Material family frustration

Have you ever been frustrated by the amount of materials available when you are creating a family in Revit? 

If you start a new blank family in Revit (I start with Generic Model family templates first), the materials dialog box is almost empty.

Now you can easily duplicate existing materials in this dialog box and assign different Render Appearances, but if you want to save some time, you can use Transfer Project Standards to transfer additional materials from another proejct, family, or template.

Just make sure to have the other file open and then go to the File pull down menu and choose Transfer Project Standards.  A dialog (below) will appear that lets you select the items you want to copy in.  You will not be able to transfer everything you can transfer from a project to a project, but you can get materials. 

 

Once this is done the materials dialog in the family will be loaded with all the materials from the project. 

A important thing to note with doing this though is that you will add to the file size of your family and decrease its performance in Revit.  I would recommend deleting any Materials that you do not need from the dialog after doing this. 

Comments

[Sandeep]

Hi, i have queston about revit that..
How can i attach information to elements of revit so that i can get it in GBXML and also through program like wall material?

thanks in advance.

[Craig M]

Thanks...this is great. However can you help me if I need it to go the other way? The RVT file when you set a material name won't read it from the family unless it is also in the material file for the rvt file. (I am trying to work out some material takeoffs)... And apparently you can't transfer from the family to the RVT file.

[Mike Wellink]

There is a better way to do this!
This way you will keep a small size family.
After you've created your "thing" (let's say a foundation) right click it -> Element Properties and by "Materials and finishes" click on the gray square (NOT the one with the three dots!! But the one on the right of that one!)

Click "Add parameter..." give it a name, set it as an "Instance" and under: "Group parameter under" you'll set it to "Materials and finishes"! Click OK and your done!

Save it and load it into your project.
Now when you right click on it and select "Element Properties" You'll find an "Materials" parameter where you can select one of the materials from your project!

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Great article! this is so useful!