Forums >> General Discussion >> Revit Project Management >> Family Management

davepsanders

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How is your office managing families?

My office is using a logical network setup and consistent naming conventions but users are feeling overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of families and there is no (good) way to leave comments on the files.

Ideally we would like something that is easy to update, searchable, has a preview, lists the important parameters and has a space for comments or additional information.  

Products similar to what I am thinking of include Autodesk Seek and Familit (at least what it appears to do), but we would prefer not to put our families online.

 I have thought about developing something but I am concerned that if we invest too much time Revit will introduce a Family Manager to Revit (2014?).

Thanks.

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WWHub

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davepsanders

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Is it really worth the $500 cost of admission? We have over 100 users so that adds up pretty quickly.

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MARS1276

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davepsanders

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Thanks for the response, but this isn't what I am asking. We also have a logical hierarchy of folders and well named families. We are finding that what we are lacking is a way for a user to easily locate a specific family, see what it looks like, and know what special parametric features it has.

For example. Jane employee wants to put stacks in her library.Current scenario: Component > Load > Imperial Library > is it specialty equipment? no, umm, furniture? no, ok we dont have it. Ideal scenario: She uses Tool X to search for "library stacks" and finds out that we have a line based SFS and DFS families in X location. There would be an image of the family and a quick description of the features and benefits built into the family.

The question is more about user access and knowledge transfer.

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WWHub

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davepsanders in his post listed a set of wants.  Reed satisfies those wants but for some reason dave wanted to complain to me about the price.... like I set it?.

If you can modify those wants.....

Libraries are hard to manage and hard to use and small images don't tell you what you need to know.   It would be nice if REVIT read the description from the family and at least posted that when looking at families to load.  But it doesn't.  We are not a software company so we are not going to write any kind of program but we can take advatage of REVIT.

We are simply doing demonstration projects for various library folders .. each with multiple sheets that have multiple families on a sheet showing the families in plan/elevation/3D along with data.  Then it is simple to just multiple copy/paste from demonstration to project.  Doing this with wall types as well as doors, windows, toilet rooms, drafting details....

Hope this gives you some ideas.

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davepsanders

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"

davepsanders in his post listed a set of wants.  Reed satisfies those wants but for some reason dave wanted to complain to me about the price.... like I set it?.

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WWHub

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Just so others don't misread my post as well.  I don't think you understood our process... no need to browse through a bunch of projects.  This is our library for multiple, often used items. 

These demonstration projects are named in a manner that you know what they contain.  WALLS .... DOORS.... WINDOWS ....TOILET ROOMS....  They are not true projects and they only contain the topical familes along with enough hosting elements to show them. They families are shown in views placed on our office sheets for ease of use and also so that the library can be reproduced in a 2d or multi-sheet pdf format.

This process is faster and easier than loading one item at a time.  We still maintain the traditional folders but when you are doing a handicapped toilet and you need toilet - grab bars - TP holder, you can grab them all as a group and place them and while your at it get the toilet partion of the style you need.   Or when you are doing window details and you need a head/jamb and sill detail element for a 1-1/2 x 4 1/2" alum tube to place in a model wall section... you can load them all at once. 

BTW - all families in these demonstration projects are office proofed for conformance to our standards.  USE THESE FIRST is our directive ...

... you know, I have horses but I can't make them drink.

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davepsanders

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No, I understood you perfectly. We have implemented a similar thing in our office and it works better than browsing the network in some instances. It is great when you want to see an entire set of families to compare and contrast what you have.

Honestly I think this is something Autodesk needs to address or Revit will be a victim of its own success. We are past the point where content development is an issue. Content tracking, access, and sorting (alphabetically? really?) should be more robust and within the program.

On a side note, sorry about the multiple posts and formatting issues. Apparently the integrated browser in the new Lotus 8.5 has some bugs...

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WWHub

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Not a problem with the multiple posts... I delete them when I see them.

All users are struggleing with naming conventions of families - parameters ... We add our company initials to the beginnig of all families that we have proofed for our office use.  Easy to find and also easy to tell when someone has not used a standard item.  Because our company name starts with a B, the families are usually first in the list of each category too.

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Mr Spot

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Yuk, I'm not a big fan of doing that.  We simply have a provisional content folder and the library proper has limited write access so only the BIM Manager can add new families once they conform to office protocols.

What we need is an "Autodesk Seek" version that manages the local library resources rather than just online resources.  Each company/country has their own standards and files setup in a way that works best with their scheduling/shared parameters etc, which makes online revit content never perfect for straight download and use.

BIM Library and Familit are both good tools, but personally I want a solution that operates directly in Revit.  I already have enough programs running on my desktop.  BIM Library needs to operate as a Revit Extension so I can initiate it directly from Revit.  Then I'd consider using it, as my users don't have to search there desktop to start another application.

