User Interface

Understanding family types in

Revit
The table below shows the different Revit family types

File Type Descriptions

.RVT Standard project file in Revit, where system families are stored.

The file format of a component Family. Can be opened directly, inserted, or

.RFA
loaded into an .RVT file. (Similar to blocks in AutoCAD)

The project template file. When you start a new model an .RTE file is used to
create the model. When is saved as a new .RVT model. The file contains all of
.RTE
your company’s standards and settings. Views, sheets, and families should be
set up and ready to use in the project template. (Similar to .DWT AutoCAD)

.RFT The family template file. When a new family is started, an .RTE.

There are two ways that families can be placed within your Revit project.
•Host-Based Families: Hosted families are those that are dependent on an host. Such hosts are walls,
ceilings, floors, roofs or a face.
•Stand-Alone Families: Stand-alone families are those that don’t need a host, for example, a desk or a
chair.
 What Is A Revit Family?
All the elements you use in your Revit model are structured into Revit families
for your ease of use. This includes everything from walls, doors, windows,
and mechanical equipment to annotations like door tags, elevation symbols,
and column gridlines.

The Revit family is a collection of elements with common parameters, similar

geometry, and identical use. Say, for instance, you may have different doors,
but all these belong to a door family.
The Revit Categories can be broadly classified into 2 types:
Annotation Categories and Model Categories.
The model categories comprise all elements confined to the building model like doors,
windows, floors, walls etc. whereas the annotation categories consist of elements like
texts, tags and dimensions.
 Autodesk defines families into three types:
1. System families.
2. Loadable families.
3. In-Place families.

Most elements that you create in your projects are system families or
loadable families. Loadable families can be combined to create nested
and shared families. Non-standard or custom elements are created
using in-place families.
System Families
− System families create basic elements that you would assemble on a
construction site.
− Examples: Walls, roofs, floors, Ducts, pipes
− System settings, which affect the project environment and include
types for levels, grids, drawing sheets, and viewports, are also
system families.
− System families are predefined in Revit. You do not load them into
your projects from external files, nor do you save them in locations
external to the project.
Loadable Families

Loadable families are families used to create the following:

− Building components that would usually be purchased, delivered, and

installed in and around a building, such as windows, doors, casework,
fixtures, furniture, and planting
− System components that would usually be purchased, delivered, and
installed in and around a building, such as boilers, water heaters, air
handlers, and plumbing fixtures
− Some annotation elements that are routinely customized, such as
symbols and title blocks
− Because of their highly customizable nature, loadable families are the
families that you most commonly create and modify in Revit. Unlike
system families, loadable families are created in external RFA files and
imported, or loaded, in your projects. For loadable families that contain
many types, you can create and use type catalogs, which allow you to
load only the types that you need for a project.
In-Place Families
− In-place elements are unique elements that you create when you
need to create a unique component that is specific to the current
project. You can create in-place geometry so that it references other
project geometry, resizing or adjusting accordingly if the referenced
geometry changes. When you create an in-place element, Revit
creates a family for the in-place element, which contains a single
family type.
− Creating an in-place element involves many of the same Family
Editor tools as creating a loadable family.
− Loadable families and In-Place families have the same creation
process and tools.
− In the Revit ribbon menu, you’ll see the difference in the last panel.
In-Place families display the green check mark and red X mark
buttons in the In-Place Editor panel

Their only difference is where they are created from. In-Place families are
created within a project (Architecture>Component>Model-in-Place) while
loadable families are created in the Family Editor, outside the project
environment. You could think of In-Place families as including the Family Editor
in the Project interface.
 There are four important
functions to remember in the
Properties palette. These are:
1.Type Selector
2.Properties filter
3.Edit Type
4.Instance properties

Type Selector: This area of the

palette remains dimmed until an
element is selected and there are
other elements with the same
type. It then becomes a Type
Selector, where the name of the
selected type is displayed.
Clicking the drop-down arrow
displays other available types.
 Edit Type: When an element containing Type parameters (e.g.
nested family) is selected, this button becomes active. Clicking Edit
Type opens the Type properties dialog box of the selected
component and displays its user-editable and read-only properties
The type can then be duplicated and its values can be modified.
Thereafter, the new type is added to the Type Selector. Alternatively,
the Edit Type button can be accessed from the Modify
tab>Properties.
 Instance Properties: When an element or component is selected, its
read-only and user-editable properties are displayed in the
Properties palette
Parametric Families

A family is a static object in

its simplest form. With the
ability to change its size,
shape or properties based
on user inputs. This is usually
done by adding necessary
parameters and dimensions
to a Revit family.
 What is a Revit project template?
A Revit project template is Revit file type (.RTE), separate from a project file
(.RVT), used as a starting point to standardize project organization, graphic
settings, and workflow setups to unify office standards and speed up
production time on new projects. Templates ensure all parties involved are
on the same page, so anyone can jump in at any time and know how a
project should present itself from schematic design to fully issued
construction documents.
 Why are Revit project templates important?
The main purpose is to save time on setting up a project so anyone can start
off at the same basepoint with all available tools and setups required to
complete a project. This helps limit standards review overhead and limiting
setup time for each project. Such as, how a stair should look in plan. While
not each item is important for every project, having a set of standards for
multiple use cases help keep the design process moving and lean without
needing to backtrack on previous work.
What should be considered when developing a Revit project
template?
 Project Information and Organization
1.Project units
2.Imperial or metric and how their symbols should look like for
documentation. Typically, if there is need for two different unit
types then they should be their own template because,
theoretically, they should have different production requirements.
3.Parameter Types
4.Project Browser Organization
for ordering/labeling sheets, views, schedules, so everything is easily
located without needing a rundown on its development.
 Graphic Settings
1.Phasing and Filters
2.Phasing and phase filters dictate how graphics present from existing
to new construction and object visibility applied to a view.
3.Object Styles
4.This controls globally how each object category should look across
the entire project before any View Templates or graphic overrides
are applied. It is an extensive list but is important for ensuring
consistency.
5.View Templates
6.These are crucial for setting up consistent graphics across several
drawings without needing to modify each view manually and sorting
views in the project browser. Each project should have multiple
View Templates to match a range of use cases.
 Annotations
1.Lines
2.Text
3.Dimensions
4.Tags
5.Revit comes standard with several different tag types but most like their
unique spin on each tag family. (i.e., elevation, section, callout, wall,
floor, roof, casework, lighting, etc.)
6.Title Blocks
7.One of the most important parts for a firm’s design stamp. Setting up
the right parameters inside Project Information allows individual data
for each project to auto populate for each title block without the need
for manually adjusting for each project.
8.Fill Patterns
9.Materials
 Content
1.Families
2.Furniture, Schedules
3.Legends
• BIM Store (UK): BIMStore.co
• NBS National BIM Library (UK): nationalbimlibrary.com/en-gb/
• BIM Object: bimobject.com