Session 2

Revit Families, Connectors and Formulas…

What?!
Simon Whitbread, Autodesk

Class Description
Creating Revit Families using modelling techniques, connectors and
formulas. I've had the headache so you don't need to!
This class is primarily aimed at MEP users, but in a multi-disciplinary
world, content needs to be right no matter what the discipline of the
user.
With this session we will be exploring best practices along with tips and
tricks for content creation.

About the Speaker:

Simon has over 30 years’ drafting, design and CAD Management
experience in the Building Services and Architectural industries. Since
the early 1990's he has been involved in developing and managing
CAD and IT Systems for a variety of companies. With a relocation to
New Zealand in 2002, came a new challenge: Revit and its associated
workflows which has benefitted both himself and the clients he serves.
Now a Technical Support Specialist for Autodesk’s Enterprise customers,
Simon also continues his passion for teaching and writing, living back in
his hometown in the UK.
Revit Families, Connectors and Formulas… What?!
Simon Whitbread, Autodesk

A word or three about Revit 2015

There is in Revit 2015, a subtle change in the way Revit handles families
that are loaded into the project file which can mean larger (around
10%) project files where a project is upgraded from a previous release.
Families each have their own container or document within the project
file which will eventually give benefits when it comes to moving forward
with data management capabilities and performance.

Hopefully you will have seen the new feature

in the family editor where you can save and
close the family being edited, in the same
action as loading the family into a project. So,
it’s a prompt to save your family, great! But
what does this REALLY mean?

Recommendations are that you do not rename families from within the
Project Browser of your project file/template, if you do want to change
the name of a family, do it outside of the project environment (either
renaming the .rfa from Windows Explorer, or saving as a new family, and
then loading the new family into your project, giving you the added
benefit of being able to select and replace content in the project
environment.

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Revit Families, Connectors and Formulas… What?!
Simon Whitbread, Autodesk

Revit Families – Planning Phase

I know there are some amongst us who are Revit Family Guru’s. Give
them the most complex geometry, expect the job to take… ages, and
within an hour you have a fully functional Revit family that caters for
most situations LOD100 through LOD400.
These people should be treated akin Gods!
For most people, myself included, you need to be methodical. Work
out EXACTLY what you want beforehand, sketch it, take photos, make
sure you know what variations are required.

If you have read or listened to any of

my work, you’ll know I’m a great
advocate of planning – Family
planning! And just as in real life, if you
don’t plan your families… things can
get a bit expensive!

With that in mind, its good working practice to sketch out what you are
trying to achieve (See Appendix A: Family Planning), and keep a
record of it. Utilise a set of recognised standards and shared
parameters that are appropriate to your local industry. Some good,
light reading, starting points are:

PAS1192:2013
BS1192:4 - COBie
Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010 Families Guide
Autodesk Revit Model Content Style Guide
AEC (UK) BIM Standard for Autodesk Revit

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Revit Families, Connectors and Formulas… What?!
Simon Whitbread, Autodesk

Revit Families - Geometry

One golden rule of family creation is:
Thou shalt not constrain to geometry
What this really means is that ALL geometry should be constrained
(locked) to reference planes or reference lines, never to other
geometry. This makes testing of your family relatively easy, sketch out
your reference planes, add constraints and test. When that works past
destruction, THEN add your geometry and test again. If the family now
breaks, you know the problem is with the geometry, not the reference
planes.

Another is:
Do-ist not unto sketches, actions that constrain geometry.
When it comes to adding dimensions and parameters, these should
always be added to the controlling reference elements, not the
geometry, and certainly not to the sketch of an object. There is nothing
worse than trying to decipher someone else’s work where you cannot
find the parameters as they have been buried deep within the family.

Breaking the rules

Yes, sometimes there is no alternative, the only one however that
springs to mind is radii or diameters. These cannot be constrained by
reference planes (although reference lines can do this).

Let’s take a look at the basic ways of creating geometry and then at
how it can be controlled using parameters and formulas.

For the sake of this documentation

and your eyesight, I’m not going to
cover these basic modelling tools
(breathes sigh of relief – “that’s a
bit less writing to do”)

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Revit Families, Connectors and Formulas… What?!
Simon Whitbread, Autodesk

But I do want to look at some subtle differences between a couple of

the modelling options.
In this family MEP example, I want to do a few things:
1. Add some basic geometry
2. Add connections to the geometry
3. Control the ‘handing’ of connections –
Mirror isn’t the tool to use for most
equipment.
4. Add basic formulas to control the family.

