Workflow: Creating a Loadable Family

Depending on the complexity of the family, the creation process can be time-consuming. If you can identify a family that is similar to the one you want to create, you can save time and effort by copying, renaming, and modifying the family to create the new family.

For best results when creating a family, use the following workflow.

1. Before beginning family creation, plan your family. Identify requirements regarding family sizes, how the family displays in different views, whether a host is required, the detail level to be modeled, and the origin of the family. See Planning a Loadable Family.
2. Create a new family file with the appropriate family template. See Choosing a Family Template.
3. Define subcategories for the family to help control the visibility of the family geometry. See Creating Family Subcategories.
4. Create the family skeleton, or framework:
   • Define the origin (the insertion point) of the family. See Defining the Family Origin.
   • Lay out reference planes and reference lines to aid in sketching component geometry. See Laying Out Reference Planes and Using Reference Lines.
   • Add dimensions to specify parametric relationships. See Dimensioning Reference Planes and Lines.
   • Label dimensions to create type or instance parameters or 2D representation. See Labeling Dimensions to Create Parameters.
   • Test, or flex, the skeleton. See Flexing the Family Framework.
5. Define family type variations by specifying different parameters. See Creating Family Types.
6. Add a single level of geometry in solids and voids, and constrain the geometry to reference planes. See Creating Family Geometry.
7. Flex the new model (types and hosts) to verify correct component behavior. See Testing the Family.
8. Repeat previous steps until the family geometry is complete.
9. Specify 2D and 3D geometry display characteristics with subcategory and entity visibility settings. See Managing Family Visibility and Detail Level.
10. Save the newly defined family, and then load it into a project for testing. See Testing the Family.
11. For large families that include many types, create a type catalog. See Creating a Type Catalog.