Help with Materials

[glkirk]

I am trying to learn more about materials.

Siding in particular.

Seems Revit only has one Siding ("Mat", I think its called)

I have learned a bit about merely changing the color but I thought that a lot of manufacturers were making rvt files of their products.

So, I found this on an Alsides site and downloaded it.

My question is twofold.

1. It seems like its a project inside my regular project. How will I access it now and later in other projects. Can someone help me understand?

2. From what I have, can someone help me understand how to get it into my project on my walls?

Thanks!

[barthbradley]

Use Transfer Project Standard to transfer "their" Materials to your Project -- or add "their" Materials to your "Favorites" Folder (or wherever you save your Materials too) .  

[ryley.g.h]

Can you attach the orginial file from Alside please so that I can take a look?

[RDAOU]

That appears to be a .rvt file with material swatches placed on walls. 

1. Not sure hwat you meant by project in a project but Yes you can Transfer material from one project (the one you downloaded) into another project (the one you are working on) SEE THIS LINK ON HOW TO DO IT

2. After transferring the material (step one) you need to apply it to the appropriate wall layers either A/ in the Wall Type Properties  OR B/ as paint on the wall using paint tool

Im not sure what you downloaded and if the material in it are actually transferable material or decals or just keynote description... If you could upload the file itself instead of a PNG the solution would be easier and quicker if one rules out the guessing.

[martijn_pater]

I think you could just copy-paste from this library file whenever you need one of these materials? Or you could add them to a template, but I'm not a big fan for adding everything to template files... In case you want all of them transfer project material setting as mentioned...

[barthbradley]

@glkirk: The RVT includes Wall Types as well. If you are wanting the Wall Types too. Transfer the lot via Transfer Project Standards also, or as @martijn_pater suggested, keep your Project lean and mean, and Clipboard Copy/Paste only want you want to use in your Project. BTW: materials assigned to Wall Types will copy over with those Wall Types.

[glkirk]

As you can see, there seems to be 2 complete projects here.

The browser shows this.

I am afraid to click anything right now for fear of losing and not being able to find it.

How do i get the new wall (supposedly) into my materials?

[barthbradley]

what do you mean by "2 complete projects here"?

Not following, but Transfer Project Standards and/or Clipboard Copy/Paste are how get "theirs" into "yours". 

...Wow, nice file. I just download it from Arcat.  Got Ceilings too.  It's one file.  

[glkirk]

Heres the file

[barthbradley · Accepted solution]

[ryley.g.h]

If you don't want to clog up a file with ALL the materials, go to the floor plan view on the Alside file, and hit cntl+C on the one you like, and hit Cntl+V inside your actual project file. This will transfer them one at a time, helping keep your material browser lean. This is the same method most offices use for their assemblies (wall, floor, ceiling, ect) as it helps limit the size of your template. For example, I have an assembly file with over 100 different assemblies, and I may only use about 10 in any given project. There is no point in always having all 100 loaded!

[glkirk]

OK, I was able to load the file right into the materials. Very happy.

Then I see that it may be wasting space, So I will bookmark this conversation to get back to it later.

Does it really take up that much space?memory?

Thank you all very much!

[ryley.g.h]

Doing it for one thing won't kill the file. However, it's not good practise because if you start loading in everything of everything, (Mats, assemblies, components, ect) then yes, your file will quickly become bloated. It's the same idea as back in the CAD days where you had a seperate file for each drawing, after a while it starts to run slow.

[martijn_pater]

You can always purge unused (check none)--> other styles --> materials and select to remove any unnescessary materials and/or other types ie., but I don´t see why you wouldn´t just copy-paste from this library what you need like I mentioned above.