Someone who works for a large manufacturer, who was just acquired by a larger manufacturer, ask me how they can update the company name parameter and URLs in thousands of Revit families. It occured to me that the tool I recommended, I had not written a specific post about (just referenced within other posts).
CTC Software makes a "Cadillac" tool that can be used to maintain large and complex Revit content collections. The tool is called Revit Family Processor. Today's post I will share the highlights of this tool and a little trip down memory lane with CTC and this tool.
Memory Lane
First, the memory lane part... CTC Software started out as an Autodesk Reseller called CAD Technology Center (CTC) in Minnesota. Many readers of this blog know that I am originally from this area, and CTC was my Autodesk Reseller for many years.
If memory serves me, the Revit Family Processor (RFP) was their very first Revit add-in, and was not cheap. Not cheap, but for good reason given the power of this tool. Fast forward, and the entire BIM Manager Suite (which includes the RFP) is less expensive!
The relationship with CTC matured to the point of a joint venture where we created the Electrical Productivity Pack (now MEPPP) back in 2011. This pack even won an ACEC/MN which I wrote about here: 2019-20 ACEC/MN Engineering Excellence Awards.
RFP Highlights
Here are the basic steps:
- Open a Revit family file
- Open Revit family processor
- Adjust options
- Select folders/files
- Run the tool
RFP Screenshots
I have added a few comments, but these screenshot speak for themselves. Click on the images to enlarge them.
The image above, and below, show the tab which allows materials to be edited. Unused materials may be removed, and other materials may be renamed. For example, if materials had a company name prefix you wanted to remove or change.
Parameters can also be changed. Family parameters can be changed to shared parameters, new parameters can be created. In this example, there is a character error that we will see in the logs at the end.
Here we select a folder and all the families, and families in subfolders, which can all be processed in a single batch process. If a parameter to be changed does not exists in a particular family, it will be skipped.
Here is the final highlights of what will be done, and then the progress dialog.
Here are the logs, showing what worked and what did not. The errors are often user errors, but there can be families that have problems. There are some limitations to the Revit API but most of those are just not allowed within the RFP UI.
In the error below, I just need to go back a few tabs, remove the offending character and re-run the tool. I don't need to remove the things that have already been done, as the tool will not skip those.
Notice the Revit families have been modified...
And we can see the results in the content!
The RFP settings can be exported if you need to apply those settings to a btach process in the future.
Fun stuff.
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