminal family (ies) and I have question...

Do I need to make two versions of one family - first one (face based?) if I want to put that family directly on walls, ceiling or floor and second one (not face based?) if I want to put that family freely in space or on duct? (I will be puting air terminals mostly on walls, ceilings, etc. of linked models).

So, what I get is one air terminal but two families - first one for walls, ceilings, etc. and the second one which I will use when putting air terminal on duct?

Did I get that ok or I can make one family that can be used for walls, ceilings, floors and also for attaching to the duct?!

Best regards!

[L.Maas]

Face based can be used for most solutions. However placing it freely in space is not really possible. A face based family is attached to face or workplane.

So in those circumstance you could opt for two families.

When I am creating families and not decided to host or not to host. I normally create a non-hosted family. After that I can nest the non-hosted family in a hosted family, pass through some parameters and add some connectors. It will be relatively easy to maintain bothe families without doing a lot of rework.

[Mehdi.Kardehi]

Hi 

For the applications you mentioned I would do the same (two different families) - just make sure they are sharing same sort of parameters to help with air terminal scheduling

Cheers, M

[brane1012]

Are there any online tutorials how to make face based air terminals?

My idea is first to make non-hosted air terminal and then just little bit modify it to be hosted!?

Best regards!

[L.Maas]

What you do is create the non-hosted air terminal family. After everything is working as expected, do the following.

Load the generic face based family template.

Load in your non-hosted family.

Change the category of the generic face based family template to the proper family category (normally Air Terminals).

Add parameters to the family and link the parameters from the nested non-hosted family tot the parameters in the hosted family.

[jkarben]

If only one family is desirable hosting a face based family to a reference plane in free space is a simple solution for "duct mounted" air terminals. However, if you want a grille attached directly to the side of a duct using Revit's "Air Terminal on Duct" a unhosted grille is necessary.

[brane1012]

Do you have any other advice when making air terminals?

Are there any limitations or problems that I am not aware of?

[brane1012]

Hi, it's me again 🙂

I have two more questions about air terminals so if anybody could be so kind to help...

1. What type should be my flow configuration for air terminal? Preset, calculated or system?

I have read that all terminals should be set to preset - so the correct path is to input the flow to air terminal and then duct "calculates" flow from the air terminal?!

But what is then with VAV devices which basically come with predefined flow and then the air terminal "calculates" the flow from the VAV unit?! Do I need to make two types of one family - one for preset (AHU units let's say) and for calculated (VAV units)?!

2. Is it smart to make parameter for supply air temperature and the room temperature so I can later calculate thermal output for the room over air terminal? Or the flow parameter is enough? Is it possible to calculate thermal output of the room over some other schedules (besides air terminal)?! Where can I enter supply air temperature and room temperature?! Can I enter those temperatures manually into schedules or what is the correct way?

Tnx! Best regards!

[brane1012]

:S

[brane1012]

I am having a little trouble with the last task on the list:

Add parameters to the family and link the parameters from the nested non-hosted family tot the parameters in the hosted family.

How do I do that? My biggest problem is when I host the family I lose all of my parameters...How can I copy parameters from hosted family to newly created face based family?! :S

[L.Maas]

You nest the non-hosted family. You place the nested family in the new hosting family. When you select the nested family in the properties windows you will see the parameters of the nested family. By clicking on the small box next to the the parameter you can select to link it to a (new) parameter in the hosted family.

Keep in mind if your parameters need to be instance or type parameters.

Attached a simple example of a face based family with linked parameters.

In this example length, depth and height are linked/paased through to the face based family (e.g. length to dim-length).

In this case used different names for the parmaters in the nested and host family. You could choose the same ones if preferred (i.e. length to length).

[brane1012]

And for new face based family I need to create a new connector and link it to the non hosted parameters?

[L.Maas]

As you wil lhave to create the connectors in the hosting familiy (otherwise they will not work). You can create parameters in the hosting family without furthe linking.