BIG REVIT FAMILY SIZES – SO WHAT?

When a Project file increases unreasonably it can affects productivity, output speed and sometimes even file stability.

WHAT INCREASES FAMILY SIZE OR FILE PERFORMANCE IN PROJECT FILES

It has been well documented by several experienced content creators internationally that the following items, when used in families, can negatively affect file performance. Please do your own research at Autodesk University for more information on these points. I won’t be justifying these comments in this document at this stage. (Too time consuming)

•  Avoid Nesting – where appropriate and relevant
• Avoid voids in families, where appropriate
• Trigonometry formulas can slow down projects due to demanding families that require quite a bit of computing power to edit in Projects. Not always – but sometimes it may be better to have more parameters but simpler formulas.
• Arrays affect family performance dramatically but sometimes they can’t be avoided. Avoid parametric arrays in the rare instances where you know you won’t need to formulate or adjust the family and it represent a fixed size etc.
• Hide 3d geometry in plan views for large projects. Some even do it for elevations. Does improve performance.

NESTED FAMILIES – ADVANTAGES & DISADVANTAGES

Using nested families can be convenient from a content creator’s point of view and can seem to be ‘the only way” to make families. There are a few things to consider when using nesting in family creation and I want to make you aware of some of the ramifications of choosing nesting as a way to create your components. Here is a table of some of the advantages and disadvantages of nesting. I’m a big fan of using the right tool at the right time… and nesting isn’t always “it”, especially in project types where a large number of components are used. E.g. Retail stores or Hotel interior projects. Click on table for clearer view.

© Copyright Reserved by Michelle Louw (Excerpt from My speaker notes at National Revit Technology Conference 2008.)