How to Use External Drivers in Revit
In Revit, any family can be driven by external data, which simplifies managing family types and parameters. Have you ever dealt with the same family but different group types and parameters during a project? Let’s cut to the chase.
Today’s tutorial focuses on using external drivers to control window parameters. Feel free to experiment with other families on your own.
1. Start by creating a window family based on the standard metric model for walls. Add parameters such as width and length. Once complete, save the family in a folder and name it external driver for up and down windows.
2. Next, create a plain text (.txt) file. The text should start with a comma, be in English, and contain no quotation marks. Save this file with the same name as the family: external driver for up and down windows.
The content of the text file should follow this pattern:
Width # # length # # millimeters, height # # length # # millimeters, default window sill height # # length # # millimeters
A,900,900,600
B,900,1200,600
C,1200,1500,900
D,1200,2100,900
3. Create a new building template and draw the walls.
4. Load the newly created window family into your project.
Since the family files share the same external driver file, Revit will automatically prompt you with a dialog box to specify the type.
Select all entries and confirm. The data from the external driver file you created will then be imported into your project. Convenient, isn’t it?
Summary:
1. The family file and its external driver file must be saved in the same folder, and both files must share the exact same name.
2. The external driver text file should start with a special symbol (such as a comma), and follow this naming convention for parameters: parameter name # # parameter type # # unit.
3. For parameters like length and area, feel free to experiment, but make sure to use the correct units.
4. You can also use formulas starting with an ‘=’ sign within the external driver file. Note that numbers in these formulas must be whole integers. Give it a try yourself!
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