In place mass or model in place for lots of plant

[chrishancock]

My company does a lot of work for commercial/agriculture sites that have similar layouts, using small variations of the same plant and equipment. So far these have all been drawn in autocad but im trying to pioneer getting them all into revit.

I want to build up a library of most of this equipment, and im thinking i can save it all in one revit file with everything lined up in a row, square to the page, which can then be used for individual elevations of each item

Ideally i would then be able to copy/paste them as and where needed, in a new revit file which will be the site model, used for layouts and site elevations (possibly pipe routes later down the later).

I have no experience with making families, and some of the equipment requires a lot of detail, and im not sure if its best to model these as in place mass, or model in place extrusions. I have experimented with a bit of both and am having issues where moving the model in place items causes them to go off in different directions, i assume this is because they constrain themselves to points in the main model? I used Formit to model up a couple of the more complicated items and this seems to have worked ok.

Anyway, is what im doing sensible, and should i be doing in place mass, model in place extrusions, or something different altogether?

[syman2000]

I wouldn't use mass or in-place. Use the family template and pick proper template. There is a template for planting and template for specialty equipment. If it require ducting, you can do that in the revit project and use the pipe/duct system family. Once you built your families, you can load it into the project and line it up.

[chrishancock]

Sorry, not planting as in trees etc, but site plant, like process equipment and machinery

[syman2000]

It depends on how complex you want it to be. If it is high level, you may want to check inventor because those are made for equipment modelling. For building and general equipment, this is where Revit comes in handy. Inventor is able to take Revit model and produce high machinery detail and then export as Revit family.

[syman2000]

Also check website like to get BIM content for your need.

https://www.bimobject.com

https://www.arcat.com/

https://www.mepcontent.com/en/bim-files/

[chrishancock]

It is not incredibly detailed, just well enough for some elevations. The attached screenshot is about as detailed as it will get

[ToanDN]

You can create loadable generic model families or conceptual mass families.

[chrishancock]

OK.....so i create a new family (of type generic or conceptual mass), and just sketch what i need in there? And these become the families that i load into my project files?

[syman2000]

That should be hard to achieve. If those are CAD 3d and done in 3d solid, Revit is able to pickup AutoCAD 3d solid and turn it into Revit solid when you explode the CAD.

[ToanDN]

---

@chrishancock wrote:

OK.....so i create a new family (of type generic or conceptual mass), and just sketch what i need in there? And these become the families that i load into my project files?

---

Yes.  

[chrishancock]

I did the above example in Formit

[syman2000]

You can easily import formit object into Revit. Then inside Revit you can copy the object into family to make it into family.

[RDAOU]

@chrishancock 

Which version of Revit and Formit are you using? If you are using Formit Pro, you could save the 3D as a sketch file (AXM) and use the Formit converter to bring the sketch file into Revit.

[barthbradley]

---

@chrishancock wrote:

I have no experience with making families, and some of the equipment requires a lot of detail, and im not sure if its best to model these as in place mass, or model in place extrusions.

---

Don't sell yourself short. Modeling In-Place is no different than modeling in a Family. Six of one, half-dozen of another.  If you have experience making families in the Project environment, then you can make families in the Family environment.  If you want to build all your Families as In-Place, then I would suggest saving them out of the Project to their own Families afterwards via Save As=>Library=>Family.  Still, it might be easier to model in the Family environment from the beginning. You can always load all the Family content you develop into a Revit Project/ Browser and save that Project as your Company Template (RTE) to use to start new Projects.  

[chrishancock]

@RDAOUAutodesk app says i have Formit 2022 pro installed (although it doesnt call itself pro anywhere in the program itself that i can see). I am fairly happy modelling a lot of the stuff in Formit but didnt know if it was best to keep as much as possible in Revit?

@barthbradleyThanks for the vote of confidence, dont families require restraints etc to be set? This is what has put me off trying to make any so far. A company template would be the dream though

[RDAOU]

@chrishancock 

It depends on what you intend to do with such elements/components.

There are many cases/situations where components do not need to be modeled (Geometry/Form) in Revit. It is perfectly fine to simply import them from their native software Formit/SKP/Rhino...etc into Revit either to an In-place component or a loadable component if you plan to use them more often on different projects

• In terms of embedded information, you simply add the necessary parameters to be filled in by user 
• It will not be parametric in terms of dimensions...ie: No constraints are required but the geometry will need to be re-edited in the native software (example: if you model a desk and require 5 sizes, you will have to import each size as an object and set each up with a Y/N visibility type parameter)