These three connections to this mechanical

equipment are created using a. Extrusion,
b. Sweep and c. Revolve

So, why the difference? Well, if I want to ‘hand’

this family, not mirror, there are some specific
actions that need doing and that isn’t obvious
until we use the parameters to control or hand
the spigots.

With the parameters changed, let’s examine

the results:
a. The spigot has handed, but the duct
connector is pointing in the wrong
direction (more on that later), so
Extrusions are obviously not the modelling
tool we use in this situation.
b. and c. Here we have connectors that
have handed correctly, so using a
sweep or revolve will work for MEP
connectors. One additional action has
been done to spigot b. The geometry
has been joined to the main body of the
family giving the illusion that the
connector has swapped sides.

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Revit Families, Connectors and Formulas… What?!
Simon Whitbread, Autodesk

Revit Families – Constraints, Parameters and Formulas

Staying on the same theme, same family,
let’s take a look at how the duct spigot is
controlled:
Firstly, all the reference planes were
sketched, then the dimensions added.
Parameters are then assigned to the
dimensions and finally formulas assigned
to the parameters.

Why Duct Control and Duct Spigot Control

and Why stick them out to the side? (left
or right it does not matter, but for the sake
of consistancy, I always go left)
These parameters are used to allow the ‘handing’ Its hard to make a
dimension reverse itsself which is what we want to do in the case of
the spigot length if we want to effectively mirror it, so the best way is to
keep the Duct Control further out that the width of the equipment and
this can be done with a simple formula:
Duct Control = Width + 500 mm

Duct Spigot Control is slightly more complex – but not much. We have
a parameter Spigot Length which we will make, say 300mm. So it is
simple math then to say:
Duct Spigot Control = Duct Control - (Width / 2) – Spigot Length

From the above:

Duct Spigot Control = 1500 – 500 – 300 = 700mm

But what happens with the handing? This is where we now add two,
Yes/No parameters Left Hand and Right Hand. To make sure we can
only select one, we can apply the formula:
Right Hand = not (Left Hand)

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Revit Families, Connectors and Formulas… What?!
Simon Whitbread, Autodesk

Finally we must add a conditional (or ‘if’) statement to control the

Duct Spigot Control. Conditional statements use the following
structure:
If (<Parameter Name> , <result if true> , <result if false>)

And the task here is to find the length if left handed and length if right
handed, which goes like this:
if(Left Handed, (Duct Control - (Width / 2) - Spigot Length),
(Duct Control + (Width / 2) + Spigot Length))
Here, for clarity, the parentheses are colour coded:
() = overall formula
() = result if true with a nested () calculation, and
() = result if false, also with a nested () calculation

Which all adds up to a left or right handed piece of equipment just as

in the real world, as previously stated, just mirroring an element may
not give you the same result if the equipment is .

Here, we can see the results in the family types dialog where:

1. Type Parameters
2. Instance parameters are shown
with a (default) value.
3. A new feature to Revit 2015, is
that families created in this
release have alphabetically
arranged parameters.
4. The arrangement can be set to
Ascending or Descending
5. Here you can adjust the position
of any given parameter, a useful
tool whether you are upgrading
a family, or just want to move
really important parameters.

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Revit Families, Connectors and Formulas… What?!
Simon Whitbread, Autodesk

Revit Families - Connectors

Connectors are the way Revit MEP holds everything together, without
them, not only would Ducts and Pipes etc. not be able to physically
connect, but they would not be able to distribute the design data
throughout their respective systems.
With this in mind, it is crucial that connectors are created with the right
parameters and positioned (as we saw in the Geometry section) on the
right type of geometry.
Something else extremely important is understanding the relationships
that exist in Revit Systems, This can be described as a Child and Parent
relationship (another family metaphor).
Systems should always start with a child (funny, in families I thought it
generally started with parents but, chicken and egg – bear with me…).
So, the child, if we were to look at an air distribution system, would be
akin to a Diffuser (Air Terminal), whose flow configuration is set to Preset.
The parent’s associated connector is Calculated, and anything that
splits the flow – System.

