Working with Revit Parametric Elements

Working with Revit Parametric Elements

Every element in Revit is considered a
family, and each family belongs to a category. Figure 2.1
shows the basic Revit object model. In this section, we’ll discuss how Revit organizes all these families into categories and why this makes sense from a work flow and consistency point of view.Then, we’ll look at the different types of families,the principles of their behavior, and how to create them.

Revit uses a classification system to organize all the families (content) in the model. This system of organization is based specifically on the AEC industry and is set up to help manage relationships between classes of elements as well as the graphical representation for each class. To see all the categories available in a Revit Project, go to Settings Object Styles (see Figure 2.2).

At the core of this organization is a fixed list of categories
to which all elements ultimately belong.
Although this may seem stringent, it works well and will help you maintain a consistent graphical
representation across your projects. As you can see, every element belongs to a category, and that category is either a model or an annotation object. In addition, each element is either 2D or 3D in nature. Whenever the mouse hovers over an element,a tool tip appears and tells you what kind of element it is and what category it belongs to (see Figure 2.3). If you aren’t working in a work sharing (multiuser) project, then the first bit of text in the tool tip tells you what category the element belongs to. If you’re in a work sharing project, the category is preceded by the name of the work set containing the element. (See Chapter 20 for more detail on work sharing.) The next part of a tool tip tells you the family name, and then comes the family type. So, the tooltip follows this logic: