Sharing a Lighting Fixture Family

The nested family that defines the light sources in a chandelier or set of track lights can be shared or not shared. Sharing the nested family affects how the lighting fixture is scheduled, and how parameters for the family can be changed, as follows. (For information, see Creating a Family with Nested and Shared Components.)

Nested family is...	Impact on scheduling	Impact on changing family parameters
Shared	Individual light sources can be listed separately in a lighting fixture schedule. For example, for a set of track lights, can lights can be listed individually, grouped, or totalled.	If needed, each light source in the fixture can have different settings. For example, you can change the initial intensity of each can light in a set of track lights.
Not shared	In a lighting fixture schedule, the entire fixture (and its light sources) are listed as one item. For example, for a chandelier, the individual candles cannot be listed individually, grouped, or totalled.	You can change settings for the entire lighting fixture as a whole, but you cannot change settings for individual light sources. For example, you can change the initial intensity for the entire chandelier, but not for its individual candles.

To share a lighting fixture family

1. Open the lighting fixture family in the Family Editor.
2. Click Create tabProperties panelFamily Category and Parameters.
3. Under Family Parameters, select Shared.
4. Click OK.

To make a lighting fixture family not shared

1. Open the lighting fixture family in the Family Editor.
2. Click Create tabProperties panelFamily Category and Parameters.
3. Under Family Parameters, clear Shared.
4. Click OK.