LIRC2011_klein

Consultancy 4 Building Information Modeling - Platform 4 Multiple Talents

Revit and Family Instance Parameters

Once in a while you may have wanted to change a windows families Width and Height (and Rough Width and Rough Height respectively) to be Instance based, not Type based to be able to manipulate every single instance of the component individually.

But when you open the family and want to change the parameter it is greyed out. It comes from the template; that is why you cannot change it in the Family Types dialog anymore. A simple little trick will help you around that.

Step 1

First, locate a view where the Height and Width dimensions are visible, usually the front or back elevation.

Select the Height Dimension and check the Instance checkbox on the Options Bar.

Family Types

Step 2

Do the same with the Width Dimension in plan view. Now both Width and Height parameters have become instance based.

For Rough Width and Rough Height this is a little bit trickier since they are rarely used in actual dimensions in the family.

 

If you now want to drive both of them from your newly instance based Height and Width Parameters the system won't let you – remember, instance parameters cannot be used to calculate type parameters in formulae.

 

So you got to make Rough Width and Rough Height instance based as well. The way to do that is to draw an arbitrary Reference Plane in your family and apply a dimension to it.

Instance Parameter

Step 3

Then set the dimension to Rough Width.

Check the checkbox as outlined above.

Now set the dimension to Rough Height.

Again, check the checkbox. Delete the Reference Plane.

Rough Width

Step 4

When you check now in the Type dialog, bot Rough Width and Rough Height have now also become instance based.

 

You can now use formulae that utilize instance based Height and With in order to calculate Rough Width and Rough Height.

Family Types finished

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