Can Family be nested not in a project?

[Anonymous]

   I am making a couple of lighting fixtures that are wall mounted and my boss who does not know Revit wants me to make each lamp out of three main pieces and combine them together.  I do not have a building project to put them in.

[ToanDN]

Your boss is pointing you to the right direction.  You can make the 3 pieces ans 3 separate families and nest them into a parent family.

Create a Family with Nested and Shared Components

Associate Family Parameters

[barthbradley]

Other workflows that accomplish that same thing (in varying degrees) are Grouping elements together in the project, and building In-place Components. But, the best approach in your case (as far I understand it), would be building families using nested, interchangeable components. 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Toan DN that really helped

[Anonymous]

Thanks Barthbradley. Just before you posted I was trying to search for the answer on different websites and just came across the combine elements Idea. I will try the host family idea right now.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

I have gone over the links and I am unsure of how to make the host family into the host before I nest the others to it

[barthbradley · Accepted solution]

There is no "Host" Family designation per se; except by its unique name. Just build a family and nest other families into it.  

[ToanDN · Accepted solution]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I have gone over the links and I am unsure of how to make the host family into the host before I nest the others to it

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There is no need to make the parent family a host.  It is just a regular family where you load other families (parts) in.  You should set up a set of common reference planes for your families so that you can locate and constrain when you load them into the parent family more easily.

[ToanDN · Accepted solution]

@Anonymous  see screencast for a basic family nesting

[barthbradley · Accepted solution]

Nice, Toan; but I got an even faster workflow. Go to www.cooperindustries.com and download the BIM content for the light you want. 30-seconds top! 

Joking aside, that's what I'd suggest @Anonymous do: download and reverse-engineer manufacturer BIM content.  Ain't no better way to learn in my opinion. Break it apart and put it back together again. 

[Anonymous]

Thanks you guys have really helped me get going.  The last time I used Revit was 8 years ago.  Although I got an A in the class it was long ago and

we used all the already maid library families. We only mad one family and it was a wooden molding decorative piece.

[chrisplyler]

Really? I would think an official class in Revit would be more inclusive.

[Anonymous]

Yes. I meant all the things like windows and doors we got from the library already made.  It was 8 years ago and it was the beginning level class. I ca not remember everything we did in it. We took a CAD plan we made in another class and made a small office building using the cad floor plans as a guide. 

We used the BIm feature to tell things like what carpet and paint is in each room and what wall switches.