Combine Revit Families without nesting them

[c54S4DF]

Hi Everyone,

I am a Mechanical and Electrical Consultant Engineer who is relatively new to Revit and new to the forum.

I have received a Lift Family from a supplier and I want to simplify it as the level of detail within this Family is not required.

The family currently has families nested within families and families nested within those families all the way down to families even for the wall brackets. I want to remove the holes in these wall brackets as they are not necessary for my level of modelling.

I want to combine some of these families into one without nesting them to reduce the file size as the Lift Family is currently over 30,000KB. I also want to do this so I can add Parameters to the family such as the Lift Car Travel Distance which will then determine the length of the Guide Rails and the Number of Wall Brackets needed. 

Is it possible to combine these families together so the extrusions in each family is now in only one family?

I hope this makes sense.

I look forward to your replies.

[Simon_Weel]

Hi @c54S4DF, you posted your question in the Ideas forum. I think you have more luck for an answer in one of the other forums.

[mhiserZFHXS]

I agree this is more of a architecture/MEP forum issue.

However, I wouldn't even bother with this family unless there is a darn good reason why you need this exact manufacturer model. Sounds like a lot more needs to be cut out of it than just the holes in the wall brackets.

And this is why I only use online resources and manufacturers for families if I am in a big time crunch. Making families yourself is a far better practice.

[pphillips]

Although Revit is seen an an Architectural program we use it for shop fitting purposes (10,000 - 80,000 sq.ft). We link the building in then place revit built furniture families. These are custom builds - unfortunately in some cases running a hundred or more types using a type catalogue. Due to nested upon nested families these can pop between 20-30mb for the final piece. We have multiple fixtures - all with separate part codes that can be called off in a schedules. It all works but its heavy.

I agree, I'd love to either potentially nest in a family that's not required to be seen, without the file weight or nest in a family that needs to be seen without the weight but just houses the part number.

I have seen some amazingly detailed drawn furniture units but the file size is unusable.