You can only get types in the Family Editor Definitions: It’s a compiled FamilyType with limited operations allowed on it, because it’s definition is made inside the Editor.

T he family symbol exists when the family type is loaded in the Revit Model space.

The family type is what the Family object actually contains, it’s the object that actually defines the type will all of the parameters and so on.One belongs to the family, the other exists when it’s loaded in the model space. For this exact reason there are 2 classes, because they represent the same thing but are different objects. There are 2 contexts in which a Type exists, one is in the Revit Model space and another one is in the Revit Family Editor. For a detailed explanation you can follow Jeremy’s article here. So there is a lot of confusion between the FamilySymbol and the FamilyType, and I was all the same confused when I first dove in the api of Revit. FamilyInstance – actual instance of that type in the revit model.FamilySymbol – The collection of types that the family contains.Family – the entire family that consists of a collection of types.

The component families are the families that the user can create and load and the system families are built-in, the user can only create derived types.įollowing the documentation, in Revit custom families are represented in full by: So in Revit there are 2 types of families (Component Families and System Families). A proper classification and description can be found following this link So what is a family? According to the Autodesk Knowledge site it is “a group of elements with a common set of properties, called parameters, and a related graphical representation”. Family Structureīut let’s start with the basics, because like many others when I first started I was a bit confused on the differences between these concepts. In this article I will present some means of getting families, instances, symbols and system family objects using the Revit collector.

How to create families in revit 2011