Family Thumbnail Defaults

[Ryan_Williams-MRB]

Change the default behavior of thumbnails, especially for families. For the thumbnail, it would be great to turn off the reference planes and reference lines, hide dimensions, and turn on Preview Visibility. That way a maximized version of the family is saved instead of a blurry green crosshair that is useless. It is time-consuming to manually go into each family, turn these items off, turn on Preview Visibility, and save the file just to get a clean thumbnail for users to see. It would be great if the thumbnail could be clearer too. 

[Ryan_Williams-MRB]

Change the default behavior of thumbnails, especially for families. For the thumbnail, it would be great to turn off the reference planes and reference lines, hide dimensions, and turn on Preview Visibility. That way a maximized version of the family is saved instead of a blurry green crosshair that is useless. It is time-consuming to manually go into each family, turn these items off, turn on Preview Visibility, and save the file just to get a clean thumbnail for users to see. It would be great if the thumbnail could be clearer too. 

[barthbradley]

[barthbradley]

[Ryan_Williams-MRB]

That just refreshes the thumbnail based on the selected view. If that view has reference planes and dimensions, it's often impossible to tell what the family looks like. 3D families probably work better defaulting to a 3D view. I've been updating my firm's annotations, and I have to do a bunch of work to optimize the only view for a clean thumbnail.

[Ryan_Williams-MRB]

That just refreshes the thumbnail based on the selected view. If that view has reference planes and dimensions, it's often impossible to tell what the family looks like. 3D families probably work better defaulting to a 3D view. I've been updating my firm's annotations, and I have to do a bunch of work to optimize the only view for a clean thumbnail.

[barthbradley]

Why don't you just uncheck the Annotation Category for the Thumbnail View?  

[barthbradley]

Why don't you just uncheck the Annotation Category for the Thumbnail View?  

[Ryan_Williams-MRB]

I do. It's work I would like Revit to eliminate so it just saves a clean thumbnail without extra thought--especially when users go in to create families. I realize I meant to post this in the ideas forum, not discussion forum. I'll be reposting there when the 1-hour re-post blocker is lifted.

[Ryan_Williams-MRB]

I do. It's work I would like Revit to eliminate so it just saves a clean thumbnail without extra thought--especially when users go in to create families. I realize I meant to post this in the ideas forum, not discussion forum. I'll be reposting there when the 1-hour re-post blocker is lifted.

[mhiserZFHXS]

How would Revit know what you want your thumbnails to look like if you don't tell it?

If you really want to make it a more efficient process, go into all of your family templates and add a new 3D view dedicated to the thumbnail. Set all of the V/G settings to whatever you want. Then all you'd have to do for new families is orient the 3D view how you want.

[mhiserZFHXS]

How would Revit know what you want your thumbnails to look like if you don't tell it?

If you really want to make it a more efficient process, go into all of your family templates and add a new 3D view dedicated to the thumbnail. Set all of the V/G settings to whatever you want. Then all you'd have to do for new families is orient the 3D view how you want.

[barthbradley]

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@Ryan_Williams-MRB wrote:

I do. It's work I would like Revit to eliminate so it just saves a clean thumbnail without extra thought--especially when users go in to create families. I realize I meant to post this in the ideas forum, not discussion forum. I'll be reposting there when the 1-hour re-post blocker is lifted.

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Search the Ideas Forum. I'm betting the Idea has already been fielded. If so, you can just vote on an existing one -  then go back and figure out a way to deal with it in the meantime.  Perhaps by writing a new Company Policy: "Thou Shall Not Save a Thumbnail View with Annotations".  😉 

[barthbradley]

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@Ryan_Williams-MRB wrote:

I do. It's work I would like Revit to eliminate so it just saves a clean thumbnail without extra thought--especially when users go in to create families. I realize I meant to post this in the ideas forum, not discussion forum. I'll be reposting there when the 1-hour re-post blocker is lifted.

---

Search the Ideas Forum. I'm betting the Idea has already been fielded. If so, you can just vote on an existing one -  then go back and figure out a way to deal with it in the meantime.  Perhaps by writing a new Company Policy: "Thou Shall Not Save a Thumbnail View with Annotations".  😉 

[MetalFingerz]

Hello @Ryan_Williams-MRB ,

There are addons like PIG that helps creating proper thumbnails, basically, you can have a template per Revit category and each time you save, it follows the template you defined. If you make or manage plenty of families, it's pretty handy to be honest.

[MetalFingerz]

Hello @Ryan_Williams-MRB ,

There are addons like PIG that helps creating proper thumbnails, basically, you can have a template per Revit category and each time you save, it follows the template you defined. If you make or manage plenty of families, it's pretty handy to be honest.