Chapter 5

Customizing System Families and
Project Settings in Your Template

In this chapter, we’ll dig into customizing the Revit system families. Knowing how to leverage the
adaptability of the system families by using type catalogs, view templates, and other global project
settings can save you headaches early in the design process. In addition, the documentation process
will be a lot easier because the assemblies are created correctly from inception.
You’ll learn to do the following:

◆

Create new types in the Family Editor for common building components such as walls,
floors, ceilings, roofs, and stairs

◆

Create type catalogs to quickly generate many types of the same family

◆

Create view templates for specific requirements

Wall Types

Walls are made from layers of materials that represent the construction materials used to build real
walls. In Revit, these layers can be assigned functional values, allowing them to join and react to
other layers in the model when walls, floors, and roofs meet. Each wall has at minimum a core, and
then you have the option to add additional layers of material to the core to create the wall. These
method, you will need to manually lock the relationship so that the dependency is established. To get
locks to appear, drag sketch lines so that they are co-incident with other lines, or use the align tool.

Figure 5.1

The sketch of a floor
can be constrained to
layers in a wall.

To access and edit wall-core boundaries and material layers, select a wall, go to the Element
Properties dialog, click Edit/New to open the Type Properties dialog, and then select the Structure
parameter to edit. Doing so opens a new Edit Assembly dialog. Here, you can define materials,
move layers in and out of the core boundary, and assign functions to each layer (see Figure 5.2).

Figure 5.2

Each wall type is com-
posed of layers of
material, defined in
the Structure/ Edit
Assembly dialog

Creating Custom Wall Types

The creation of new wall types consists of modifying wall structure and function properties. If
you have a series of wall types that are standard in your office, create them and add them to your
project template. A wall can be a simple structure (single-component wall) or a complex structure
(multi-component wall). The definition of the structure of the wall requires editing the wall’s Type


This is where you add, delete, or move a layer of the wall structure. Each wall layer is represented
as a separate row of information. Note that two of the rows are gray: They represent the boundaries
of the core of the wall (the structural part of the wall). They don’t represent any physical component
but are just a visual representation of the separation between the structural and non-structural
components of the wall. In between those two gray zones is the wall’s structural core layer.

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CHAPTER 5

CUSTOMIZING SYSTEM FAMILIES AND PROJECT SETTINGS IN YOUR TEMPLATE
The table is divided into four columns: Function, Material, Thickness, and Wraps:

Function

This column provides six options that relate to the purpose of the material in the wall
assembly. Each layer has a priority assigned to it that determines how it joins with other walls,
floors, and roofs:
Structure [1]: Defines the structural components of the wall that support that should be the
rest of the wall components (layers). This layer is the highest priority and joins with other
structural layers by cutting through weaker layers.
Substrate [2]: Forms a foundation for other layers (materials such as plywood or gypsum board).
Thermal/Air [3]: Defines the wall’s insulation layer.
Membrane Layer: A zero thickness material that usually represents vapor prevention.


Thickness

This value represents the actual thickness of the material. Note that the membrane
layer is the only layer that can have zero-thickness value.
4
1

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WALL TYPES

131

Figure 5.5

Two layers with same
priority but different
materials: The clean-
up between the layers
isn’t taking place be-
cause of the different
materials used. The
separation between
the two layers is indi-
cated with a thin line.

Wraps



To summarize, editing the wall structure means adding or deleting wall layers. Each of those lay-
ers needs to be associated with a priority, a material, thickness, and wrap information. To move
layers up and down in the table, or to add and remove layers, use the buttons at the bottom of
the dialog.
Once layers have been defined and positioned, you need to consider a few more properties.

Default Wrapping

Each wall layer can either wrap or not wrap at the ends of the wall or at inserts (windows, doors,
openings). To make this happen in the project, you need to decide whether the wrapping should
occur at openings or wall ends or at both conditions. For inserts, you can choose Do Not Wrap,
Exterior, Interior, or Both. Similarly, for wall ends, the options are None, Exterior, and Interior. The
1

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132
CHAPTER 5

CUSTOMIZING SYSTEM FAMILIES AND PROJECT SETTINGS IN YOUR TEMPLATE
default wrapping parameters appear in both the Edit Assembly window (Figure 5.3) and the wall’s
Type Properties dialog, as shown here:

Level of Detail


must place that one concrete layer between the gray core-boundary lines.

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FLOOR AND ROOF TYPES

133

Figure 5.7

The difference be-
tween (left) coarse and
(right) fine views is
that layers aren’t
shown, and you can
define a drafting pat-
tern if you wish.

Wall Function

Each wall has a function whose value is Interior, Exterior, Foundation, Retaining, or Soffit. Chang-
ing this parameter doesn’t affect the geometry of the wall but is useful for controlling the visibility
of walls and for scheduling purposes. Another important aspect of this categorization is during
export to DWG: You can assign each functional wall type to a different CAD layer for export.

Floor and Roof Types

The process of creating floor and roof types is similar to that of walls. Editing the floor structure fol-
lows the same principles as for the wall structure. The only parameter that is different is Wraps—


The property Variable
is selected, so the
floor layer has a non-
uniform thickness.

If the Variable property variable isn’t selected, as in Figure 5.10, the layer in question has a uni-
form thickness, and it will be so that the entire floor structure is going to be sloped.

Figure 5.10

The Variable property
isn’t selected, so
the floor layer has
uniform thickness
and the entire
structure slopes.

Ceiling Types

Ceilings are also system families. Revit includes two different ceilings families: a simple ceiling that
has no thickness or internal layers, and a multilayered ceiling that is identical to floors and roof in
terms of functionality. Specific to ceilings is that they don’t support the variable-layer thickness
functionality and don’t have a wrap function.

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STAIR TYPES


approaches and
material selections

Properties of Stairs

In the Element Properties dialog for a stair, you can control the following properties:

Calculation Rules

In the stair’s Type Parameters dialog, in the Construction/Calculation
rules, click the Edit button to open the calculation rules. To use the calculation functionality,
select the option at the top of the Stair Calculator dialog (see Figure 5.12). The calculation rule
is based on the universal calculation formula that sets the value that should result depending on
the size of the runs and risers. If this value can’t be achieved, it should at least be within the min-
imum and maximum range you’ve defined.

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CHAPTER 5

CUSTOMIZING SYSTEM FAMILIES AND PROJECT SETTINGS IN YOUR TEMPLATE
Figure 5.12

Stair Calculation
Options

Break Symbol in Plan

This parameter shows a break line in plan. If it’s selected, the break
symbol appears at the cut height of the stair. The part of the stair that is beyond the break symbol
(above the cut plane of the view) is shown with special subcategories of stairs: “Stairs beyond
cut line” and “Stringers beyond cut line.” Each can be assigned a different color and line type.
This setting is unique to the rest of the graphics used for the stair.
Figure 5.14 shows on the left a stair with visible break symbol and on the right the same stair
with no break symbol.

Text Size and Font

These properties of the text can be automatically added (up and down
from the instance properties of the stair).

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