Monday, February 03, 2014

Change a Family's Category

Most of the time we can change a family's category. We can open the family, click Family Category and Parameters and choose a different category.


An exception to the rule is when we attempt this with a family that is already assigned to the Structural Framing category. Revit will let us think we've succeeded until we try to use the family in a project or reload it.


The special Revityness of structural framing prevents this transition. If you've already loaded and created an instance of the family in a project Revit will generate an error and invite you to delete the family type(s). The moral of the story is "don't because you can't".

6 comments:

ambrozote said...

Had I found this post before creating a structural framing family that I need to change to generic model....

do you know if this is the only family that does not allow changing?

Steve said...

Not certain at the moment, I suspect changing any family category that uses a specific placement technique, like framing does (line based too), would be at odds with some other category selections. We definitely can't change to Mass or from Mass to something else.

laura said...

So, I really need to be able to do this. We do structural framing shops with post and beam aluminum profiles that do not have the 'behaviors' that most revit structural families come with- I need to be able to export a precise cut length without it attempting to 'join' the end of the beam with a column or adjacent framing member- the offets are really hard to control (based on the material assignment?).. maybe it's simple but i've wasted some serious time googling how to control the 'joininess' of revit structural framing members to get these to do what i want and the easier solution seems to be to use a generic model despite the bad categorization. problem is, all my fancy parametric work that i built into my structural framing member for hole drilling and clip connectors etc etc will have to be rebuilt from scratch because I cant change the category!.. arghghg revit.

Steve said...

Laura I believe you'll want to use the other Structural family template for your work. It's called Structural Framing - Complex and Trusses.rft.

It won't provide a two pick behavior like the Structural Framing -Beams and Braces.rft does but it will stop the joining you are dealing with.

Anonymous said...

Is there a way to create a new family type?

Steve said...

If by Family Type you mean a new Revit Category, then no. Those are preset by Autodesk.

If you mean a new Revit family type, then yes. You need to open the Family Types dialog and click New in the Types frame.