Beginner question - Families

[Anonymous]

Hi,

Please see attached photo. 

Ass you can see the model is separated into several families (Concrete-Rectangular Beam, Welded Wide Flange, Miscellaneous Channel, etc..)

I want to place all of this content (all the parts) into one new Mechanical Equipment family. I tried to copy paste between the project and a new Mechanical Equipment family but this din't work.

Kind regards.

[Anonymous]

Autodesk Forge Viewer (more info in previous reply)

[RobDraw]

If it is required that the assembly be a family, I would think about modeling the elements as extrusions instead of using system families. Not sure I would actually do it without being 100% sure that it is required.

[barthbradley]

Group them then. Or Group them and turn the group into a link. But, it still ain't going to be no "brick". There's data associated to all those individual elements.

[Anonymous]

Yes I am overriding the data so it doesn't matter if it's full of data or not. I will do some testing related to your replies.

[Anonymous]

Then we have found the root of the problem Mykita - wrong tool for this job 🙂

Revit was not designed to create "bricks". Doing that actually goes against the very nature of the program. It would be like using 3D Max for drawing a 2D image - yes, it can be achieved, but there are just other programs far more suited for the job.

For instance, building the assembly you have done in SketchUp would take a matter of minutes and actually exporting the model, then importing it into SketchUp - putting everything in one layer and then exporting it from there, might be a way of achieving what you're trying to do.

[Anonymous]

Yes but I am having 73 pieces of "Structural Framing" which is perfectly modeled by a 3D scan. I simply want these 73 pieces to represent 1 family. Or even 1 extruded object. This is what I am trying to achieve.

[Sahay_R]

Put them into their own file and LINK them. Look at my previous post that is somewhere up there.

[ToanDN]

If you want a brick then simply isolate the elements of a "group or assembly" and export them to SAT. Import said SAT and you have a brick. Rinse and repeat.

[barthbradley · Accepted solution]

I was thinking export to dwg.

@Anonymous: send me the 73 elements and I'll show you. Group them and convert to Link and post the Link.

[Anonymous]

Yihuu!

I followed the advice of @Sahay_R to strip down a detached copy of my project so that all it has is the equipment,

and then I exported that model to a .dwg and imported it into the project again. Worked like a charm. Now I have my "brick"!

One question remaining; The imported objects gets the name "Import Symbol". This is not visible in the Project Browser and this gives me a bad feeling related to that I will not be able to change this name ("Import Symbol") ?

[barthbradley]

That's the family: Import Symbol. The type is the name of the sat or dwg

[Anonymous]

Hm, oh so it is a Family, but it isn't visible in the Project Browser under "Families". Can I anyhow navigate to find it?

[RobDraw]

I'm not so sure importing something so complex was such a good idea.

[barthbradley]

Sorry, didn't mean to confuse you. Go to VG Imported Categories Tab. That's where it's listed; not in Browser. 

[barthbradley]

I'm kind of with you Rob, but that's what the boss wants: A BRICK. 

[barthbradley]

...if you want it to appear in browser, then import the dwg file into a Revit family template, and then load that family into the project. Now you'll have an even bigger brick. Good luck. 

[Anonymous]

Hi, sounded like a good solution. However, when I try to import the DWG ("Insert -> Import Cad") into a Family, I get this error:

"Some numerical data within the imported file was out of range. This numerical data has been truncated"

As I hit "OK" nothing happens. Is there any solution to this?

[RobDraw · Accepted solution]

Please see post #33.

I'm not surprised something like this happened. I do everything in my power to keep imported objects out of my projects. Not to say that some of them do convert well and others can be worked with to make into native Revit objects but they can be troublesome at times and even detrimental to a model.

[Anonymous]

It seems like I got it imported but I had to zoom way out to find the object in the project. Anyway, the objects got some strange colors - but it serves my purpose: a "brick".

Another question I had in mind. Is there any way to change a Family into a Group or an Assembly? I mean changing the physical object in the project from a Family (deleting the family) and adding a Group or an Assembly of the same object?