In manufacturing industry, we have standard parts library. Usually they are already available in the software installation. But for BIM, there’s no standard furniture or plumbing fixtures. If there is, the models change very quickly.

Do you know that you can get those AutoCAD blocks and Revit families from Autodesk Seek? There are multiple file format available. You can get the RFA, RVT (Revit family), DWG (AutoCAD Block), SKP (SketchUp) and even PDF or TXT for specification.

There are many manufacturers submit their model, so you can choose the right model that actually available at the market.

These are some products by Haworth Inc.

Even if you don’t need the exact model, you can find very nice models here. Unless you want to create your own Revit families from scratch.

Autodesk Seek in AutoCAD and Revit

To download the models, all you need to do is go to seek.autodesk.com.

You can also do searches from within the application. There is an Autodesk Seek panel in insert tab.

After you type the keyword and press [enter], it will open a browser and show you the search result. There is no difference by directly typing the address in your browser. The only difference is it filter the file format to your applications. If you search from within AutoCAD, it will show you all AutoCAD supported files.

Have you tried to download a model from Autodesk Seek? What do you think?

You may have other libraries resources that you use before. I use Revit City to look for Revit families. CAD Forum and CAD Block Exchange Network for AutoCAD blocks. Do you have your favorite resources that you want to share here?

To create a ‘glowing’ light bulb, you need to define it by using material. You can create your own material, then activate the self illumination option in the material dialog box. You can define the filter color if necessary. And change the luminance to a lamp lens. In this sample, I use halogen lamp lens. As you can see in the material preview, the material is glowing. That’s how your light bulb should looks like, right?

After I apply the material to the light lens (or bulb?) then I render it again.

Looks much more realistic than before, right?

You may want to make the material as parameter, so you can change it during the design process. So when you need to ‘turn it off’, you can change it using dialog box, not using material editor.

If you new to Revit Families, you may be interested to our e-book: Creating Your Own Revit Families. You can purchase it only for US$ 7. You can learn the basic, and guided by video tutorial.

Then the next question is how we can use our AutoCAD title block in Revit. We don’t want to use the default title block like in this tutorial, aren’t we?

In this post, we are going to import your existing title block in AutoCAD file to Revit family. Let us do it step-by-step.

Preparing DWG File

First, you need to prepare the DWG file. If you have a DWT template, you need to create an empty DWG file using that template. We can’t import DWT to Revit. Title block should be the only drawing element in that file.

What if you don’t have AutoCAD, but you want to use the DWT file? Easy. Just rename the file in Windows Explorer, change the dwt extension to dwg. DWT basically is DWG too.

When importing DWG to family, Revit will attempt to find objects in your layout/sheet first. If your title block is not in your layout, then Revit will ask if it should try to find in model space. It should be no problem, whether you use layout or model. BUT… you have to draw in 1:1 scale. Try to experiment with existing title block in default AutoCAD template if you have problem.

Create a New Family

Let’s start. First, you need to create a new family. In home screen, click new under family group.

Revit will ask you to to choose a family template. Go to titleblocks folder, and choose the paper size you want. The paper size depends on your family units. I use metric, so I will see A0 to A4 paper size. Click open.

In your new family, you will see a rectangle that shows your paper size. You can create your title block here from scratch inside that rectangle. Or simply import your existing drawing from AutoCAD drawing. We are going to do the last one.

Importing the DWG File

Now you can import the DWG file to your family. Use import CAD tool in insert tab, import panel.

Find your DWG file. Before you click open, there are many options available in the dialog box. If your DWG file has correct unit (and not unitless) then you can choose import unit as Auto-Detect. Positioning should be fine if you choose ‘Auto-center to center’. Title block is a rectangular object that should fit the paper just fine. If it’s not, you need to scale or move it later to fit your paper.

Click open. You should now see the titleblock in your family.

Select the titleblock. You should see it is selected as a single object. Click explode, full explode from contextual ribbon to break the AutoCAD elements, to basic Revit elements.

Adding Labels

Title blocks pretty much only have lines and texts. You already have them after importing your drawing from AutoCAD. Revit does have some intelligent texts that will automatically update when the information changed. The changes can be manually by you, or automatic. Sheet number is defined by you. Date/time stamp will updated automatically by your computer.

