Revit Families for Schematic Design

Take a look at how I've set up my Revit families to make Schematic design a much faster and enjoyable process in Revit. I've set all my standard families up to leverage instance parameters allowing me to control major design parameters, like Width and Height, without having to dive into the "Edit Properties" menus. It's made my whole process of starting a Revit model a much more fluid and enjoyable process as I can design at a similar speed to AutoCAD or SketchUp while still leveraging all of Revit's BIM capabilities. With Revit's tight integration with 3ds Max, I can start setting up my renderings at the earliest stages of Schematic Design. Ultimately, it means my "in-house" SD-level renderings can be near the quality of work that independent ArchViz firms can provide. Of course it also means I've setup a great foundation to begin my Construction Documents. It's a pretty solid workflow!
Explore my Revit Workflow, including free families to test out:
www.jeffvanvoo...
resources.vanv...
Discover other resources breaking down my workflows:
www.jeffvanvoo...
Discover my Visualizaiton workflow:
www.jeffvanvoo...
Follow on INSTAGRAM to see how these are put into practice:
/ vanvoorhisarchitects
#Revit #Families #Schematic #Design

[@MeriemM94]

Light music, cool background and great quality ! I was getting tired of the boring Revit tutorials..

[@VanVoorhisArchitects]

Thanks, glad you like it! Yeah, I’ve definitely felt some Revit tutorials can feel a bit lacking and they don’t need to be. Revit can be a really killer program if you know how to push it!

[@sammionahi5926]

I could spend all day On your page man..Just followed on Instagram. You're such an intelligent Content Creator. Welldone

[@VanVoorhisArchitects]

Thanks man!

[@MikeTGCG]

Game changer! I’ve done all you’ve done for Revit, in AutoCAD, with dynamic blocks etc. I even have scalable trees too. I’ve done a couple projects in Revit, but as you say, clunky! I’m only using LT as it’s just me, but there’s workarounds for most things. I’m going to look into the ‘instancing’ to allow for the grips… Think I’ll start with a simple box & work may up. Thank you so much for the inspiration to do these. All the best.

[@VanVoorhisArchitects]

Hi Mike, good luck! Starting simple is the best way to do it. Hit me up if you have questions on anything. Cheers!

[@jojocrowley3933]

That’s awesome that you explored this exercise of tuning Revit families and it led you down a rabbit hole. I’d love to do the same for myself. Good job!

[@shivamchandra5574]

I really enjoy watching a lot of your contents, I learn alot from your videos. Please keep making more

[@VanVoorhisArchitects]

Great to hear they’ve been helpful! I definitely have more in the works. Thanks!

[@sondamvula]

Amazing video, Thanks Jeff

[@taylorevans8779]

Sick video! Will probably be purchasing, and definitely taking your advice!

[@VanVoorhisArchitects]

Thanks! Let me know if you have any questions on working with them!

[@DMMG7]

It would be amazing if you release a (REVIT from ZERO to HERO) course!

[@VanVoorhisArchitects]

Thanks for the feedback! Definitely something I’m interested in putting together and sharing.

[@anjawimmer1784]

@@VanVoorhisArchitects Love your videos. I would also love to see a detailed Revit course from you. I've been keeping an eye out :-)

[@goncalorodrigues9414]

What great content !! More important than doing it is preferable to know how to do it. xD Consistency and efficiency are the most important things when you're designing... Thank you for clarifying that. Continue with these videos. Very inspiring

[@VanVoorhisArchitects]

Thanks so much, definitely have a few more in the pipeline! Cheers!

[@bimspecialist1800]

Revit is the best tool for architect if you know it on pro level you can create everything even parametrics

[@VanVoorhisArchitects]

Totally! I'm probably biased, but it's definitely the most versatile tool I've worked with. Bit of a steep learning curve but once you get it, you can really do some great things with it.

[@crispschr]

Another great video! I'm really curious to know how you made everything so parametric. I always struggle while trying to make revit families that are not modeled in place. Would be cool to know your design workflow too; do you sketch on paper, go straight to revit, try some massing... Would be a cool video :)

[@VanVoorhisArchitects]

Thanks! I'm sure I'll do a walk-through on how to make Revit families at some point down the road. You really just start small and try to plan out exactly how you want the family to function before you even start modeling. Then go through a lot of trial and error to make sure it works! They're sort of like puzzles and like anything, with practice it becomes almost second nature. My design process is a pretty fluid, back & forth exercise between sketching out ideas on paper then plugging them into Revit to see if they work at scale and in 3d. I've started using my ipad to sketch directly on revit screenshots which has been a fun change. Might be another video I'll soon be working on. Thanks!