Another thing that must be

correct is the the direction
of the connector AND
direction of flow – they are
not the same thing.
Connectors ALWAYS point
in the direction of the
connecting geometry. But
the direction of flow can,
and in a lot of instances,
will, be different.

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Revit Families, Connectors and Formulas… What?!
Simon Whitbread, Autodesk

Lets start with the diffuser.

When selecting the connector we can see the associated

parameters the need to be set in order for this to work in
the project.
 As this is the child, the flow configuration is set to ‘Preset’
 Flow direction is IN, that is, it is flowing into the diffuser
 System Classification – well, there’s your family planning,
if you don’t know what this is, you may well be up that
certain creek without a paddle.
 Loss Method, here you have the choice of:
o Specific Loss (which activates the Pressure Drop
parameter)
o Coefficient which activates the Loss Coefficient
parameter
o Not Defined
 Shape – this defines the shape of the duct connector –
Round, Rectangular and Oval
 I’ve left Pressure Drop, Flow, and the dimensions until last as they are
quite special. Notice that these have a box to the right side of the
dialog. These boxes allow you to associate this parameter with one
in the family. If this is not set, then the value (take Height which is
currently set to 355.6) cannot be changed – anywhere, so if you
want to be able to calculate or specify values in the project, you
must have these values associated with a parameter. Click on a box
and the Associate Family Parameter allows you to either select a
predefined parameter, or create a new one.
 Remember of course that if you want to
use any of these values in Tags or
Schedules, the parameter associated,
must be a shared parameter.

Page 9 of 19
Revit Families, Connectors and Formulas… What?!
Simon Whitbread, Autodesk

When we start getting more than one

connector, you may want to assign a
relationship between the connectors so
deign information can be passed through
the family.

In addition to this, adding formulas as a

design check process can be a huge benefit

In this Family types dialog, some additional parameters have been

added:

1. Design Air Flow,

this matches the
family type

2. AF1 & AF2, these

take the Design Air
Flow and have a
design tolerance,
in this case +-15%

3. Design Notes. This

parameter uses
the same
conditional format
we used earlier:

There are two additional text parameters (shared parameters), Warning

Note_1 and Warning Note_2, which have the values, ‘By Design’ and
"CHOOSE ANOTHER SIZE". So if the actual airflow for a particular family
type falls outside of the design tolerances, the designer will see this
displayed in the family, and in a schedule.

if(Nominal Air Flow > AF1, Warning Note_2, (if(Nominal Air Flow < AF2,
Warning Note_2, Warning Note_1)))

Page 10 of 19
Revit Families, Connectors and Formulas… What?!
Simon Whitbread, Autodesk

Revit Families - Type Catalog files

Type Catalogs are a great way of managing families with multiple
types and give you the added flexibility of being able to update the
data – say for manufacturer updates without actually opening the
family file
First, we need to create a Type Catalog file, then edit it in Excel. Once
the data has been populated, save the file as a Comma Delimited file
(.CSV), finally rename the file to a text format (.TXT)

The initial creation of a type catalog is easy, with your family open:

Goto the Application button and

select Export>Family Types, and save
the file to a suitable location

Open the file using Excel.

You will be prompted to

choose the file type that best
describes your data. Select
‘Delimited’ and click on ‘Next’

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Revit Families, Connectors and Formulas… What?!
Simon Whitbread, Autodesk

From the next dialog, choose

Comma as being your Delimiter,
click on Next again.

Select each column in turn and

make sure each field is set to Text,
even those ones that are numeric.
This will avoid any ‘default numeric
types’ being applied to your data.
Make sure that you use the
horizontal scroll bar (1) so you pick
up all columns.

You should now have the file

open and ready to edit.
Note the following:

 Cell A1 is blank, this is

intended
 Column A represents the
family Type names as you
would expect to see them
in your project.
 The subsequent columns
are notated as follows:

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Revit Families, Connectors and Formulas… What?!
Simon Whitbread, Autodesk

Parameter Name##Parameter Group##Parameter Units

It is worth pointing out here that if you are
starting this Type Catalog from scratch, but
have already defined the family, there are
some things you do not need to worry
about:
Parameter Group: This can be left as
“Other” as the positioning within the
family is decided in the Family Editor
Parameter Units: Although best
practice is to actually mention what
these units are in the catalog file, the
units, as the grouping, are defined in
the family.
Parameter Values: These are defined
in the Catalog File, not the family, so
will override any values when the
family is loaded into the project for the
first time.

