Create and refine optimized families for your model.
Families are typically designed and optimized for repetition, but there are several recommendations for keeping your
Revit models lower in size to improve performance.
- Create a family component instead of in-place families when components are going to be repeated. When copied, an in-place family makes an entirely new entity of itself each time, rather than referencing the information from the first instance.
- Limit the use of detailed, nested, and parameterized families to necessities.
- Use families instead of groups, where possible. Groups are very powerful, but updating large quantities of group instances consumes significant computing resources.
- Avoid widespread use of voids in family geometry.
- Avoid arrays and formulas.
- Use symbolic lines and masking regions instead of geometry in plan views to show simple geometric representations. This avoids unnecessary processing of complex geometry.
- Parametric families place a greater computational burden on the model than static families. Consider carefully whether a family needs parametric flexibility and confine that flexibility to necessary adjustments.
- Families that cut their hosts consume significant computing resources on regeneration when compared to families that reside on a surface without cutting the host. Consider modeling building components such as HVAC registers as 2D ceiling- or face-based families to reduce penetration calculations.
- Model designs selectively. Performance gains may be found as much in the construction of individual families as in other modeling practices. Objects only seen in certain views should only be modeled to appear correct in those selected views. For example, a 3D family is unnecessary if it will only be viewed in floor plans. Multiplied over an entire project, a large family can add significantly to the size and resulting computational burden.