Is there a Type Catalog limit/max?

[dkindt]

Is there any limit of how many lines should be included in a Type Catalog?

I know that you can have as many lines as you want, but are there any negative effects of having too many?

I'm thinking about file performance (which I don't think will be effected) as well as other reasons to possibly limit the amount of lines. I'd like to include all of the sizes etc that are offered with the specific model in the Type Catalog, if there is no downside to having a lot ~150 lines?

Thanks. 

[ToanDN]

No per se.  However, be selective when you loading in Family types from a type catalog into a project.  Don't highlight the entire table, choose only what you need and load

[barthbradley]

What I want to know, is how many Types can you into a Project load at one time without Revit throwing this message:

That's the question that keeps me up at night.   

😉

[RDAOU]

@dkindt 

Length of the catalogue does no impact on the performance. However, it would be quite irritating to find the right types to load in a list that long. Be merciful and split it when and if you can...Say pipes for instance, you could create a catalogue with 200 entries and have all the pipe sizes in the world (metric and imperial) and in every single available material (PVC, copper, steel galvanized, black steel, stainless steel, ....etc) and for all types (Welded, press fit, threaded...) but ideally you would split it into several families/catalogs and have 20 per each!

You should see it as a restaurant menu

• If it is too long with a 100 dishes, it gets you confused what to pick (user experience)
• You can always pick everything on the menu, most probably wont be able to eat it all and if somehow you managed, you wont be able to digest it (Revit throws it up back at you)
• While a the food quality on a short menu is not 100% guaranteed, it low quality of the food on the long menu is inevitable. (Maintaining huge type catalogues is or will at one point be problematic)
• Once you pick your starter, main and dessert the menu is gone; but of course you can ask for it again 

"Divide and Conquer"

[GJennings-BM]

I created a video to show what happens with Revit if you create an extreme Type Catalog with 47,250 family types.   The video shows the impact with load times, save file cache, and how to avoid family kb growth issues.

https://youtu.be/COqKmm6n0EA

Revit has no problem with massive catalogs, but speeds do slow down significantly during family load and saving families.  I also recommend Type Catalogs should not exceed 200 hundred items.