10 Jul

Rotate Revit® family into any direction

Don’t you hate “Can’t rotate element into this position.” error message in Revit?

Let’s say you need to rotate element into a position in which Revit will not let you. There is a simple solution, but it includes creating additional family.

For our example we will take a book family with “Always vertical” parameter turned on. It does not matter, we do not need to switch it off. Read More

07 May

How to save system family as external loadable family

As you already know, there are three kinds of families in Revit®: system families, model-in-place families and external (loadable) families (also know as .RFA files).

Some Revit® categories are exclusively system categories (families of those categories can be created only in project environment), for example: Walls, Stairs, Floors and similar categories. There are, however, hybrids (can both have system and external families in the same category), for example Structural Foundation categories but they are topic for some other time. Read More

05 Sep

Dynamo: Copy values between Revit® parameters

To copy values between different Revit parameters quickly, use Dynamo script. Let’s say that we entered information (parameters values) into many Revit family instances in our project just to realize that it should be on another place (in another parameter). Or we change our minds during the project (it happens).
So, in order to do the boring task of copying parameter values to another place quickly, let’s use the power of Dynamo.

The script is simple, it just uses Element.GetParameterValueByName and Element.SetParameterByName methods to get and set the values.
All you need to do is: Read More

13 Feb

Change Revit® family level reference without moving elements

Changing reference level of Revit family instance can be painful, especially if you do not want to move an element, just change the reference.

For particular object it’s not a big deal, just calculate the offset value, change the level and enter new offset value, the object will go to the same place it were.

But, what if we have several, if not hundreds of such objects. On different heights (offsets) and referenced to different levels? That could take some time to adjust (re-reference). And it’s prone to errors.

Even worst case is with conduits, pipes, cable trays, ducts and similar objects which have point objects (fittings), and linear objects (ducts, pipes etc.) with or without Read More

12 Jan

Cuttable vs. Non-Cuttable Revit® Categories

If a family is cuttable then the family displays as cut when the cut plane of a view intersects that family in all types of views.

In Family Editor, click visibility-settings to open Element Visibility Settings dialog. There is an option called When cut in Plan/RCP.  (RCP is short for Reflected Ceiling Plan)

visibility-settings-dialog

This option determines if family geometry is shown when the cut plane intersects that family. Family can be cuttable only if it’s Category is cuttable. How can we know which Revit categories are cuttable and which are not? Read More