Revit Families

Does anyone know of any Great books, or websites that would help me grow on the family aspect of REVIT? I can make families and add very few parameters. I understand how extrusion, blend, rotate ect... all work but I am looking for something that will help better explain more complex family and mass elements. It is getting a little frustrating only being able to do ab out 1% when I know how REVIT can be.

Does anyone know of any Great books, or websites that would help me grow on the family aspect of REVIT? I can make families and add very few parameters. I understand how extrusion, blend, rotate ect... all work but I am looking for something that will help better explain more complex family and mass elements. It is getting a little frustrating only being able to do ab out 1% when I know how REVIT can be.

So the best bet is to stick with the forums. Especially http://www.revitforum.org - stay active and those guys over there will surely give you all their tips and tricks that will make you a pro in no time.

Hope this helps.

If I can give advise - use a large sprinkling of Reference Planes. Dimension and Parametrize those. Then make your model aligned and locked to them. It's not always possible, but take that as a rule of thumb. Try to think ahead and rather make and set the reference plane(s) before you draw anything - stuff like arcs only work properly if you go about it in this order. If you do you'll find your families tend to work more easily - all sorts of strange things happen if you simply dimension your model's edges.

After that figure out stuff like reference planes' "Is Reference", "Defines Origin", "Wall Closure" and "Name" parameters. Those give special meaning to each plane. You'll pat yourself on the back if you get these sorted.

Ensure you're creating the family as the correct category of family. Either by selecting the appropriate Family Template or changing it through the Family Category and Parameters tool (top right in the Properties group on the Create tab). This helps with scheduling no end! Not to mention default parameters are set according to this.

For all objects in your family set their Subcategory appropriately. That way you can adjust their appearance much more easily through VG in the project's views.

Then remember to model as little as needed. For detail work use Symbolic Lines and Detail Components, then set Visibility Graphics overrides appropriately to the Detail Levels. This makes your project model a lot lighter (zoom / pan / print / render / etc. becomes faster) and can still provide professional looking construction documentation. E.g. instead of modelling the exact shape of a window mullion, just model a rectangle sweep. Set its VGo to Course (and perhaps Medium), add a Detail Component which shows a 2d drawing of the mullion's actual shape and set its VGo to Fine (or perhaps Medium as well - depending on your decision about the model part). That way your overall plans / sections are light on resources, but all blown-up details show a proper mullion.

Parametrize as much as you can think needs changing in your project - not just sizes. E.g. give a Material parameter to the frame and another to the glazing, otherwise you're stuck with only the materials set through VG for those Subcategories. Leave these parameters set to though, else you end up with default families looking different from each other - only change the Type / Instance values of these parameters as needed in your project. I.e. give yourself as much leeway as possible, without breaking the defaults on your default family types.

Practise stuff like arrays before you go with such inside your family. Set the array's count to a parameter - you can then use a formula to calculate such from your lengths.

Look into using formulas for stuff which should adjust according to other parameters. Revit's formulas are quite powerful, though not as comprehensive as you get in something like Excel. The principle is the same though. This is probably the major benefit with Revit's families as opposed to ACad's dynamic blocks (that's if you ignore the fact that ACad's DB's only work for 2D). Remember you can add parameters which don't point to anything - these can still be used inside formulas.

Lastly don't be scared to edit the families or even start over again. Only through experience do you learn the intricacies of when to draw what, and believe me Revit's families have a lot of those .

If you need a bit more textbook / tutorial, search on google for some of the above. There are a lot of tuts which handle these particular aspects of families, but as StykFacE has mentioned there are few comprehensive books / tuts which cover the lot in one go. It's simply too much possibilities. I tend to say: "Make simplistic families before you become an expert in the project file. Only after you're comfortable in the project should you be looking at becoming a family wizard."

Oh! Forgot :

If you do add custom parameters, it's a good idea to look at making them shared parameters. Just so as you don't end up with some minor difference in naming and/or parameter type. Else you'll find duplicate parameters in your schedules which makes for blank spots where you can't figure out what's going on.

Thanks all for the woderful advice. I have slowly been reading up and practicing. I believe it will just be a matter of time unitl I am a Family Guru