Let us see this part of our title block. The project number can be automatically take your project information. Date and sheet number can automatically changed. Those values should be created using label. The others, should use text as ‘static’ texts.

If we look at the ribbon, in home tab, text panel, we will see there are two types of texts. Now you know what their difference is, right?

Now delete all texts that you will replace with labels. After you remove them, activate label and place in the location you want. Revit will open a dialog box, asking you which parameter you want to display. Choose which information should appear at that location, and click ‘add parameter to label’ button. Or you can double click it to add the parameter to your label.

Add every information you want. Save the family so you can load it later to your project. Or you can load it to your template.

Now you already have your titleblock. Try to create sheets using it and place some views.

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You can have it for US$ 10,00.

It is also included video animation (mp4 format) for every exercises, that you can download separately.

You will learn:

1. Getting familiar with family template
2. Creating 2D families and 3D families
3. Creating component families and system families
4. Using parameters and references
5. Using 2D DWG for your families
6. Adding details and controlling object visibility

You can download and see the table of contents here.

And see the animation sample here

for you who don’t have access to YouTube, can see it here: Adding_Parameters.

Now the problem is, how can we define the structure vertically? We have discussed how we can add reveals and sweeps to do this. In this article, let us discuss how we can create a vinyl siding wall as example. The common way (and probably most suggested) to do this is simply using horizontal lines pattern, not actually creating real 3D forms. And later, we can use drafting tools to add details for the vinyl siding wall.

The reason why we do this is creating many horizontal sweeps/reveals can take much of your computer resources. When you are modeling a large building, this can be a problem. Of course, there are a downside: you have to take care the details later, manually.

Now, vinyl siding wall commonly used for simple houses, not multi story building. So I guess it is save if we create a real 3D vinyl siding, it would be acceptable.

Creating Reveal Profile

Create a new profile. Use Metric Profile-Reveal.rft (or Profile-Reveal.rft for imperial).

You need to define how your vinyl siding layer will be cut by this profile. Create reveal like below. Pay attention to the wall location. I use 250×80 as the outline. Remember this value, we are going to need it when defining our wall.

Save this file, and load it to your project.

Now why are we using reveal instead of sweep? You will see the difference later in the comparison section.

Applying the Wall Reveal

In your project, choose one of the wall type you want to modify. In this example I use generic 200mm. Duplicate, and add one more layer as your vinyl siding layer. Change the height to match your sweep profile.

To enable us adding reveal, change the view to section. Change it from drop down selection below the preview area.

In the modify vertical structure group, click reveal.

This will open another dialog box. Click add below this dialog to add a reveal definition. Select the reveal profile you created previously in the profile column. If you haven’t loaded it, click load profile.

Define the distance from base. Do it several times until it reach the highest wall in your design.

We are done. Click OK and close all the dialogs.

Now try to create walls and see how it looks like. I think this is quite nice :)

Comparison

Now let us get to (probably) some question you will ask.

Why not creating one reveal profile like below, so we don’t need to create many reveal parameters?

It doesn’t work as expected when we place door. See image below. The wall above the door will loose the reveals. I’m not sure why the window don’t have the same effects. I suspect this has something to do with the opening in the family. If that’s true, then creating the table is much easier than you modify your whole door family.

So why are we using reveal instead of sweep?

If we use reveal, it only remove part of existing wall. No wall, then it’s not showing. Sweep, will remain visible even if you have wall height less than your defined vinyl siding height.

This is unacceptable when we need to attach our wall to roof or having the top side of our wall is not horizontal.

Let us create a new Revit family using that template.

Creating Line Based Family

This family has a predefined parameter: Length. It also has two vertical work plane: Left and Right. The work planes intersection points with the center (front/back) work plane are the points you need to define when placing it within a project.

Let us try it. Open right elevation view. Create a profile like below. You don’t need to create the exactly the same profile. Just make it 500mm wide, and create 2nd profile 760mm above the level plane.

Click extrusion properties on your Revit ribbon, contextual tab. Find extrusion end parameter, and click the small button next to the value.

Find Length parameter, select it and click OK. Click finish extrusion.

We have done! Save this Revit family as ‘base cabinet’. Load it to a project and try to place it.

Hint: If you don’t have floor (or other faces) then you need to change the placement reference to ‘Place on Work Plane’.

