New Family Categories Or System Family Category Improvements

[Anonymous]

At the moment it is not possible to create families that should live in a sub-category of the Wall, Roof or Floor Category, even though we can create in-place versions of these families. Being able to create component families for these categories is important for creating families that we currently have to create using the generic model category, such as, Composite roof panels, composite wall panels, rainscreen panels, rainscreen brackets, fall arrest systems and raised access floor components. We need to create these as components rather than creating parts from the in-built walls, roofs or floors so that we can schedule the required orbering information from the modelled components and so that the model components can contain the relevant product data for down-stream use by FM as a digital O&M manual.

I see two possible solutions,

1. Provide templates that allow the generic model template to be set as a sub-category of the Walls, Roof or Floor category.
2. Create additional Revit categories such as Wall Components, Roof Components & Floor Components that can be used to hold these families. These new schedules require the same abilities as other top level categories and allow the same scheduling capabilities as other categories. 

It would be a bonus if we could filter the schedule by Family, Family&Type, Type and sub-category rather than just sort a schedule by these values.

Darren

[arkelec]

Can we also have better categorisation for MEP items (especially Electrical).

Possibly also add "Service Void" to the categories is the post by dazza1639 post.

[jkidder]

I agree, there are lots of things that the system families don't handle well, and as generic models then requrie extra filters to hide.  Mechanical curbs and roof crickets are two families that would be nice as roof elements.  There are also wall details, such as a stucco relief, that need to be used over and over again and therefore don't work as an in place family.

[casquatch]

I think if we could do more with sub-categories this would help. Anything we can do with a main category, it would be nice to do with a sub-category. Filters, schedules, etc. Yes, you can get around some of this with filter rules and schedule filters, but the main thing that I see a benefit from would be applying parameters.

Say for mechanical equipment. This is an extremely broad main category (like walls, roofs, etc.). There are so many things that fall under this umbrella. Sure, we can make many sub-categories, but this is only useful for hiding things in a view or overriding those specific subs. That isn't much. I'd like to be able to filter by a sub-category, or make a schedule that is specific to just ONE sub-category. And better yet, I want to be able to apply project parameters to a sub-category.

If this was possible we'd be able to eliminate many of the issues with swapping out content from one manufacturer to another mid-project. The only thing we'd really have to do is make sure that that content was on OUR specific sub category.

I'm sure there are some implications that I'm thinking of that wouldn't work, but it seems like it would be a nice addition. Any thoughts?

[david.burow]

Came here to post this exact idea.  To compound the issue, a large percentage of Family Categories are "uncuttable" so it's not possible for them to display properly in our drawings.  So everything gets assigned as Generic, assigned to random subcategories (or none) and our View Templates become a waste.

[pbdbdq]

Agree with this and there has been some progress made on similar idea:

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-ideas/more-categories-in-loadable-families/idi-p/8698001

@david.burowAgree with the need for cuttable families, you may wish to vote for (now included in the roadmap):

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-ideas/cuttable-vs-non-cuttable-families/idi-p/6455662

[PieterL_TM]

We should be able to create a family with the category 'wall', 'floor' or 'roof'.