TOPIC: Families

A few years back, a client had asked if there was a way to build a Geodesic Dome in Revit. I tried, and tried… but got nowhere in the limited time I had. The only solution I could recommend was to use a script to generate points that could then be connected by adaptive components.

Then yesterday, when looking for something else (as is wont to happen more often than I care to admit), I found a tutorial by Tom Vollaro that broke down the problem in terms of simple geometry. I not only learnt how to build a geodesic sphere, but finally understood the underlying geometric basis for the form.

Of course, not all of us have the time to build it ourselves – So, I’m sharing :-). (You can download it from my drive here)

Curved panels are particularly gnarly! Curved and Non-rectilinear are more so. This is one of those situations where you don’t have a choice but to use Adaptive Components.

In this post, I’m going to attempt to show how simple the building of a curved and trapezoidal panel can be. So, bring out the rusty trigonometry toolbox (or googling skills) and let’s get started!
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Yesterday I read a couple of blog posts that I must share with my fellow Revit users…

First and foremost, as the MEP guy here at Microsol Resources, I was focusing on MEP-related content and found this MEP Connectors and Revit Architecture post by Doug Bowers last November.  I started reading it, but before I could finish the first paragraph, something caught my eye…”A previous blog post lists each of the family templates installed with the various Revit packages,” so I clicked through and am so glad I did!  The post from October 2011 is entitled Templates Provided with Revit 2012 and contains a link to a PDF that I feel is a very valuable reference for any Revit 2012 user.

As the MEP guy, I was shocked to learn that Revit MEP 2012 does not include many MEP-specific family templates that a MEP user might expect to find in his/her product.  You can review the PDF for a complete comparison matrix, but the following is worth mentioning: Electrical Equipment, Electrical Fixture, Lighting Fixture, Linear Lighting Fixture, Mechanical Equipment, Plumbing Fixture, Specialty Equipment, and Spot Lighting Fixture.

Once I reviewed Doug’s list, I decided to compare the content of all Revit 2011, 2012, and 2013 products.  What I found, and what makes this even more interesting, is that the family templates listed above were included with 2011!  So, what happened in 2012?  I can’t answer that question, but the good news is the templates are back in 2013.  See below for a list of total family templates in each product, at least by my count.  Note that this list does not include Annotation, Conceptual Mass, Titleblock, or Project templates:

• Revit Architecture 2011 – 64
• Revit Architecture 2012 – 62
• Revit Architecture 2013 – 65

• Revit MEP 2011 – 78
• Revit MEP 2012 – 43
• Revit MEP 2013 – 76

• Revit Structure 2011 – 34
• Revit Structure 2012 – 35
• Revit Structure 2013 – 68

If you are a 2012 user and still have 2011 loaded, you can basically copy the 2011 family RFT files from the C:ProgramDataAutodeskRME 2011Imperial Templates folder and paste them into the C:ProgramDataAutodeskRME 2012Family TemplatesEnglish_I folder for your 2012 product.  Granted the 2011 templates will need to be upgraded in 2012 when you elect to use them, but that’s no biggie and something that can be done as needed!