Revit - Nested Families
Tags: 3d Modeling, Curtain Panels, Generic Family, RevitGet the Flash Player to see this player.
Software : Revit Architecture
Category : 3d Modeling, Curtain Panels, Nesting Familes
Description : We nest a generic family in a curtain panel and use the length and width of a single panel to drive the the amount of extrusion of each panel.
Creative Commons
DesignReform.net by David Fano is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at designreform.net.
The teacher is a little too schizophrenic, i.e. jumping around too much and too fast. I gave up on this tutorial although I wanted to learn it. Worst is that he’s not explaining enough in terms of what he’s doing, e.g. what he’s naming things etc. Most of all there is a lot of wasted time because he hasn’t thought this through yet. He’s making it up as he goes. There needs to be more forethought to this tutorial first to make it clear and concise.
I’ll try and re work it. sorry you didn’t like it.
I disagree with Jerrod. Maybe because I am very familiar with Revit but i fully understood it all.
OMG. I have to say this “Bad Bad video”. I too understand revit, to an expert level but this just confused the heck out of me. Or at least until I couldn’t take anymore and had to stop it. Please put that video in your back pocket and never take it out again. This should be a 3 minute straight forward video. If you are a new revit user please ‘disregard this demonstration’ (or at least the first 15 minutes anyway). It is no where NEAR as dificult as this video ‘tries’ to demonstrate. Yikes, it said something about a ‘nested familiy’ but 12 minutes into the video he’s still trying to create a flexible box. I’m normally not negative about anyone trying to educate people but don’t be lazy man, this video needs a re-do like the US needs a new goverment.
This was from a working session with students. I COULD redo all these videos and make them more efficient but then i would have no time and there would NO videos.
Sorry you didn’t like it. If you have site with better and clearer videos i will gladly link to it.
D
Please keep with your work.
I found it excelent.
Thankyou for sharing it with others.
MM
thanks! I give these away for free for that reason. If i were to sell them then I would be a bit more critical of the content and structure.
That being said i also like for people to see the trouble shooting process. many of these video are so “cooked” you never see what goes wrong.
Thanks for the kind words,
Dave
Great tips. Excellent video. Thanks Dave
I’ve previously had trouble with nested families and instance parameters loaded into curtain panels. Until now I’ve never completely understood why sometimes it works and other times it’s been a very frustrating failure.
Great! Glad it helped.
Dave
Nice vid! I learned a lot. I can see that there is a way to use the formulas to do proportional type constructions like golden section with the curtainwall.
Keep up the good work!!!
(ignore the bad comments)
I disagree with those who pretends professional video because these are free videos. I’m gona explorare your website because it seems very interesting, mainly for achivieng the flexibility of Revit.
Goog job, keep on!
I also disagree with all the negative comments. I would much rather view tutorials that were on a personal level and fast paced/jam packed as apposed to slow and monotone. The world moves faster every day. Keep up or fall behind.
I look forward to future tutorials. Keep up the great work.
Thanks
D
Hey dave just a quick question what is the difference between an instance an type parameter and how will that affect the parameters and the families.
Cheers
I think it’s important to understand the processes one goes thru when exploring something new. Therefore, the fact that this demonstration is not ‘perfect’ is exactly what’s valuable about it. It makes all of us aware that simple things are not always easy to achieve, and yet, with a bit of effort and patience, in the end, you can accomplish much more.
I also disagree with the negative comments, if I were paying for these I would be more critical, but for free, rock on Dave.
I have a request that you make a systematic video that gives people an overview of the different family template families. Each is set up very differently (profile vs. curtain wall panel), it would be nice to know when a user should use a different template.
Amazing, I want to congratulate your good intentions. I have bought so many video tutorials, and sometimes is just the voice that stops me for listening. Your tone of voice is clear and nice, and best of all you have the interested of sharing what you know. I am sure that many others find this helpful. I actually did, and I am a Newbie with Revit, learning from ScottOnstott instructional videos.
Thanks. Glad they help. feel free to post requests.
Good one Dave, It was quiet helpful and quiet personal. I was looking for tips to understand nested families, pretty much to the dot.
Thanks.
I say don’t worry about the presentation. Isn’t that how we work in the real world? The lessons that we learn is what is important.
Thanks
Hi Dave,
Liked the implications the video tutorial may have. doing landscape architecture now using mostly floor and wall tools. Often do fairly complex pavement pattern designs. Thinking beyond the box, would the curtain wall be a good way of generating complex pavement patterning that can be edited with parameters — paver dimensions, joint dimensions, thickness, finish and color?
Great site..I enjoyed it a lot..BTW Its the first time I’m posting my comments on a public place.
Cool! Thanks so much for posting a comment. They are always welcomed!
Good tutorial for parametric modeling with nested families.
Thanks David.
[...] This is a tutorial I learned from watching Phil Read at Autodesk University. Using curtain panels in Revit we create an undulating hexagon panel that can be hosted by a curtain system. I cover adding parameters and well as using reference planes and picking work planes. Watch Video [...]
Dave,
I have leant a lot. Can you tell me how to create a colobond panel wall and roof? Can I use curtain system?
Please help.
Kind regads,
John Ge
Hi Dave, for a free video which you have made off your own back for the benefit of people out there. Well done. I understand the negative comments that yes sometimes it goes back and forward, but it shows almost exactly what a user comes across in terms of problems.
Most of these comments that are negative I may add come from people who charge for the videos hhmmm!!
