Dissasembling a Family after Importing

[mellissa.thorpe]

I'm working on switching from CAD to Revit as my main program. Previously, in CAD, I have a block set of ADA compliant public bathroom options that I would load into my DWG, explode the block, chose the best fit option, insert it into my drawing and explode/edit if needed. Is there a way to do something similar in Revit? I work on commercial projects and don't want to spend time making a restroom for each project with all the required clearances. 

If I make a family for each bathroom option to load into my project, is there a way I can "explode" (like CAD) to edit anything if needed. For example, if I create and load in a "bathroom option A" and have more room in the space to make the restroom larger, could I edit that bathroom (without changing the original family) and move a wall out to make it larger?

If anyone has any other suggestions of other ways to go about this, I'd love to learn!

[barthbradley · Accepted solution]

There's several approaches, but we don't "explode" anything in Revit.  Sounds like you want parametric families. Easier said than explained though.  ...

Honestly, if you are just starting with Revit, I keep it simple and build the configurations with individual system and loadable family components in the Revit Project environment and then Group each configuration that gets reused .  You can Save Groups out of the Project individually to their own RVT and then load them into other Projects as needed.  

....you can drill down from this Link.  Note "Save Group" topic.  

 https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/revit-products/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2020/EN...

[mellissa.thorpe]

Exactly! I'm not sure what the term is, I know "explode" wouldn't be correct, but is there a way to disassemble a family within the project so that I can edit it manually without going into the family editor and changing that original file? Or do I need to (or should I rather) specifically create a parametric family that allows me to flex the dimensions of a wall beyond a set minimum distance.

[ToanDN]

You can't explode a family but you can create parameters to locate components to different configurations, or turn them on/off, or swap from one type to another. In theory it may sound great and all but it does require a lot of time to setup. I rather keep it simple: create each configuration as a separate family.

[barthbradley]

One point for clarification: Walls are System Families, not loadable Families.  Two different animals.  Walls only exist in the Project environment.  That's why I think Grouping is the best approach for you.   Regarding "disassembling"; you can "ungroup" a group.  Basically, that's "disassembling".