How to disassemble family components?

[Anonymous]

Hi, everyone! The beams of each layer of this model are a whole family. Is there a way to break them down into separate components? How to do it? Thank you:)

[barthbradley]

You built you Beam System as a Family? Too bad. If you had built it in the Project, you could easily break it up.  

If the Beam System Family is assembled with nested, shared components, you could Project Schedule to itemize the components (MTO and QTO).  

[Anonymous]

Hi, thank you for your reply. This model isn't mine, I don't know much about it...if it had been bulit in the Project, how to break it up into seperate components? Thank you.

[barthbradley]

If it were in a Project, it would be easy to "break them apart", as you put it.   I don't know how else to put it.  You would readily see a  difference. 

Maybe there's another way to go here. Why do you want to break it up into separate components?  What are trying to do beyond that? 

[Anonymous]

I developed a plug-in to search and modify the information of prefabricated components, so I need a prefribricated model with seperate components. I have tried my best to explore Revit and searche the Internet for several hours, but I really cannot find the solution...Could I send you the model and could you help me try it? It's ok if you mind. Thank you!

[barthbradley]

Sure, post the file here. Maybe we can advise better after seeing it.  I wouldn't able to response back for a few hours, but others might be able to look at it in the meantime, and return some suggestions.   

[Anonymous]

The file is too large to upload(96 MB). I put it in google drive here. There are groups in it, you may need to ungroup them first. Thank you 🙂

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1uHDktmoyKkJT0PsYMN9oopMthl4ojdnd

[barthbradley · Accepted solution]

My recommendation would be to rebuild the entire structure in a Revit Project using Beams and Columns.  I don’t know what your skill level is – or the person that modeled it so far – but I don’t see it taking more than a couple to three hours of work. Definitely not more than a day’s work to get it set up properly within a Revit Project.  If that’s not an option for you, then I don’t know what to tell you. As it stands now, it is not a BIM project – and trying to make it into one from these families is going to cause more headaches than it’s worth.  IMO.   

[ToanDN]

From you screenshot it looks like an imported CAD file so you can break it to Revit beams. If you need to work on it more than just referencing the geometry, rebuild it in Revit using proper families.

[Anonymous]

OK, thank you very much for your reply:)@ToanDN @barthbradley 

[barthbradley]

What did you end up doing? 

[Anonymous]

I rebuilt it:)

[barthbradley]

Good for you. Exactly what I would have done. How long did it take you?  

[Anonymous]

I am new to revit...so it took me about five hours, haha

[barthbradley]

Hey, that's not too shabby. Good for you. You'll have a much better project now.  Less headaches for sure. 

[Anonymous]

Yeah, I feel more skilled now. Thank you:)