Ps you sound extremely similar to George Clooney lol
@ Daryl Gregoire,
hey, you should not comment like that. the guy is very kind to share his knowledge for free. and just like he said, its free! so its not that “cooked” as with other paid videos just like you do. yes - you are the same guy who sells video via cadclips.com - right? i recognize you. and for the record - your videos are also not organized and needs to be structured when its supposed to be “for sale”. why not pattern yours to Mr. Lay Christopher Fox - who also sells revit tutorial but very much structured and more “newbie” friendly.
@ Dave,
Please keep up the good work!
and more power!!
Thanks
This vid was insightful good one David
I did like this video from you, so keep up the good work…:-)
Daryl Gregoire,
You should talk! Or not. “Eh! didn’t mean to do that, eh! Let’s try this, eH!”
Your video’s should all be redone after you get a voice/language coach! After watching a couple of your video’s, they could brainwash someone into a canadian. Eh!
Cheers.
You know?!?! I never gave this much thought… but after David comments i realized that guy was from CADClips.com (http://www.cadclips.com/index.htm) Those comments were entirely uncalled for. IF you want to educate right me an email with constructive criticism. This site IS about learning and sharing. how about you make a new version and i will link to it. Daryl your tone was rude and unnecessary. I’m glad i caught this now. Thank to everyone for the kind words after the harsh comments. for the record i will make a new version of this video with better information.
Hey David,
I reckon you should ignore the bad comments. Yes, it is not always perfect, but neither is the use of the program. You do run into walls, and it does not always work as it should. Keep up the good work, and if someone does not like it they can bloody well create another free and improved version. Keep it up mate.
DARYL GREGOIRE is one of those guys that hustles unsuspecting Autodesk users to paying him for sub-par videos…you should never pay for training, with great resources like CASE, Autodesk Forums and others online . Yes, the vid is jumpy at first - but you are meant to watch these again and again– like DUH! Besides, David has show great progression with his recent vids. My only criticism is that when you redo this tutorial is that you obviously do it in Revit 2010. Also, can you apply the same principle used here to push and pull the panels to mullion systems or tubular structures- or maybe thats a different process altogether?
The negative comments are definitely unwarranted. I am pretty new to the parametric tools but I found the video a great demonstration and builds upon the other edpisodes you have posted. I also appreciate your progressive attitude about finding new uses for the stock tools like applying (curtainwall) grid modules for plan organization. thanks for sharing all this!
David,
Thank you for sharing your videos for free. It is a good refresher, to watch someone else have the same issues when building families. I was hoping to see a video exclusively on shared families, approached from the perspective of a window &/or door family.
Thank you again for sharing.
Good work,
Jeff
Ey David! I’m thrilled that i found this website in the right moment! Your videos are incredibly helpful and they contain information that i havent been able to find anywhere else. I have a tricky question for you though and because i’m kind of new on this parameters formula thingies..well, i couldnt do it
I pretty much followed your video step by step, and at first i though everything would be parametric ( width,height and depth). But now i see that its only width and height because they are dependent on the size of the curtain grid and the depth it’s conditioned with a formula; My question is: I would like my width & height be the same,i.e. 1 mt. ( square ) so i would need to make the curtain grid with the same dimensions in horizontal and vertical…but how could i make the depth of those squares to be random? Or to be at least between 2 numbers? Like .5 mt & 2.5 mts?. Thank you so much for your help and congratulations on all the things that you do! They’re seriously helpful for all of us
Pao
I’ve only spent a couple of days learning how to create families, and David’s video made sense to me. If it “confused the heck” out of Daryl Gregoire, then rest assured Mr Gregoire does *not* have an “expert understanding” of Revit (much less credentials to be creating his own instructional videos on the subject)!
Keep up the good work, David—I’m off to search for some more of your videos. (…and thankfully our company now knows to steer clear of CADClips.com!)
Thanks David, your video’s are very helpful. I work in Architectural Percast Design and our company is slowly making the shift to Revit. Our only issue is making panel tickets for each panel for production, I do not know if Revit can pull out & detail each panel with steel hadware and still be able update changes in the model as well. We have to export to AutoCAD right now and keep up with the changes in both places. I would like to find out if you can guide us in Revit and show us how this can be done. Thanks again.
JP,
You may also want to become a member of AUGI. There are many posts/people whom could answer your questions. In response to your question, yes I think it is possible to do what you’re thinking in Revit.
So strange to see anything even remotely negative in terms of “quality” of presentation here. Not sure why people cant keep in mind that 1st, this is all free material, and 2nd, you can stop the vid, and go somewhere else instead of putting up comments that have nothing to do with subject matter really.
great job coming up with this site, dave, also for keeping it relevant and fresh!
I think this is a great example of exploiting a Revit tool. It seems that there are some limitations in the program that make this a lengthy process, however it looks like Revit 2011 will have the option of creating a “Reporting Parameter” which can make this tutorial a lot more straight forward i.e. reducing the need to nest a Generic Family in a Curtain Wall Panel Family. A “Reporting Parameter” can just “Report” the height and width of the panel, rather than drive it, but those numbers can still drive other parameters in formulas. It’s mentioned here: http://autodesk-revit.blogspot.com/2010/03/whats-new-in-revt-architecture-2011.html
David and everyone else who takes the time to put this content out there:
Your hard work and time spent on this and other forums is much much appreciated. I especially find it USEFUL to see your mistakes, workarounds, reworks, and other minute errors and solutions…..because that’s what it’s really like working with these tools. It’s helpful to see how you work through solutions and organize your workflow. Thanks.
I think the video is fantastic and you learn alot more than what the actual goal of the tutorial is because it shows you how to deal with problems that arise and why things dont work! thanks heaps totally appreciated.