In the fourth part of my 'Creating Revit families' series I will be demonstrating how to design and model a 3D coffee/tea cup in Revit. If you are new to creating families and wish to learn some more of the basics, you may want to check out Part 1 - Parametric cube, Part 2 - Parametric table, Part 3 - Parametric window If you are already familiar with creating basic families, and you want to learn about some of the more advanced features of creating families used in the Coffee cup family (revolves, sweeps, blends etc.) then continue on to the following instructions:

To round up the beginners family series, before I move on to some more advanced geometry and adaptive components, I will explain all of the 3D modeling tools available in the Revit Family environment and display some of the different uses for each tool along with an image as an example of each method / tool available in Revit. (Sorry about the Marble finish I have set as my generic model material ;))
 

Recently when creating families in Revit, I came across a problem. When creating a square extrusion, lets use for this example a table top. If you want to have curved edges on the front and back edge of the table, it is possible to draw your extrusion in an elevation view e.g. Elevation left, as shown below. What you will achieve is, as you would expect a rectangle extrusion with rounded edges as you have drawn the profile in the elevation.

Smart browser - Free family browser byTools4Revit is a useful tool which can be used to organise and sort your Revit families into categories. If you are anything like me and store all your families in the same folder in a rather organised way, then this tool is definitely something which you should look into. Over the course of about 5 years I have built up a huge catalogue of over 1000 families.. You can imagine how hard it can be to find what you want, especially if you weren't so careful naming it in a way it could be easily recognised. The Smart browser will arrange your families into the following categories: Generic models, Furniture, Windows, Curtain panels, Detail items, Mass, Specialty.

In this post I will be showing you how to create a door family in Revit 2013 which can open and close as well as being fully parametric. If you are new to family creation you may wish to check out the tutorials section of my website and follow the family series from the beginning. Click here to view previous tutorials. 

To get into the festive spirit, BIM Object, a Swedish BIM component portal have released a Halloween style pumpkin which can be download as a Revit family amongst other formats. They will be donating €1 for every unique download. (I'm not trying to bankrupt BIM Object) but if we all downloaded and shared this with our friends, a fairly susbstantial amount could be raised for a fantastic charity.

Adaptive points are a tool which has been available in Revit since the 2011 release. They are an adaption of the pattern based curtain panel. Adaptive families, unlike a standard parametric family, which can be resized by flexing and changing values are able to adapt to different situations and scenarios in a building, controlled by the points you setup. They are often used for panels and curtain panels which are similar in appearance and function but different sizes. Adaptive families are able to 'adapt' to their surrondings by settings points as markers or connectors. e.g. A square panel will have 4 adaptive points which you will add on each of the 4 corners of the structural framing.

When creating large Revit families which have a number of types / variations (e.g. size) of the same model, it may be useful to create a 'type catalog' to accompany the family in your project. In short, a type catalogue will reduce the amount of data going into your model when you import a new component / family. Rather than loading all 6+ types of the same family into the project, it will allow you to pick from a list (your type catalog) which size or modification of your family that you need loaded in this particular instance. This is particularly useful in families where you have 6 or more different types which could significantly slow your project down.