Tutorial:

How to create a Revit Family

By Amy Benbow

Step 1: Begin by clicking New under the Family heading on the Re-
vit home page. Choose the Furniture Template that appears as an
option in the pop-up folder.
Step 2: When the template loads, Click the View tab in the options
bar and then Tile. This allows all angles of the object that will be
made to be seen
Step 3: Under the Create tab in the options bar, click Reference
Plane. In the Floorplan screen, create four reference planes, two
vertically and two horizontally, creating a rectangle.
Step 4: Under the Annotate tab, click Aligned and select frstly,
the horizontal lines, then the vertical lines, and ensure the EQ is
uncrossed, which reveals the dimensions. This also ensures that
regardless of movement between the lines, the dimensions will re-
main equal.
Step 5: Label the horizonal lines Length and the Vertical lines
Width by in the options bar clicking label, then Add parameter,
and creating a customised label.
Step 6: In the Elevation - Front View,
Create a Reference Planeas
completed previously. however
ensure the distance is 50mm, label
it Thickness and click the small
open lock, making the lock close.
This is how we create a constraint.
Step 7: Under the tab Create, Click Extrusion. Select the rectangle
shape and use the snap points to use the rectangular shape created
earlier using the reference planes. This creates a slab-like oject.
Step 8: Clicking back inside the Floorplan view, Select Family type
from underneath the Create tab, and a box will appear specifying
the dimensions of the slab-like structure just made, using the di-
mensions of the rectangle.
Step 9: Edit the Length, width and Thickness
dimensions to Length = 1500, Width =500
and Thickness 50. Click Ok, and the
previously made object will alter to meet
these new dimensions.
Step 10: In the Elevation-front View, you may notice that the slab
does not line up with the correct
thickness. This is easy to fx,
simply click the object, and click
the top or bottom blue arrow
(depending on which direction
the object needs to be moved) and
manipulate the object until it is
correctly aligned with the thickness
measurement.
Step 11:
Under the tab Create, click Void forms, then select Void extru-
sion.This tool will allow us to cut holes in previously made objects.
Select the rectangle tool, and use the snap points at the corners
to create a 100mm x 100mm square. copy and paste this square
twice more on the same side (3 on each side), then mirror one side
onto the other. creating 6 square holes.
Step 12:
These voids may be located slightly away from where they are
meant to be. This is where you use the same steps as previously,
where you click set, and designate the level where you woud like
them to be, by name or by clicking.
Step 13:
Then, underneath the heading Create, click extrusion, and create
6 columns of 700mm high, in the spaces created from the void
extrusion in the previous step. These columns can be altered many
times until they are all the same, and are of the correct height and
in the correct location.
Step 14:
I then copy and pasted the previously made rectangular object
downwards, creating two levels of the table.
Step 15:
One of the fnal steps i undertook was the selection of materials for
the different elements of the coffee table family i created. The ma-
terials i used were glass, timber and a metal.
Step 16:
The fnal step is inserting the object into a project. You must ensure
both the created family document is open, as well as a project doc-
ument. You then press Load family into project and it appers as a
component in the project, and can be placed into the house.