Getting to Know the Revit Family

Family means something different to everyone. For Revit users “families” are how parts of a building are arranged in a meaningful way. There is a hierarchy of properties that define how families behave. For example, a window can be a family and types might describe the width, shape, materials and appearance of the window. The data contained in the family is one of the keys to Revit being such a useful tool for Building Information Modeling (BIM).

I was searching for some good info on Revit families when I discovered this useful video that explains how Family files are used in Revit. It was created by Chris Fox of 4D Technologies for their CADLearning series for Autodesk Revit Architecture. This is a great place to learn about family files:


RPC objects are placed via the template RPC.rfa family file. This file is located in the Entourage folder under the Imperial Library. The RPC Family file defines the properties for the RPC. Family files can be customized with paths to different content categories. New family files can be created to further customize how the RPCs are described in a scene. You can learn more about using RPCs in Revit and view more videos here: http://help.archvision.com