Modifying Families - Autodesk Revit Architecture 2015 Essentials - page 147

It is important to differentiate between the category of the family and the
template that the family was created with. While the family category can be
changed later, the type of host cannot be changed afterward. For example, sev-
eral generic model family templates are available when creating a new family,
such as the following examples:
▶ Generic Model ceiling based.rft
▶ Generic Model face based.rft
▶ Generic Model floor based.rft
▶ Generic Model roof based.rft
▶ Generic Model wall based.rft
If you start a new family with Generic Model floor based.rft , you can
always change the category from Generic Model to Furniture. However, it is not
possible to change the host from floor to wall-hosted. The Host family param-
eter is fixed according to the starting template.
In the following exercise you will change the category of an existing family
and load it back into the project.
exercise 6.3: edit the Family Category
To begin, go to the topic's web page at www.sybex.com/go/revit2015essentials ,
download the files for Chapter 6, and open the file c06-ex-6.3start.rvt .
1. From the 3D view select and right-click the face-based box, and
choose Edit Family from the context menu.
When the Family Editor opens, notice the “platform” the box is
sitting on. This is the context for the “face” of the face-based family
(Figure 6.12). Face-based and hosted families already have geometric
context (along with critical parameters and reference planes) in their
templates so you can model in context and test parametric behavior.
When this component was initially created, it needed to be face-
based. So, the default face-based template was used, Generic Model
face based.rft . Since the family category has never been modified,
it is still configured using the original Generic Models category. Now
let's assume the design has progressed and the component needs to
schedule as Specialty Equipment.