Creating Groups

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I was having a look at groups to make new ones...all worked well, but I wanted to understand, what is the difference between creating a group of elements and creating a component in family...what are the pros and cons for each?

many thanks in advance.

[Anonymous]

Any advise is much appreciated.

Thanks

[Anonymous]

Hi,

Could someone form Autodesk please shed any light on this?

Many thanks in advance!

[LisaDrago]

Well - i am not from autodesk so you can take this with a grain of salt if you would like.

A group is a collection of components that have certain associativity - like a toilet room - you can set the walls, sink, toilet any ADA requirements in a group and use it over and over in any project you want. You can set the specific distances you need and all that jazz.

A Component/Family - is typically one 'thing' - you can create a desk and that is a component. You can create a toilet and that is a component. You typically do not create more then one complete object in a component. 

You can combine all those individual things into a group.

Hope this helps...

LD

[Anonymous]

Thahks for that.

I'm new to Revit so trying to understand how this area of the program work...your reply made more sense to me 🙂

How do you copy groups between projects?

[LisaDrago]

In the project browser you will have a listing for Groups - either Model or Detail - (Model is 3D components and Details is 2D information) you can right click on the specific group and do a Save Group. this will open a dialog box so you can save it to your company library.

I have attached an image of the project browser.

I am glad to help.

LD

[Anonymous]

Got it!

Thanks Lisa...all worked fine.

[LisaDrago · Accepted solution]

Glad to help - 

Don't forget to accept the soultion so people know the issue is resolved.

Have a great night!

LD

[jbc]

To help keep REVIT file sizes manageable our office uses the practice of keeping groups with-in the file to a minimum. Component families especially when there are multiple copies required use a lot less data. On multi storey apartments we might make up a balcony slab with balustrade as a component or a kitchen, bathroom layout for example.

gjettner 

[Anonymous]

This is also a good idea...Similar to how we worked on Microstation using cell libraries.

thanks for all the help.

[Anonymous]

i am curious how you create the components

if you do the balcony, you cannot use floors, railings etcetera

you just model everything?

how will revit handle the schedules then? or just count the balcony as one?

[LisaDrago]

I am a little lost on what you are asking...

In your file you have the balcony floor created the railing created and you can group them together and use that.

Or am i not following what you are asking...

LD

[Anonymous]

gjettner is talking about use as less groups as posible for speed purpose

and use components instead

but i do not know how to make walls, floors, railings etcetera in one single component only by modeling them all

so i want to know how to do that.....

[LisaDrago]

Okay - back on the same page again...

You would have to create all of that separately... some of them are system family's like walls, floors and railings... you would only be able to make them in a project.

LD

[Anonymous]

this is what gjettner wrote:

To help keep REVIT file sizes manageable our office uses the practice of keeping groups with-in the file to a minimum. Component families especially when there are multiple copies required use a lot less data. On multi storey apartments we might make up a balcony slab with balustrade as a component or a kitchen, bathroom layout for example.

gjettner

how to make a layout for a bathroom in a component ? must include walls, maybe tiling floor, components as toilet, shower, bath...

easy to put it in a group, but how to put it in a component???

[LisaDrago]

You would not be able to build all of that in a single component because of system familys like walls and floors - they can only be used or built in a project .rvt file and not a family .rfa file. You would only be able to combine all of those different components in a group which can be exported out and used in a different project. It would be exported as a project file or a .rvt.

Does this make sense or am i out in left field?

LD

[jbc]

I use a generic model family and make the componants up using simple extrusions. If the balcony floor sla is the same material as the floor slab in the main model then the geometry will join seamlessly. the balustrades can take a bit of time to model depending on the complexity of the design. The down side is yes you can not quantify the extent of the balustrade. I keynote the family so I can schedule the balustrade by type. The attached balony familys are a sample of 10 different balustrade designs used in a 30 storey building. I also use a similar method for kitchen layout cabinet famililies. they are not very detailed but at a 1:100 scale for plans and sections these families provide enough information for that scale and when I need to detail the kitchen in more detail I add the detail in 2D as required. Hope this helps clarify my earlier post.

gjettner

[Anonymous]

thanks, this explains....!

i did use this before, but i thought you did something else