Downloads Fixed - Some

I have been trying to carve out a little time here and there to fix the paths to downloads I've shared in the past. As of now the most requested stuff is fixed, the egress family and railing files. If you try to download something and hit a page not found warning, drop a comment in the post to bring it to my attention and I'll make it a priority.

Thanks for being patient - The mGmT...

Line Styles Embedded in Families

Reading a thread at AUGI tonight prompted this post. Line Styles aren't a thing in Revit families, the option is disabled if you attempt to review them while in the Family Editor UI.

The family discussed in the thread seems innocent enough until it is loaded into a project file. These are the line styles that are in the default template (imperial).

This is the same dialog after loading the family; nearly 100 more (98) line styles show up.

The culprit is Transfer Project Standards (TPS). It is easy to transfer line styles from a project to a family. We need Object Styles in families not Line Styles. Make sure you don't select Linestyles when/IF you use TPS.

If you've already got many rogue Line Styles you can delete them from the project and in Revit 2016 you can select more than one at a time and click Delete. Just remember if Delete is disabled then you've got a built-in (system) line style selected.

What about cleaning out the family itself? They don't give us a tool to do that. Purge Unused doesn't see them unfortunately. Robert Bell, in the AUGI Thread, offers a solution though. Load the bad family into a empty template (choose the None option for example). Delete all of the line styles you don't want. Then Save the family and overwrite the original. If the family is already loaded into your project just do the same thing, delete the line styles (it's just a little harder to tell) and Save the family to overwrite the original.

While you're at it, don't use TPS on Line Patterns, like shown in the image above. You'll probably get many more than you really want too. Those can be deleted a bit more easily though.

I checked the Autodesk Exchange Apps site to see if any offer a way to purge line styles from families. I found one that does it for projects but none that claim to do it for families; at least not based on searching for that criteria. It might be something Dynamo can be used to resolve; I'll have to check into that.

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Update 08/22/2016: Dale Bartlett has shared an app to purge these embedded line styles.
Update 05/09/2017: The file is no longer where Dale shared it, I don't know where it is now so I've removed the link.
Update 05/15/2017: Dale provided a new link to a 2017 compatible version VIA THIS URL.

Purge Unused - Categorical Wish and Dynamo

I wish we could choose a single category or several individual categories while using Purge Unused. The dialog defaults to selecting everything that is not used. It's normal to have things that just aren't used yet. That means a generic application of Purge Unused on everything will eliminate things we need, just haven't needed them yet.

I'd like to be able to click the Check None button and the check a box next to a category or categories.

I think the default presumption for Purge Unused should NOT be everything selected. We should have to deliberately do that using the Check All button instead.

It would be a lot faster than working through a long list of families and the unused types. Ideally (even ordinarily) the list wouldn't be long but I've seen some lists that go on and on...

For what it is worth, we can select a category and use NUM LOK + * to expand the whole branch of that category. Then we can select the first and last types in the branch followed by clicking OK to Purge Unused. It just takes a while for the list to respond when there are a few thousand types...yeah I know...that's a lot!

Regarding Dynamo

I pinged Julien Benoit about this and using Dynamo. In response he was kind enough to send me the graph below.

At the moment it leaves behind a Family with no types if the purging process eliminates types and there were no types in use. Given how quickly he responded to my question WITH an attachment, no complaints here! Thanks Julien! Check out Julien's blog while you are at it.

Audit

I wish Audit had more to say. I wish I had a clue what it was actually trying to do, what it cares about, why I should care about it.

The WikiHelp says this about Audit:

Scans, detects, and fixes corrupt elements in the project. This option can greatly increase the time required to open files. Use this option only for periodic maintenance of large workshared files or when you are preparing to upgrade.

It doesn't tell us what it did, if there was anything to do or fix or that our file was too excellent to do anything at all. That's all I want for Christmas. Okay, that's not true but I'd still like it for Christmas.