Thursday, June 13, 2013

This Family uses a Type Catalog

A family that has a type catalog must be loaded properly, either with Load Family while placing a component or via Load from Library, or using a right click > reload in the Project Browser.

If you don't select at least one type from a catalog Revit will load the default type, don't do it. Select at least one type to reload or load. Don't drag and drop from Windows Explorer either.

A family that has a type catalog really ought to only have one "default" type. Lately I have settled on using the name: "This family uses a Type Catalog". If I find that type in a project I know it has been loaded at least once improperly. That type will never appear in the project if the catalog is used.

Do NOT use Edit Family (from inside a project) with families that have type catalogs, it puts all the loaded types from the project in the family. If you edit a family that uses a Type Catalog and it has a bunch of types "inside" it either wasn't cleaned up well or someone used Edit Family from a project. Related to this is, do NOT use Load into Project while working on the family, it does not look for or offer the type catalog and you end up with the default type in the project.

An earlier post included most of this but I decided it bears repeating, separately.

2 comments:

Erik said...

I sit OK to cut and paste this DIRECTLY to our manual? Because, AMEN BROTHER!!!

Steve said...

One reason to let Revit load the default type "This Family uses a Type Catalog" into a project is that it becomes easier to tell the difference between a family that uses a type catalog and those that don't. Something to consider.