Advanced Family Creation Training

[DrakeCanyonArchitecture]

Where would someone go to learn to build advanced Revit Families? I've learned a lot of the advanced techniques like adding formulas, using shared parameters for use in schedules, etc, but it seems that invariably I have families that break at some point. Where would someone go to learn the really deep aspects of family creation? For instance, there are a lot of companies out there that have some very complex families of their products, doors, windows, light fixtures, etc. Whoever built them must have had some formal training. I've gone through some beginner type training on LinkedIn Learning with Paul F Aubin, but can't seem to find anything that dives deeper.

[ToanDN]

From the same author:

https://www.autodesk.com/autodesk-university/class/Revit-Families-Step-Step-Advanced-Concepts-2013

[barthbradley]

I think the best way to learn is by reverse-engineering those families -- coupled by Googling the information pertinent to the immediate task at hand.   

My two-cents worth. That and five bucks will get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks. 😉 

[syman2000]

It is hard to teach because I am not sure if everyone will be master at family creation. Most often only BIM manager or their BIM champion would be the one who create these. For average users, they won't even touch it. I search for youtube advance family creation or learn tips and tricks. Most often I learn from watching short clips and adapt the technique to my family creation.

[RDAOU]

@DrakeCanyonArchitecture 

You will watch a 100 tutorials and read several ebooks and you will feel that you are good and ready. You build a family and it breaks! Why?

1. it comes by practice
2. you learn from your mistakes
3. the conditions are close to unlimited, no tutorial can teach you everything
4. Complex starts with the basics get these right first
5. Googling is not that bad, but if you google something, try to understand the why, where that came from and how can it be put into proper use ... not just copy it. Namely with complex formulas and equations. 

There are lots of blogs and channels out there you can read and learn from. Look for material from 

1. Marcello Sgambelluri 
2. Paul Aubin 
3. Jeremy Roh 
4. Jeff Pinheiro
5. Tim Waldock

[DrakeCanyonArchitecture]

Thank you all for the responses. It's good to know that it's not just me that finds this so difficult. I have had some success of course with a lot of my simpler familes, and even some of the more complex ones. From time to time though, I'll have to build something that I think is fairly simple and it breaks, and it leaves me scratching my head as to how can something that seems like it should be so easy, be so difficult. I had one yesterday that worked fine in the family editor, but as soon as I loaded it into the project, it would break. Which is what prompted me to post here. I thought maybe there was some formal training that you could take to clear things up a bit. I will definitely look further into the advice given here. And take @barthbradley 's 2 cents + 5 bucks to Dunkin Donuts and come out with around $1.50. Lol

[dyp4f]

Family creation is a no rewarding task. Since Revit doesn’t support any kind of copyright / intellectual property protection, anybody can take your families from inside the Model and use them for free, as if they were their own.

One meaningful reason for someone to invest time and effort for advanced families creation, would only exist if you were working for a Manufacturer, and you were specifically paid to create families for their products promotion.

The vast majority of average Revit users (architects and engineers) who are simply trying to do their work, use ready Out-Of-The-Box Revit families, or free content available from Manufacturers.

[Alfredo_Medina]

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@DrakeCanyonArchitecture wrote:

Where would someone go to learn to build advanced Revit Families? 

Have you looked at the Autodesk Services Marketplace?https://servicesmarketplace.autodesk.com/providers?search=&search_within=&service%5B338%5D=338&ci=Al...

[DrakeCanyonArchitecture]

Hi @Alfredo_Medina, I had not even heard of this before, thank you for that link. I see that you are listed in the directory, that's great to know!