Autodesk® Revit® MEP: Fast Families for Engineers

Speaker(s) Dereck Clements– Prokon Software Consulting

2531-L Autodesk Revit MEP: Fast Families for Engineers

Learning Objectives
At the end of this class, you will be able to:

Describe key family concepts for family types and categories.

Explain the four key starter concepts: reference planes, labels, solids, and constraints.

Describe additional resources: Revit modeling guidelines, Family parameters, shared parameters, lookup
table’s, and Type catalogues.

Assess when and how to use shared vs. family parameters

About the Speaker

Dereck spent four years in the metal industry before moving over to the Autodesk Channel.
Dereck is an avid Enduro rider and enjoys water skiing, but his passion lies with computer
hardware and software. His software expertise within the Autodesk family of products lies with
Autodesk Revit Architecture, Autodesk Revit MEP, AutoCAD LT, AutoCAD Architecture,
Autodesk
esk Navisworks, Autodesk 3ds Max and Ecotect. Dereck joined PROKON in 2009 and is
responsible for software support, training, implementation, demonstrations and IT
management/administration.

eMail : Dereck@prokon.com
 Autodesk® Revit® MEP: Fast Families for Engineers

Family Types and Categories

Two primary types of component families:

Non-Hosted

Hosted

The most common is NON-HOSTED – mechanical and electrical equipment, plumbing, light
fixtures, etc.

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 Autodesk® Revit® MEP: Fast Families for Engineers

Non-Hosted

Behaves like an AutoCAD block – placed anywhere, referenced to the level it’s placed on

Mechanical Equipment
Plumbing Fixtures
Pipe Fittings
Pipe Accessories
Duct Fittings
Electrical Fittings
Etc…

Hosted

ased family that associates with generic 3D faces, walls, ceilings, etc.
Face-Based

– Iff the surface moves, the family moves

Light switches
Wall hosted speakers
Light switches
Air terminals
Heaters
Etc…

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 Autodesk® Revit® MEP: Fast Families for Engineers

Lookup Tables / Model Guidelines

Lookup tables are used with parts that have large numbers of size combinations and options

Piping & Conduit use a comma delaminated *.CSV tables that can be edited with Excel

Parameters in the family must be spelled and case-matched to the parameter in the
*.CSV file

Lookup Tables for fittings are stored in the Lookup Tables folder under your content
location

o Conduit : C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\RVT 2013\Lookup Tables\Conduit

o Piping : C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\RVT 2013\Lookup Tables\Pipe

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 Autodesk® Revit® MEP: Fast Families for Engineers

Lookup Tables

Using lookup tables in your families requires you to define 4 fields defined by a specific syntax

result=TEXT_FILE_LOOKUP(LookupTableName, L
LookupColumn,
ookupColumn, DefaultIfNotFound,
LookupValue)

Allways start with “TEXT_FILE_LOOKUP”

LookupTableNmae : The name of the CSV file that is saved in the default location

LookupColumn : The name of the column that holds the field that you are searching for

LookupValue: What search criteria is being looked for

DefaultIfNotFound: The value that should be use

used
d if the lookup value is not found

Lookup Tables

Type Catalog’s use *.CSV to look up specific values for families

Lookup tables are broken into rows and columns

The 1st row defines the parameter and column names

The 1st column’s, 1st row is left blank

The names of the columns are separated into 3 sections

o ParameterName
o ParameterType
o ParameterUnits

Separated by “##”
Eg.
ParameterName##ParameterType##ParameterUnits

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 Autodesk® Revit® MEP: Fast Families for Engineers

Type Catalogs

Type Catalogs use *.TXT tables that let a user pick through specific component family sizes and
load only what they need

Use Type Catalogs to limit the size of projects, by limiting the number of family types that
are loaded

Type catalogues can only reference “Type Parameters” in the family

Text File Type Catalogs are stored in the same folder as the Family you define

Parameters in the family must be spelled and case-matched to the parameter in the type
Catalog

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 Autodesk® Revit® MEP: Fast Families for Engineers

Type Catalogs

Type Catalogs use *.TXT tables that let a user pick through specific component family sizes and
load only what they need

Lookup tables are broken into rows and columns

Rows columns are separated by commas

The 1st row defines the parameter and column names

The 1st column’s, 1st row is left blank

The names of the columns are separated into 3 sections
o ParameterName
o ParameterType
o ParameterUnits

Separated by “##”
Eg.
ParameterName##ParameterType##ParameterUnit
e##ParameterType##ParameterUnit

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 Autodesk® Revit® MEP: Fast Families for Engineers

Notes

Units and syntax for Lookup Tables and Type Catalogs

Angle ##ANGLE##DEGREES

Area ##AREA##SQUARE_FEET

Currency ##CURRENCY##

Integer ##OTHER##

Length ##LENGTH##FEET

Material ##OTHER##

Number ##OTHER##

Slope ##SLOPE##SLOPE_DEGREES

Text ##OTHER##

Volume ##VOLUME##CUBIC_FEET

*Yes/No ##OTHER##

When using a Yes/No parameter - Yes=1, No=0

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 Autodesk® Revit® MEP: Fast Families for Engineers

Revit Model Guidelines

- Published in 2009 by Autodesk, to help provide guidelines for the creation of families
and content for Revit

- Great Planning resource to help you develop and maintain your standards for data

- Includes spreadsheets listing default program parameters and parameters provided in

shared parameter text files

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Autodesk® Revit® MEP: Fast Families for Engineers

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