Revit Family Directory

[Cyndi Barca]

Imoved a family file it's acting very strange. When I save I get an error message saying, "File could not be saved because the backup directory file is missing. Please Save As to a new file name." (See 1st picture) If I attempt to do a Save As without changing the file name I get the same error as above.

The file can be saved under a new name but then the error message from above appears again when attempting to do a standard save. I can save it back to the original file name and it creates a backup as normal. BUT, standard saving always gives me that error.

Things get a bit more weird when I try to close the family file. It throws me a window saying I have changes that haven't been synced with the central model, and asks if I want to "Synchronize with central" or "Close the local file" (See 2nd picture) Closing the local file then prompts asking to relinquish ownership of elements or not, while attempting to sync with central tries to tie it back to the families name and an old file path then spits out an error saying, "The central model does not exist at the path you provided." If I try to sync it attempts to sync with a .rft file at the old file location, and errors if I sync it or attempt to change the central model location.

I have tried closing and re-opening the family file, Revit, closing and renaming the file, and rebooting my machine. None of those worked. However when I change the name of the file to it's original name in the original location it will let me do a conventional save but it pops up saying a file with that name already exists would you like to overwrite it. If yes, it saves if no it doesn't.

Does anyone have a clue what might be causing this? I could nuke it and start over, but I'd like to know what caused this to avoid it in the future.

Picture 1: Conventional Save Error

Good ideas, and out of curiosity I tested them but neither re-created the error. I got some fancy new ones! But nothing quite like what happened. I guess the mystery continues.

Thanks for brainstorming with me!

No, I didn't do this on purpose, but after your post I took those ideas and I thought I'd try to recreate the issue, in a sperate test environment, then if I found the how it happened, I could figure out how to keep others from running into it again and/or reverse the damage done if it rears its ugly head again later down the road.

Trying to export all families and family types from my directory into excel with some parameters as the headers. NOT trying to do this with only the families inside the model/project I want all families within library. Any help is appreciated.

You could write full custom code to do everything you want in one go, then move to the next file; but that is a VERY big ask as each family may have new restrictions on how you navigate it (ie: tags).

Can you @jacob.small confirm if an ODBC export to excel would only need the loading of the families in an empty new Revit file to give me excel sheets with all info in just one excel file? eg bulk parameters and values?

(In that case just a multi-load families script would suffice?)

What I am trying to do is open a Revit file, check the loaded families to see whether they contain specific families from a directory, if the Revit file does contain those family files, I want Revit to load ONLY those files from the directory. The directory is going to eventually be filled with new Revit families and I only want Revit to load the ones that it already has, not ones that might only exist in another Revit project.

Example1041541 49.3 KB

When you run this with a Project open, it will prompt you for a directory, and then it will save all the families from the current Project to .rfa family files, and it will put them into appropriate directories (by Category) for you!

The add in worked well exported all the families to the file location i wanted but it didn't put them into appropriate directories (by Category). They are just placed at random in the file. Is it my mistake?

I copied the files to the places as noted but keep getting a "Command Load Failed" error when I try to run the app. I am on w7 x64, sub adv pack, presumably this shouldn't be an issue as it should be a fairly common set up, but I cant figure out what else the issue could be.

I got the errors can't find ExampleCommand and ExampleAppication.dlls. So I copied them directly into the C:Revit Projects folder. No more errors and I can access the addin toolbar. I set the default path to a local folder (easy to find) and ran the routine. It went through the motions but nothing got extracted. But upon further inspection, it ignored my specific path and it went to the default. But hey, at least it works!

Great post Luke!

Very helpful add-in for BIM managers. One quick question if I may, and excuse my "noobie-ness", but why do I receive the message:

"Value cannot be null. Parameter name: path", after selecting the destination folder and after pressing the export all families button? All seems to work fine after selecting "ok" to this message.

Yep, I already do that but still isn't working maybe the .dll itself has a malfunction coz i try to open some files in Microsoft VS there's a lot of errors.

I don't have enough knowledge in Visual Studio so I can't do to fix those errors.

I am also getting a "Command load failed." I followed the instructions for x64 multiuser on pc install, also copied the .addin files to the Revit Projects folder just to be on the safe side, but I am stuck with this error.

Great add-in. Thanks. I was thinking if there could be an add-in which would detect unused families in my project and give a prompt to delete them. Would reduce the file size. Anyone think this can be done ?

The advantage that this add-in has over the built-in 2012 Family save tool is that it puts the resulting RFA family files into directories. This is heaps better than just a bunch of RFA files dumped into one directory.

The Custom Asset Library is accessible in the same way as the Enscape Asset Library, Alternatively, you can use the keyboard shortcut [L], which will result in the Asset Library panel being opened within the Enscape Viewport. Note that a free seat must be available if you are using an Enscape Floating License.

Only the file formats; *.gltf, *.obj or *.fbx can be imported to the Custom Asset Library. As these constitute the most common cross-platform industry standard formats, a model that can be converted to one of these formats can, in theory, be imported into the Custom Asset Library.

Model files to be imported should be low polygon models that, for performance reasons, should have less than 20,000 triangles (also referred to as 3 sided, or 3-point polygons). A model with more than 20k polys may be successfully imported, but you will be given a warning message that the model may affect performance and that the asset may not be visible in the Asset Editor Preview window. This also means a thumbnail cannot be generated for the custom asset, which is needed to export the asset to the library in the first place. It can also result in the model not being shown in the Enscape viewport, despite a placeholder being shown in the CAD. Lastly, trying to import a model with over 20k may result in Enscape crashing. Therefore, it is advised to check your poly count before importing a model file into the Custom Asset Library.

Clicking on the Custom Assets tab will reveal the following screen, where you can import single or multiple (batch import) models. You can also define the Source Path to the folder where Exported Assets are to be stored on creation. This location could also be a shared network drive, for example, and any valid custom assets found in a designated drive will be displayed in the Custom Asset Library.

Click on the folder icon to open with the Select Folder dialog and then navigate and select the location you want to have your Asset Projects. Once decided on a location, click the [Next] button.

Step 2 is to define the location to save the Exported Assets (the file that will appear in the Custom Asset Library), which for Floating License holders could also be a shared drive:

As before, click on the folder icon to open the Select Folder dialog, and navigate to the folder you want to use. We recommend setting up new folders for both steps for the purpose of following this tutorial, although you can always reconfigure this later via the [Configure] button in the Custom Asset Editor dialog.

You will also notice that when the Custom Asset Library dialog is in focus and the Custom Asset Editor is open, a warning dialog is always shown when the Custom Asset Editor dialog is open.

The locations for Asset Projects and Exported Assets can be changed at any point via the [Configure] button or (just for the Exported Assets location) the [Source Path] button found at the bottom right of the Asset Editor. However, if assets that have already been exported are stored in one location, and another location for Exported Assets is set, then this may result in a mismatch between the Custom Asset Library and the Asset Editor.

In a scenario where a project that contains previously exported assets is opened but the path has been subsequently changed, these assets may no longer render in Enscape (although their placeholder will appear in the CAD) until that path has been corrected, via either the [Configure] button or the Source Path button. The following type of error message will be shown in such a case, which also allows you to decide which path to use.

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