Materials in Family Editor

[Anonymous]

I'm modeling a composite beam in the family editor and want to assign materials to different parts of the beam which is comprised mostly of extruded components. I have all the standard materials I need in my model which was set up from an office template but when I open the Material Browser in the Family Editor there is a much more limited selection (see the relative size of the scroll bar in each of the attached picture) and none of the materials I need.

I've reviewed this video from Autodesk which wasn't helpful at all because (as shown in the attached pictures) the material libraries appear to be empty.

I have tried reloading the source files (ie - Open Existing Library > AECMaterials.adsklib) but nothing changes.

I have tried right-clicking on the AEC Materials Folder > Locate Library > AECMaterials.adsklib but I get an error message that says "Located File Is Already In Used By Another Library. Please Select another file."

I just want to be able to apply an ASTM steel material to one of my beam components!!! Is that so much to ask REVIT?!?!?!

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Materials in the Project are going to take priority over any materials in the family itself.

Your best bet is to create a material parameter in your family and assign the parameter to the modeled element.  Then when loaded into your project you can assign a project material to that parameter.

[barthbradley · Accepted solution]

Assign Family Materials -- any Materials, doesn't matter -- to  Material Parameters associated to Geometries in the Family, and then assign a Project Material to the Family's Material Parameters in the Project.  

There is no good reason to define a  bunch of Materials in the Family, but if you must, then use Transfer Project Standards to transfer materials from Project to Family. 

Note: if you leave Material parameters defined as <By Category>, those Materials will adopt the Material you have assigned to the Category under Object Styles in the Project.    

[loboarch]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I'm modeling a composite beam in the family editor and want to assign materials to different parts of the beam which is comprised mostly of extruded components. I have all the standard materials I need in my model which was set up from an office template but when I open the Material Browser in the Family Editor there is a much more limited selection (see the relative size of the scroll bar in each of the attached picture) and none of the materials I need.

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This is expected behavior. Materials available in the materials browser (the upper portion of it where you are taking about the scroll bar) are the materials available in the current project or family. Typically a project is going to contain MANY more materials than a family would. Family templates have only a handful of materials loaded. If you want to use a specific material and assign it in a family directly, you will need to search and load that material from a library.  Looking at your screen shot it appears your libraries are not loaded/or the path to the library is compromised somehow (note the yellow triangles in the library section).  If you can get the yellow triangle situation worked out either by getting default libraries installed or pathed correctly, then you should have not problem loading the material you want to use.

It may however be better as other have suggested to connect the geometry material to a parameter, then you can assign WHATEVER material you like once the family is loaded into the project. 

[Anonymous]

Thanks, Jeff. I'm going to have to figure out why I can't appear to relink the materials libraries. But that's a forum discussion for another day...