-----------------------------------

Regards,

Chris.

Co-Founder | BIM Consultant | Software Designer  B. Arch)

Xrev Revit API Addins | Revit Rants

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MARS1276

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WWHub, this question is for you... I have shown my Drafting Manager your example of using a bunch of, say plumbing, families in a project file and then you have all the families you need in one file.  This is a great concept, but how do you get it to work?

Currently we are trying to figure out what you mean by placing the families in views on your office sheets.

How do you show a family as a view, and how do you copy that view into another project?

I understand you can do that with schedules and drafting details, but when we tried it didn't work.

Can you step me through the process?  Because it seems like a really great idea!

What we tried doing was as follows:

We have a project open and click 'Insert'--'Insert from file'--choose the plumbing rvt file that we have our families and schedule in--And then we get a screen that lets us choose to 'Show all views and sheets'.  Here is where we run into our problem at.  The only thing it shows us to choose from is the schedule itself, or the sheet that we have a view of the schedule on.

We tried creating a new sheet and placing a view of our Floor Plan (which shows all of our plumbing families and a generic wall to which some are hosted to) but we didn't still were not able to do as you described in your post earlier. 

Can you help us out with this?

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WWHub

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OK - lets use the plumbing example.

In my demonstration project:

1. I have a floor and maybe a couple of walls to use as hosts.
2. In plan, I place my toilet, grab bars,accessory items... if they are wall hosted, I use the walls that I've placed in this model
3. I create three views of the same area ... call them say TR Plan, TR Elevation, TR 3D and I place them on a sheet called toilet rooms and organized so they are together.... I might have ahaveother groupings of similar views like tubs, showers....
4. I add paper space text to describe what's here.
5. I usually group the appropriate groups together and name them but do not include host elements in the group.
6. I make sure the components are in their proper relationships dimensionally so that if I use the group, they are in their correct place.  I also move the group origin to a good placement point like the corner of two walls.
7. I sometimes have schedules on the sheet as well that show the parameters for the appropriate families.  I use our standard tags to identify elements ... on door demonstration project, doors have mark numbers in plan / elevation so that I can identify.

Now - how to use - you have a couple of options.

1. Open your project and then open the demonstration project and find the right sheet view that contatins what you think you might want. 
2. Because the plan/elevation/model view are all together with descriptions, you can easily look over the sheet and determine what you want.
3. Here is the easy one.... If you can use a group and or you need everything in a group, simply activate an appropriate view, copy the group to your clipboard then swith to your project and paste anywhere in your model.  All of the included families are now loaded.  You can properly place the group where you want or simply delete the group from where you placed it and if you don't want the group, find it in your browser and delete it from the project.  The families will remain in the project and can be used elsewhere individually.
4. You can also use the chinese menu ... highlight individual component in a multiple pick, copy to clipboard and paste anywhere in your model.... again, it doesn't matter where, just delete them because they will now be in your project.
5. For my doors at project start, I usually pick in the 3D view picking the entire wall that has several doors in it, then I de-select the doors I don't want and I copy/paste this into my project... then delete the wall along with its doors.

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MARS1276

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Ok, so I'll have to try that!

I did manage to get something else similar to work, though.  Basically I created a new project and selected all of our typ. doors we use to import into the new project and saved that as 'Test Project 1'.  Then I opened another project (Test Project 2) and I was able to 'Insert-->Load as Group-->' and select the 'Test Project 1' and it brought in all of the doors.

I still want to try your way though, because if we can get that to work, it would mean less files than we were planning on creating.  At this point we had discussed the ability to create family "project" for our doors.  We could break down a project file for just O.H. Doors, another for Exterior Doors, another for Interior Doors; so on so forth for other categories as well, because, after all, you won't always use an O.H door in your project.

But I really hope we can get your way to work because that sounds like less work on the front end than making individual "project" files for each type of families.

Thanks for responding.  I'm sure others will find this extremely beneficial as well!

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ChrisB27

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We have been searching for something similar as well.  A lot of our users perfer the folder hierarchy method, but we decided to use a naming convention that began using the Masterformat.  So if it was a door family it would begin with 081000.  I know a lot of people don't know these numbers but it would be a good way for them to learn as well.  That way when a user goes to our in-house library and start by narrowing down by Master format number.  We feel as one big bucket it will cut down on the management of where to place certain families and in what folder.

i.e.

081000 - Door - Single Flush

237000 - Mechanical Equipment - Air Compressor - Quincy.rfa

One issue is the file name can get lengthy, hope this doesn't cause any problems.  We have not come across any as of yet.

Just as an example.  Would love a way for users to add comments/suggestions, hopefully in the future.

 Hope this helps!

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