Revit Family Name staying constant through multiple Informed design variants

[matthewlenehan542]

Hi All,

I have the "Family Type Name" working and dependent on the variant, I have a query regarding the "Family Name", which by default is the Inventor file name as far as I can tell. What happens my models at the minute is when a user generates a new variant in Revit the following happens.

Variant 1: Family Name = Pipe_Support_TypeB

Variant 2: Family Name = Pipe_Support_TypeB_1

Variant 3: Family Name = Pipe_Support_TypeB_2

In this case the "Family Name" in Revit is different for each variant.

Revit Makes a new family for each variant. I would like to have just the one "Family Name", with the various "Family Type Name" that are dependent on the properties of the variant

So for example Variants 1-3 would all have the same "Family Name" = "Pipe_Support_TypeB" with different "Family Type Name" that are variant dependent.

Thanks a mill,

Matthew

[matthewlenehan542]

@PaulMunford Hi Paul, maybe you could help with this? No rush, thanks a mill

[gareth_spencer_adsk · Accepted solution]

Hi @matthewlenehan542,

Thanks for the great question. 

When Informed Design generates a family it creates a new variant each time from the product definition. This results in a new family being created,  which is then named sequentially as FamilyType1, FamilyType2, etc.

As you may know, if you model a family within Revit, you can add multiple types to choose from within the Revit family. This is controlled by Revit parameters, such as changing lengths, switching things off, etc.

Informed Design does not create a physical Revit family with Revit-generated forms. Instead, it places the Inventor model within a Revit loadable family, which is non-editable. Thus, when new variants are generated, a new variant is created each time.

I hope this helps answer your question.

[matthewlenehan542]

Hi @gareth_spencer_adsk,

Thanks for this, yes it answers my question all good, just have a follow up the regarding this.

Is it possible to drive the Family Name off the dimensions/ features of each new variant created, I see there is no facility to do this in the BIM definitions tab in Inventor, I'm wondering do you know of a workaround of any kind?

Thanks a mill,

Matthew 

[PaulMunford · Accepted solution]

Hi @matthewlenehan542 

From the help:

'Family Name

Enter a Family Name for the Revit Family that will appear in the Revit Project Browser in the Category assigned.

The default Family Name is automatically set to the file name of the Base Model in Inventor.'

(Link) BIM Definition Add-in: Family Name 

You can give your family a unique name, but it can't be automatically updated like the Family type name.

Is this how you expect BIM properties to work? Please give us your feedback via the Informed Design Ideas forum.

[matthewlenehan542]

Hi Paul,

Thanks for helping clear this up for me. I've made a post on the Ideas forum, hopefully something along the lines of what I suggested comes in in the future. Thanks again, Matthew

[PaulMunford · Accepted solution]

Thank you @matthewlenehan542 😀

Here is a link to Matthews's post on the Informed Design Ideas forum for anyone who wants to follow along!
BIM Definition Family Name Constant