Revit Template Creation - How did you start?

[pipapongo0909]

Hi Forum,

The Situation:

I got the position as a BIM Manager ( the job title does not coincide with my knowhow - yet) in a company that has been using Revit now and then about a year.

My job is to organize the BIM and Revit related content. Some families have already been created or modified. At first it was hard to tell what comes from the template and what has been modified.

things that are not in the template:

We work in 3 different languages ( English, French and German) so content from the Autodesk Libraries has been loaded in or the family templates were used to create custom families. This resulted in subcategories in the 3 languages, somtimes even duplicated ( hidden lines, lignes invisibles (F), vedeckte Linien ( D)

To clean this mess and prevent unpredictable behavior i want to start a fresh EMPTY template and setup the stuff i already know about they will need an I want to introduce things like View templates, naming conventions, schedules,....... I will document EVERYTHING. Only a few key users will be allowed to create/insert families or create system family types ( the others shall call) to keep track what is in the template and how everything works.

in my opinion this is essential for

• creating consistent sheets
• managing IFC Exports
• managing Import/ Export to structural analysis softwares

The Questions:

How did you do this?

would you start with an empty template, customize it and load everything in 

or

start with a template from the library and customize it?

personally i would prefer the first option but i am afraid it could be a step back for a while until everything has been set up correctly.

thanks in advance

have a great weekend

[Alfredo_Medina]

I would start with the templates already provided by Autodesk for Architecture, Structure, Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing. 

[millerew17]

Alfredo,

On this same topic, could you give me the steps to take the Revit LT_USI_Residential-Default template and customize a few things? Mainly the title block...it is similar to mine but I'd like to change a few dimensions, delete half of the revisions and then add my logo. 

Thanks!

[Alfredo_Medina]

Open > Revit file > select the template. In the template, find the title block family. Select title block > Edit (or Edit Family) > make the changes, load into project (into the template). Save the template.

[millerew17]

When you say find in the title block family do you mean in the browser under "Families/Annotation Symbols/ D 22 x 34 horizontal ? I may have gotten ahead of myself here and I selected the AO-Basement Plan in the browser Sheets to get a sheet up in my drawing area. I made my changes in the Family Editor and then I saved the changed T-block in a file. Now I have 2 D 22 x 34 Horizontal-Sheet- .  I was asked to overwrite the first one in order to load it?  This is where I stopped. I'll wait for your answer on this before I do anything. I also didn't see any "Duplicate" boxes in the Family Editor that came up automatically. 

[Alfredo_Medina]

Yes, if you want to make a change you have to overwrite the existing.

[millerew17]

I'm getting there!  Thanks