When editing is complete, saveas a

Comma Delimited file (.CSV)

Create a copy of the CSV (So you

can come back to the original for
future updates)

Rename the file extension to .TXT

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Revit Families, Connectors and Formulas… What?!
Simon Whitbread, Autodesk

The file is now available to open in

Notepad.

Store the family and its

corresponding Type Catalog file in
the same folder. Names must be
identical apart from the file
extension.

As the family is loaded into the

project, the Specify Types dialog is
displayed allowing you to select
which type(s) you want to load to
the project.

Of course, best practice dictates that you do not load all types into the
project, but just the ones that are necessary. Additional types can be
loaded when required.

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Revit Families, Connectors and Formulas… What?!
Simon Whitbread, Autodesk

Tips and Tricks

Creating Loadable families from In-Place families

Say you have a Revit Maverick, someone who just won’t work the way
you want, and is always creating in-place families, your project is
loaded with them and everyone is getting ‘cheesed off’ because the
project is becoming slow. Once you’ve dealt with the root cause of the
problem (ie: plenty of Chunky Monkey Ice-Cream for a month), what
to do with all those in-place families? Rebuild them? Heck no… Turn
them into loadable families. It isn’t as hard as it sounds:

In this image the only ways we can

differentiate this family from a ‘normal’
one is that when selected:
1. The Edit In-Place option is available on
the ribbon and
2. There are no Family Types displayed in
the type selector.

Additionally, in-place families display

differently in a schedule:

3. Levels are only displayed for

loadable families
4. In the case of in-place
content, it cannot be
exchanged for other
equipment, even other in-
place objects.
5. While loadable families can be
exchanged.

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Revit Families, Connectors and Formulas… What?!
Simon Whitbread, Autodesk

This could take some time, depending on the

number of in-place families, but here goes:

A 3D view may be the best to work in. You just

need to be sure that you can see all the parts
of the in-place family. Select the offending
content and click on Edit In-Place.

You don’t need to worry about accidentally

selecting anything else – you can’t, so select all
the geometry in the in-place family and click
on create Group.

There’s a chance that you’ll get an error

message:

Revit will not allow you to include any connectors,

so you will have to add those in the new family
we are creating.

Give the group an appropriate name and you

will see it appear in the Project Browser, under
model groups.

Right click on the group and you will see ‘Save

Group’ click on this.

This is the clever bit…

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Revit Families, Connectors and Formulas… What?!
Simon Whitbread, Autodesk

We are saving a group, so:

1. Use the same name as the group name
2. Group to save is our Boiler 1 model group
3. The most important thing here is the file extension: .rfa. Well, what
else would you expect? 
The family is created, sans connectors, so you can edit the family, add
the connectors and load into your project.

But wait! How do we now change those in-

place families?
The trick now is to select each in-place family in
turn and create a model group for them, and
one for the loadable family. Select the groups
and from the type selector choose the group
containing the loadable family.
Remember to ungroup everything when
complete and delete the unused groups from
your project.
The families now perform and schedule
correctly.

But wait… there’s more!

What about system families? Roofs, Floors,
Walls… The same workflow applies to them. Just
another tool in your designer utility belt.

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Revit Families, Connectors and Formulas… What?!
Simon Whitbread, Autodesk

Reference Material
There is so much on this huge subject, pulling it all together could
almost be enough material for a new book… Hang on, hold that
thought…
Anyway, below are a few links to material that you might find of
interest:

Getting into the flow: Understanding Connectors in Revit MEP

Presented by Martin Schmid at AU2008, this is the document for
understanding Revit MEP connectors.
Go with the Flow – Part 1 and Part 2
Videos by Kyle Bernhardt and from the Inside the System blog.
Using Formulas in Revit MEP
A community edited page for maths lovers
Mastering Revit MEP 2015
A very handy reference book available in printed and e-book
formats

Page 18 of 19
Photo / Sketch / DWG:

Plan: 3D View:

Appendix B: Family Planning

Family Name:
Family Description:

Type
YES / No-Single Type / No-Multi Type
Catalogue:
IES File
YES / No Lookup Table Required YES / No
Required:
3. Parameters:
Parameter Name: Description: Initial Value:
Front: Back:

Left: Right: