I don't see this technique used much but it is a pretty good way to let a user know that a family is supposed to be loaded with a Type Catalog. I was reminded of this by a thread at the RevitForum.org which also pointed to another thread at AUGI.
It's easy, create one "default" type in a family that uses a Type Catalog but instead of "default" use a more descriptive name like, "Family Is Not Loaded Correctly" or "This Family Uses a Type Catalog" or "You Should find the Type Catalog"... get the idea?
When you gaze over a list of families in the project browser you'll see that a family was loaded at least once without the type catalog because your "default" special name will be among the types listed there.
It's easy, create one "default" type in a family that uses a Type Catalog but instead of "default" use a more descriptive name like, "Family Is Not Loaded Correctly" or "This Family Uses a Type Catalog" or "You Should find the Type Catalog"... get the idea?
When you gaze over a list of families in the project browser you'll see that a family was loaded at least once without the type catalog because your "default" special name will be among the types listed there.
3 comments:
Nice tip Steve. Until today I used to make a crazy type as default, so that user will know it has to be loaded with catalog; mainly use here with nested families.
Julien
When I create a family that has a type catalogue I load it in to a project, then delete all the types of the family in the browser, then right click on the family and save it to the library. That way I am sure that there are no other types created than those in the type catalogue when used in a project.
Cheers,
JH75
Taking that extra effort to have no types will just produce a type for the family that matches the family name if it is loaded without the type catalog.
It is generally recommended to define one type for any family.
Creating a type that indicates a type catalog is used just means that, if we see this family type listed, it wasn't loaded properly, which isn't much different than removing all types and seeing a family type named the same as the family, but it is less effort.
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