android tv

Can you change built-in parameters from Type to Instance based, and vice versa?  This post shows you can. 

The essence of the workflow is to

• start a family with the desired template, 
• add a value to the parameter, 
• change the Family Category to something that doesn't have that parameter built-in, 
• switch the parameter to Instance, 
• then change the Family Category back to the original

Read the more detailed version here:
http://aectechtalk.wordpress.com/2013/12/26/change-revit-voltage-parameter-from-type-to-instance/

(It is based on changing voltage parameter to Instance based for Electrical Equipment)

Following this tweet from Sean:

@djnelson75 @lukeyjohnson that's mysterious, especially since there's nothing for signage and roads STILL doesn't have a use.
— Sean David Burke (@seandburke) September 9, 2013

(which was in response to my post about the Revit Category Guide.)

I was tempted to use the IFC roundtrip method to make some Road families in Revit.  So, here they are for download:

You can't Schedule or Tag them normally, but you can use Material Tags, modify the Category and Subcategories using Object Styles, and view them in the Project Browser.

As always, use these "unsupported" methods with care...

Here are some similar posts:
Convert All Masses (including in-place Mass) to Generic Models via IFC

You can break Revit by making Room families

In-place and Component families of Stair and Railing Category

A while back, RevitCat got me thinking about the rules associate with family swapping in Revit.  Here are a couple:

• You can change the Category of a family (using Edit Family, Load into Project) with a particular name, and all instances of that family will also (obviously) change Category.  Obviously, there are certain restrictions to this process (for instance, you can't switch to Mass category or from Mass category without some kind of hack).
• You can swap a family of a certain Category for a totally different family of the same Category using 'Reload' in the Project Browser, or 'Select All Instances' and then just changing the instances in the Type Selector.

Unless you can reverse engineer this bug, you will have to essentially follow RevitCat's advice - to change just a single Type of a Family to a different Category, I would probably Edit the Family (from the Project Browser), save/rename it, load it, Select All Instances of the Type you want to switch, change it to the renamed version, and then use the method from the first bullet point above.

In response to:
RevitCat: Changing category of just one type in a Revit family

Another interesting point from his post:
If you plan to change categories of a family, it will appear to wipe out the sub-categories - but actually they are still there, hidden away;  they may show up in the project listed under the old category in Visibility Graphics.