Just like placing walls isn’t it?

Using Nested Family

That was fun, but we can do more. We want to fill the gap between base and top panel with typical cabinet units.

Download this file, load this typical unit to base cabinet family.

You should see it in 3D like this.

This is a Revit family inside a Revit family definition… or nested family.

Using Array and Formula in Parameters

Creating Array

The next thing we need to do is to multiply the typical unit to match the cabinet length. Open the floor plan view.

Select the typical unit family, and click array on your Revit ribbon.

Place the array like below. After you place it, select the array number.

Creating Number of Array Parameter

In option bar, click the drop down label selection.

Select <Add Parameter…>.

In opened dialog box, type the parameter name, and change the parameter type to instance.

Click OK.

Creating Formula for Array Parameter

Now we need to create a formula, so the number of array will adjust to the cabinet length. Click types from Revit Ribbon.

In the family types dialog, find the parameter we created before. In formula field, type Length/600. Remember, formula in Revit is case sensitive!

Click OK. Try to reload this family to your project. And try to place it again. Now the number of typical unit will adjust to the cabinet length.

Limitation

This may looks fun and very easy to use. However, there are some limitation to consider:

1. I would not recommend you to use this trick if you need to report the family in your schedule. Revit will only recognize the furniture family and types, but it will not report the length or number of typical units in your cabinet. So if you want to report the family in a schedule, use furniture template and define the family types. Use this trick if the family is only for visualization purpose!
2. You need to know the typical unit size so you can precisely define the cabinet length. It will not cause error in Revit, but you will see the base and top panel too long or too short if you don’t define its length correctly. Use incremental value 600 for this sample.

Modifying The Window Opening

Create a new Revit family. Use Metric Window.rft as the template. This window template is a rectangular window. We need to modify the opening before we continue. Move your pointer above the opening. Wait until you see the tooltip. If it says opening cut, then click your mouse to select it. If it says wall, press [tab] once to cycle between overlapping object. You should see the tooltip change to opening cut.

After you select the opening cut, you will see contextual tab on Revit ribbon. Click edit sketch to modify it.

In the contextual tab, draw panel, change the draw mode to center-ends arc. Click the line mid point, and its end points to create an arc. Make sure you snap it to the end points!

Activate modify tool. Select the horizontal line at the top most of the opening cut. Press [del] to delete it.

Creating Window Frame and Window Panel

Let us not go too detail in this section. I believe you already know how to do it. This tutorial is an exercise anyway :) We will learn a little trick to create a chain of line from existing objects as reference.

Creating Window Frame

Make sure you are still in exterior elevation view. Create a solid extrusion. You will go to the sketch/drawing mode. Change the drawing mode to pick lines.

Move you pointer above the opening edge. Press [tab] until you see the whole edges highlighted. Click your mouse. Pressing [tab] will do two things: either cycle between overlapping object or select chain of lines.

Now activate offset.

Change the offset value in option bar to 50. Move your pointer above the lines you created before. Press [tab] to highlight the whole lines, then click your mouse.

The last one: change the extrusion height to 150. You can do it in extrusion properties. Don’t forget to test your model! Try to change the width and height to see if the window frame also adjusted.

Save your Revit family.

Creating Window Panel

This is going to be your challenge: create a window panel. You can create anything you like, consider this is an exercise! We have created a simple door panel before, you can use it as reference. Or you probably want to save it for your exercise later.

Creating Window Accessories

It doesn’t matter how you create the window panel. I’m not creating it, and it won’t affect our exercise later.

How Detail Will You Go?

Before we create the windows’ accessories (I’m not sure I’m using the correct terminology… am I?), I will ask you a question: how many details you want to put in your family? It is not always a good practice to create everything in 3D. It can consume more computer resources, more work to do, and harder to control in parametric family. We are going to simplify this by using simple extrusion and sweep, then add pattern/model lines.

So basically you need to consider two things when creating family:

1. Do you want this family has different types (i.e. sizes) or only this form and size? This is related to whether you need to use parameters or not. If you only need it in one size, don’t bother to create tons of parameters. Even if you need the family in different sizes, sometimes it is easier to create non-parametric family and create separate families. If you’ve spent a lot of time thinking how you can make your family fully parametric, you probably already should be able to create 3-4 non-parametric families. So don’t waste your time with the parameters if it’s too complicated.
2. How many 3D details you want to create? If you don’t need to create the details in 3D, then you better don’t. You can use pattern, model lines, or rendering materials to achieve the effects you want. Unless creating it in 3D is easier, then create it in 3D.

Creating Side Brick Soldiers

We are going to create 3 separate brick soldiers. One for the arc brick soldier, one for the side brick soldiers, and the last one for the tilted brick soldier.

Open exterior elevation view. And then change your active work plane to interior side. Refer how to do it to our previous tutorial. Create a solid extrusion. Draw a rectangular profile with 100mm width, and its height matching the window height. Remember to snap it to windows points. This will make sure the brick soldier height will be adjusted when we change the window height.

Select the rectangle, and click pick mirror axis from contextual ribbon tab.

Pick the center reference plane. Your extrusion profile should look like this.

Define the extrusion height to -250mm.

Now we need to define the brick material. Click extrusion properties. In the opened dialog box, click the material field, and click the ‘…’ button next to it. You have to click the field first before you can see the button. It’s not the one in formula column!

Now another dialog box is opened. Click duplicate button on the bottom left of this dialog. Give it name vertical brick.

Now we have a new material definition, let us change it. On the right side, click ‘…’ button in surface pattern group. We are going to create a new pattern for this material.

In the next dialog box, change the pattern type to model. Then click new button.

Change the pattern name and line spacing.

Click OK twice until we back to the material dialog box. Change the material shading to distinguish it with our wall. Optional: change the rendering material too, so you can also see brick pattern when you render your model.

Click OK until all dialog closed. Click finish extrusion. Review your window.

Creating Tilt Soldier

Open left elevation view (or right, your choice). Draw a rectangle with size 250×50 (my assumption for the brick size, you may use your own size if you don’t feel it’s right). Rotate and move it as necessary. I use 5 deg for this profile.

Open the extrusion properties. Click the parameter button next to extrusion end value. Select Width from opened dialog box. This means our soldier will use the same width as our window.

The last one is creating another material. Use this properties for the pattern.

Close all dialogs, and click finish extrusion. Now if you see your extrusion like this, don’t panic!

Select the extrusion, and click edit work plane in contextual tab on Revit ribbon.

In the opened dialog, select right reference plane, and click OK.

Creating Arc Soldier

The last one: arc brick soldier. This feature is also created using extrusion. I believe you will have no problem creating the extrusion. But our problem here is there is no pattern we can use to match this form orientation.

There is no feature we can use to make the pattern automatically adjusted with the window size. At least there is no way I can find. Revit has limited geometry constraint to control such pattern. I would love to see Revit has geometry constraints in the future :)

So I would suggest you to leave it without pattern, and add the pattern later in your project elevation view. OR you can create separate families for each sizes. It’s your choice. I think the later is a better choice. At least you only to define it once, not repeatedly in your project.

We will talk about Revit detailing later.

If you decided to create model lines in this particular window size, then you can follow these steps. Remember, by using this method you can’t modify this window by changing the windows width later. You need to create a different family to have a different size.

Adding Model Lines

We can only use vertical or horizontal pattern. So what we can do is we can create a model line and array it. The alternative is creating a void to cut the arch to give the brick effect, but if you have dozens or even hundreds of Windows, you will not want to use it.

Open left elevation view. Create a reference plane right on the soldier face, exterior side.

Select the work plane,change its name in element properties. Give it name soldier face.

Open exterior elevation view. Change the active work plane to soldier face.

Draw a model line, overlapped with the vertical brick (shown by the arrow below).

Select it, and click array

Change the array mode to radial, the array number to 25. And change move to: to last.

You will need to move the rotation center to be coincident with the arc. Click and drag the rotation center to move it.

Move your pointer to the right of the rotation center, until snap to X axis. Click your mouse to define the start angle. Rotate your pointer 180 deg clock wise. Click your mouse again.

Try to change the window size.

We can see the pattern is not adjusted. This is the problem I mentioned previously. This is why we can’t change the window size.

So if you want to create different sizes, save this one as a different family and add model lines in your new family.

Creating Keystone

I would leave this a challenge for you. This is not hard at all. I use two extrusion to create this form.

Can you create it? If you have difficulties, I can write about it. But after several tutorial, I want you to try it first.

