By Dennis Collin
When working within a BIM environment, information is key. Whilst the ability to produce drawings and visuals is important, often a schedule or Bill of Materials (BOM) is vital as well. With any materials table it is important that elements are counted and included in the relevant lists. It is important therefore that when working with Revit families, the elements are classified to the correct category. If this is not done, then elements may be counted in the wrong schedule or not at all, resulting in errors and reduced profit.
This problem can easily be avoided by ensuring elements are categorised correctly. Within the family editor of a component, select the family parameters and category function and ensure that the selected category matches the intended function of the component. Within any company using Revit it is good practice to designate a super user to become the company Revit ‘librarian’ who will look after libraries, families file versions and parameter files. Following this strategy can ensure that families are set to a consistent standard, behave in projects and appear correctly in the right view and schedule.