How to create a library of furniture
The best way is to create your own furniture objects as 3d Revit Families.
Anyway , you can import .dwg files ( with layers for each distinct material) into Revit Furniture Family and then load it into Revit project. The problem with these method is that you can not use other parameters except those of material ( if you have allocated these to different layers in AutoCAD).
The Revit families can be gathered into a "library " in a .rvt file where from you can bring using Copy/Paste into your your project.
You can see below one of my "library" file. You can bring only the types that are shown into the project.
If you have multiple types of the same family ,then you can use Family Types tables (.txt files) ,to import only the desired types of a family.
You can see below how to Export a bunch of Family Types into a Family Type .txt file :
and how a Family Types table looks when loading family with this:
Constantin Stroescu
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- I have a range of office furniture called Ambus.
Within that range are different types of furniture: rectangular desks, corner desks, tables, storage etc.
Within each of those types are different sizes and options: desks with panel ends, desks with metal frames, different lengths etc.
- Have a look in real life.. A furniture fabricator can produce a large variety of different shapes and dimensions of products: desks for instance, as you mentioned above...They can be assembled together making so, office cubicles. Those families you've enumerated above can be included one into another ( known in Revit as Nested Families) so to obtain finally that cubicles. All these families can be scheduled and extract not only there number, family names and types but also their geometric and material parameters, fabricators name and other non geometric qualities. These schedules can then be saved as external files ( as Excel) and use further in facility management process for instance.
- If the family is made entirely in Revit , then all these parameters can be set correctly. You can insert in your project a family that contains multiple types. As an example : a Living Room Table Family, that can can have several types: type:1400x900x860mm with Length of 1400mm, Width of 900 mm and height of 860 mm, type:1800x1000x860mm wiyh Length of 1800mm, Width of 1000 mm and height of 860 mm, etc. All these types of the same family can be Exported As Family Types .txt as shown in my previous post.
- If the family relies on an imported CAD file then the number of parameters are limited to material ( with the condition that the CAD has different layers for each material), number but no geometric parameters (they do not flex) - Many chair and sofa families are made by this method because they usually do not need to have multiple dimensions and as an advantage they could look better in rendering when showing wrinkled materials (fabric or leather)
For a better understanding have a look on Paul Aubin's AU class( handouts and video):
Constantin Stroescu
