Adding Families - Autodesk Revit Architecture 2015 Essentials - page 117

Chapter 5
adding Families
What is a family in the Autodesk ® Revit ® Architecture software? In the
simplest terms, a family can be thought of as repeatable geometry for use in
a project. You will now take a step back from the modeling exercises in the
previous chapters to develop a better understanding of the basic building
blocks that make up a Revit Architecture project.
In this chapter, you'll learn to:
▶ View and modify the family category
▶ Work with and load system families
▶ Work with and load component families
▶ Work with hosted families
▶ Work with face-based families
▶ Create an in-place family
▶ Find and load family content into your project
Understanding the Model hierarchy
In Chapters 2 (“Walls and Curtain Walls”), 3 (“Floors, Roofs, and Ceilings”),
and 4 (“Stairs, Ramps, and Railings”), you learned about some basic model
elements such as walls, floors, and roofs. These types of objects are known as
system families in the Revit Architecture software. To better explain what a
family is and how it relates to your workflow, let's explore how data is orga-
nized in the Revit Architecture platform.
One of the unique characteristics of the program is its inherent model
hierarchy. In a simple description, this hierarchy can be expressed as (from
broad to specific) project, category, family, type, and instance .
project This is the overall container for the model geometry and
information.