The family concept in Autodesk Revit is a powerful tool designed to help you manage data and make modifications more efficiently. A family represents a class of elements within a specific category. These families group elements that share common parameters (attributes), similar usage, and graphical representations. While individual elements within a family may have different property values, the properties themselves—their names and meanings—remain consistent across the group. For example, lighting fixtures can be considered a family, even though the chandeliers within this family may vary in size and materials.
Each family element can contain multiple types. Depending on how the family creator designs it, each type can differ in size, shape, material settings, or other parameter variables. One key advantage of using Autodesk Revit is that you don’t need to learn complex programming languages to create your own component families. The Family Editor allows you to build families entirely within predefined templates. You can add various parameters such as distance, material, visibility, and more, tailored to your specific needs. The Family Editor supports creating both real-life building components and graphic or annotation components.
Autodesk Revit categorizes families into three main types:
System family: A system family is a predefined set of essential building components, including walls, windows, and doors. For instance, the basic wall system family includes different wall types such as interior walls, exterior walls, foundation walls, regular walls, and partition walls. While you can copy and modify existing system families, creating entirely new system families is not possible. However, you can define new family types by specifying new parameters within an existing system family.
Standard component family: Standard component families are typically loaded by default in the project template, with additional families stored in the component library. These components can be created and modified using the Family Editor. You can copy, modify, or create new component families based on various family templates. These templates can be either subject-based or independent. Subject-based families depend on another category—for example, a door family that belongs to the wall family. Independent families include elements like columns, trees, and furniture. Family templates provide a structured way to create and manage these component families.
Standard component families exist outside the project environment and use the .rfa file extension. They can be loaded into projects, transferred between projects, and saved from project files to your library as needed.
Built-in family: Built-in families can be either model components or annotation components created within a specific project. These families are unique to the current project and cannot be reused elsewhere. They are useful for handling custom elements like specialized walls. When creating a built-in family, you select a category, which determines the component’s appearance and display properties within the project.
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