[@randomrevit9247]

I would be really interested to see how you do parametric families!

[@gabrielngugi2272]

The families are very neat🙌🙌

[@VanVoorhisArchitects]

Thanks! Hopefully they help speed up your Revit workflow a bit

[@ernestoruffo6824]

Amazing! I am really thinking about acquiring the complete collection, I just have one doubt, will the collection continue to grow in the future, or will it be necessary to acquire future families in a different package? Cheers! Amazing work!

[@VanVoorhisArchitects]

Thanks, appreciate it! At this time I’m not actively building new models, but on the occasion that I add additional families that fit with the overall “theme” of a collection, I’ll notify you that you can re-download the latest set with the new models. IE, if I build new schematic casework models, I’d make those available to people who’ve purchased the SD Casework Collection.

[@ernestoruffo6824]

Stoked Design Collective Thanks man!, I'll try to start saving for the whole collection, it's a little over my budget for now, but for my needs, TOTALLY WORTH IT!, one last quick question, for the other types of furniture (beds, showers, sofas, dinning tables, chairs, LIGHT ACCESORIES, what'll be your advice, or where do you recommend me to get some clean minimalistic ones? Thanks in advance man!

[@victoriawaschenko]

This is genius! Do you sell your door and window families?!?

[@victoriawaschenko]

Buying i commented that only after the first few moments :) you are amazing thank you!!!

[@VanVoorhisArchitects]

Glad you found the website! Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions on them. Thanks so much!

[@hu5tle-]

How does your SD family impact take-offs and schedules? For ex. Currently If I use X door 5 times it will show up 5 times on my schedule. But If I use one of your doors 5 times and adjust two of them does it show up with different take-offs in the schedule or just inherit the original family size?

[@VanVoorhisArchitects]

Difficult to answer simply since it'll largely be a combination between your office standards for numbering doors, how you set up your schedules, and what parameters you're actually scheduling. For my project types, it's easy enough to give every door a unique "mark" value. Each one of those schedules individually and it's easy to see the size for that specific door and where it goes on a plan. There are settings in the schedules that can "itemize each instance", group things in certain ways, and show counts and totals. So unfortunately it all depends on how you've set your schedules up. I've made a handful of the families available for free on my website. I'd say take those for a spin and see if they behave in a way that works for you. Additionally, I've done the brain damage to make these super flexible for this instancing workflow, but they 100% still work if you the global "width" and "height" parameter back to "type" parameters. Then they all behave like traditional Revit families. Not worth purchasing for just the standard doors but might be worth keeping in mind if you have any interest in the more complicated pockets, sliders, etc. Don't hesitate to reach out and we can discuss further if you have any questions. Thanks!

[@hu5tle-]

@@VanVoorhisArchitects Thanks. I'd want to use more than the doors, but the price is too steep for me. All the revi-it add-ins add up quickly since they're so expensive.

[@luisfe7187]

Can you please teach how to model a house from archdaily step by step please

[@VanVoorhisArchitects]

Hey Luis, I will be doing some more in depth videos on how to model in Revit but I probably won’t be recreating any designs that are on ArchDaily. Unless one of mine own makes it there haha!

[@oscarfernandez7386]

I have a question is there a way I can buy your families or test them out. I truly would love to have the doors and window family on my template even the one you can easily change the size by dragging them to the appropriate size

[@VanVoorhisArchitects]

Hi Oscar, yes I do! I've got a little 'mini-course' that shows I use them which bundles in a few families to download and test. I also make all my families available as a single purchase, or you can select types of families that are relevant to what you. Take a look at this page and shoot me an email if you have any questions: stokeddesign.co/revit Thanks!

[@nserekoivan]

Chief Architect software does all this natively

[@bahari.interiors]

Chief Architect is a tiny video game in comparison to Revit

[@gerardofaustin8156]

ArchiCAD was made for Architect By Architect. Revit was made for Engineers !!!