In Revit, a “Family” is the fundamental building block of any project. Every element within Revit is based on these families. As carriers of information, families represent a concrete form of parameterization. Revit offers a powerful Family Editor that enables users to create custom component families tailored to their specific needs. Through the Family Editor, users can add essential parameters such as size, material, and more, allowing for flexible definition and customization of different families. Families are categorized based on their function into three types: system families, standard component families, and built-in families.
System Families: These are predefined families in Revit that include fundamental building components such as walls, doors, and windows. For instance, the wall system family includes types like interior walls, exterior walls, and foundation walls. While system families can be modified and duplicated, creating entirely new system families is not possible. Instead, new types within system families are generated by adjusting their parameters.
Standard Component Families: Also known as loadable families, these are used to create building components and certain annotation elements. They carry the primary model information, and a project’s family library is composed of various standard component families. Creating these families involves using Revit’s built-in family templates, which provide the framework for the new family. The Family Editor is used to create and modify these component families, which can be reused across multiple projects or saved in a personal family library. Standard component families are further divided into single component families and nested families. Nested families are created by loading one component family into another, where the new family contains the existing family and represents its parameters.
Built-In Families: These families fall into two categories: model components specific to a project and annotation components. Built-in families are created and used within a single project and exist only in that project’s file. They cannot be saved separately as RFA files, nor can they be extracted and reused independently outside the original project.
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