10 May REVIT Best Practices: Setting up a Project Template Part 6 – Typical Doors & Windows
Continuing on our REVIT template journey, we are going to look at loading some typical door and window families. Although the standard REVIT door and window families aren’t horrible, they don’t offer the level of flexibility I like when jumping into REVIT. They are one of the first families I always load, so why not make sure some of our standards are at the ready.
TYPICAL REVIT WINDOW AND DOOR FAMILIES. ALTHOUGH THESE AREN’T HORRIBLE WHEN STARTING OFF A PROJECT, I PREFER BASE COMPONENTS THAT OFFER MORE FLEXIBILITY. DO THE WINDOWS HAVE MULLIONS? DO THEY HAVE TRIM?
The first task in getting our standard door and window families into our REVIT template is unfortunately a bit of house-keeping. Our digital library is organized according to MasterFormat 2012. The first folder doesn’t look so bad…
OUR DIGITAL LIBRARY IS ORGANIZED ACCORDING TO MASTERFORMAT 2012
But, once you get past that pretty veneer, things start to get a little messy. For example, our 08_Openings folder is a hodge-podge of a few libraries merged together. Originally we had a manufacturers library and a cad block library. When we started to use REVIT, we realized that we didn’t want another library with duplicate information. Now we have one CSI organized library that is meant to house all of our product and material information.
OUR EXISTING 08_OPENINGS FOLDER ORGANIZATION. DOESN’ T LOOK TOO ORGANIZED! THE PROBLEM WITH THIS LAYOUT IS THAT THERE ARE A BUNCH OF DUPLICATE INFORMATION. THIS HAPPENED WHEN WE MERGED OUR CAD BLOCK LIBRARY, WITH OUR MANUFACTURER LIBRARY, WITH OUR REVIT LIBRARY. IT HAS BEEN ON THE TO DO LIST FOR YEARS, BUT BECAUSE WE ARE LOOKING AT STREAMLINING OUR REVIT TEMPLATE, THE 08_OPENINGS FOLDER IS GOING TO BE THE FIRST TO GET A FACELIFT!
So, technically step 1 of this process is determining the folder hierarchy.
CSI FOLDER HIERARCHY
Step 2, is to actually organize the folder to follow the rules!
SNAPSHOT OF THE RE-ORGANIZED 08_OPENINGS FOLDER…AHHH THAT FEELS BETTER!
THIS IS THE NEW FOLDER LAYOUT WITHIN THE CSI (CONSTRUCTION SPECIFICATION INSTITUTE) SUB-HEADINGS. THIS WILL MAKE IT EASY TO NAVIGATE WHEN LOADING A NEW COMPONENT. DO WE NEED A GENERIC COMPONENT, OR ARE WE LOOKING FOR MANUFACTURER SPECIFIC COMPONENTS OR DETAILS.
MAKE SURE TO DELETE DUPLICATE RFA FILES WHEN CLEANING UP YOUR LIBRARY. #SPRINGCLEANING
A SNAPSHOT OF THE HAYNE GENERIC DOOR LIBRARY. NOTE THE NAMING SYSTEM: FUNCTION_BRIEF DESRIPTION.RFA BY NAMING IT THIS WAY, IT MAKES IT EASIER TO FIND THAT 4 PANEL CENTER OPEN SLIDER!
Now, that our folders are organized (that took a while!)… We can insert them into our REVIT template and set them up for easy use.
CREATE A NEW LEGEND VIEW TO LAYOUT YOUR TYPICAL DOORS AND WINDOWS.
LOAD IN YOUR TYPICAL FAMILIES. THIS SHOULD BE SUPER EASY NOW THAT YOUR FOLDER IS ORGANIZED!
I HAVE ONLY LOADED IN A FEW FAMILIES SO AS NOT TO BOG DOWN THE TEMPLATE, BUT THESE FAMILIES OFFER MORE OPTIONS THAN THE STANDARD REVIT TEMPLATE DOOR AND WINDOW TYPES. OUR DOORS AND WINDOWS ARE CREATED USING “NESTED FAMILIES”. THIS ALLOWS US TO HAVE ONE FUNCTION DOOR OR WINDOW TYPE, SUCH AS SWING OR SLIDER AND LOAD IN DIFFERENT DOOR PANEL TYPES. PERHAPS A DISCUSSION FOR ANOTHER DAY…
A SNAPSHOT OF OUR CURRENT DOOR PANEL TYPES. AS WE COME ACROSS A NEW DOOR TYPE, SUCH AS A DUTCH DOOR OR A ROUND TOP DOOR, WE CAN CREATE IT AND LOAD IT INTO OUR ALREADY ESTABLISHED DOOR FAMILY.
THE NEW HAYNE TYPICAL DOORS.
THE NEW HAYNE TYPICAL WINDOWS.
Now, I think its time for a nap…
