Family Thumbnail Images

When we are creating families for our projects or content library, one of the things that is usually forgotten is the Thumbnail preview image for the family. This can be a very unfortunate oversight as it can leave the end user totally reliant on the Family name.

The saying ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’ is true, especially when dealing with families.

 

Formula If Statements

When you are creating formulas in your Revit Families, there is a hierarchy to be followed. As Revit works its way along the formula, especially when you are using nested if statements with multiple conditions, these must be written before any statements with single conditions. Revit works along the lines of the first correct statement will take precedence.

In the example below I have created 2 formulas, they are both the same except they are written in 2 different directions. All statements are correct but the result is determined by the formula hierarchy.

The ‘RESULT 1’ formulas is…..

If A=100 and B=200 and C=300 then the result is 1.0

And if A=100 and B=200 then the result will be 2.0

And if A=100 then the result will be 3.0

And if neither of these statements is correct then the result will be 0

When this is written in the formula because the first multiple statement is correct then the result will be 1.0 even though all of the statements are technically correct, Revit has to pick one result so it takes the first one.

The ‘RESULT 2’ formula is…..

If A=100 then the result will be 3.0

And if A=100 and B=200 then the result will be 2.0

And if A=100 and B=200 and C=300 then the result is 1.0

And if neither of these statements is correct then the result will be 0

When this is written in the formula because the first single statement A=100 is correct then this takes precedence and the final result is 3.0. Again all of the statements are technically correct so it picks the first one in the formula.

The ‘rule of thumb’ is to write your statements with multiple conditions at the beginning of the formula and leave your single statements until the end. 

Go To Views

This is a tip that has been around for a while but it is good to go back to the basics sometimes.

When you have view symbols in your model, to quickly go to the views they reference use the mouse ‘double click’ (instead of having to use the project browser).

For Elevations

Double click on the arrow symbol (not the circle) this will take you to the view.

For Sections

Double Click on the section head (not the line) and this will take you to the view.

For Callouts

Double click on the View symbol (not the callout box) and this will take you to the view.