Modifying Window Opening

The last thing we need to modify is the opening cut. We need to correct the opening cut after we added the brick soldiers. Edit the opening cut like below. You can see how to do it in the first step of this tutorial.

If you don’t modify the opening cut, then when we create a wall schedule, the opening will not be reported correctly. Your wall may be reported to have larger volume.

Conclusion

If you read books, tutorial, and other resources about creating Revit family, probably you will see many samples using parameters. Sometimes we don’t need to go that far. Sometimes even creating 2D drawing is enough. Especially if you are creating family only for a particular project, and probably will never use it again.

Open the door you created previously.

Modifying Parameter

We will add a void for the top part of this door panel, and add a glass panel to cover it.

Let us modify a parameter first. Click types button on Revit ribbon>create tab>family properties panel.

This will open Revit family types dialog. Find Frame Width parameter in the dialog.It’s in others group. Others group is at the bottom of types dialog. We will often change this parameter (let’s assume it that way), so we would want it on top. At least along with the other dimensions.

Click modify button to modify its properties.

Move the group parameter to under dimensions.

Adding Void

There’s nothing different with placing voids. It’s just like placing a solid form. But instead add the Revit geometry, void will remove your solid geometry. Activate void>extrusion. Void is in Revit ribbon>create tab>forms panel.

Adding the Extrusion Profile

Just like what we did in creating the door panel, draw a rectangular profile like below. Don’t worry about the size, we will adjust it later.

Adding Parameter Dimensions

Now add dimension that measure the rectangle sides to its’ left, top, and right.

After you finish, activate modify tool. Hold [ctrl] and click each of the dimension until all of three dimensions selected.

In Revit option bar, click the label drop down menu and select Frame Width.

You should see the dimensions become like below. Add one more dimension to measure the rectangle height.

Select the dimension, and from label drop down menu, choose <add parameter…>. Give the parameter name ‘glass panel height’ and put it in other group. This is a dependant parameter, and we don’t want to change the value. So we put it at the bottom of our parameters list.

Creating Formula

Open Revit family types dialog. Find the parameter we just created. Click in formula column and type this formula:

(Height-3*Frame Width)/2

Remember, the parameter name is case sensitive. Do you know why we created the formula, and where are the parameters name come from? And how can we create the calculation?

You can see the parameters name in elevation view. Examine them, and find the correlation with our formula. Probably you can create a better formula!

Defining the Void Height

Click the extrusion properties button. It’s on Revit ribbon> create tab> element panel.

Change the extrusion height to 50. Click OK.

Click Finish Extrusion.

Adding Glass Panel

Creating Reference Plane

We are going to add a glass panel at the middle of the door panel. To achieve this, we must create a reference plane first. Open Floor Plan>Ref. Level view. Activate Reference Plane. It’s on Revit ribbon>create tab> datum panel.

Draw a reference plane right at the middle of our door panel thickness.

Select the reference plane, and click element properties>instance properties from your Revit ribbon. Give the reference plane a name.

Keep in mind that we did not use parameters for our door thickness and this reference plane location. Sometimes we don’t need to give everything a parameter. However, you may use parameters if you feel necessary. Consider this is your extra exercise. We will also discuss about it in the next tutorial.

Creating Solid Form

Now back to elevation view.

Setting Active Reference Plane

Before we start, change the reference plane to the last one we draw. Click set from Revit ribbon>create tab>work plane panel.

In the dialog, find the reference plane, and click OK.

Drawing Solid Extrusion Profile

Draw a rectangle covering our previous void. Try to snap to intersection to make sure the glass will follow the void size.

Remember, try to test it after you create the profile. Change the door width, height, and frame width to see if it works. It is always a good idea to test it after make a change!

Before we finish this extrusion, change the extrusion value. Change the extrusion end to 5 and extrusion start to –5. This will make our glass panel extruded to both direction with the same value.

Click finish extrusion.

Check in plan view, is your glass in correct position?

Challenge

Can you create parameters for frame, door panel, and glass panel? Try it and don’t hesitate to discuss with us!

What’s Next?

We are going to set and define more parameters for this Revit door family. Including material parameters. We will also add one more void, then define several door types.

In the mean time, you can submit inquiries about Revit families. So we can do further exercises, based on your case. This offer is not permanent! :)