Array Based Families in Revit - What You NEED TO KNOW!

This episode of BIM After Dark Live was inspired by a subscriber's email (Matt). Matt had a few questions about using an array based family in Revit to build families and some of the tips and tricks when doing so...

So, I thought it would be fun to build an array based family live! And walk through some of those little "need to know" tips and tricks along the way.

Topics We Will Cover:
- Creating a nested family and "carrying over" the parameters.
- Creating a line based family.
- Using and applying arrays
- Formulas to drive the array
- How to handle single objects and arrays in the same family
... and so much more...

Thanks for watching " Array Based Families in Revit - What You NEED TO KNOW!" !

Links Mentioned:

TimeStamps
0:00 - Intro
0:18 - BIM BOX
4:26 - Family Desktop Cheat Sheet
8:06 - Creating a Line Based Family
13:15 - Array Tool
16:25 - Object Spacing after creation of an Array
25:28 - Array Formula Example 1
26:47 - Aligning Major References to Reference Plane
31:26 - Array Formula Example 2
34:55 - Handling single objects and Arrays in the Same Family
36:56 - Input Parameter
38:31 - If Statement
42:55 - Visibility Point
47:50 - Assigning Parameters to Project
49:07 - Revision
52:23 - Outro

Here are some links to all of the hardware and software I use:

** Some of the above links are affiliate links, meaning you don’t pay anything more but I may get a small commission for a sale… Cheers! **

[Zomer]

Oh GOD, how thankful am I!!! I was trying to make this adjustable pedestrian crossing for a day and now it's finally working! Only one thing that was not in the tutorial and I spent time to discover myself, is the centerlines of the box to align with. I just did't have those... In the end I set the reference planes inside the box family to the "center" parameter and after reloading the family in my working file I was able to finally align the box to the refference planes...

[realblackmonday]

Great Lesson. 14 years experience and learning still everyday. Thanks

[BingleDOop]

Finally, a Revit video with decent sound quality!

[leben]

Very good. Aligning to the centre is definitely a great tip. The stair stuff almost killed me a million times. Thanks a lot Jeff.

[MLangjahr]

This was an awesome lesson!! I used it to make some rods for the hanging of a track lighting. So the longer the track the more rods for it to hang

[mahinabil]

That was a great lesson thanks for the information and for being cool .... you make it fun to learn

[bdoggb]

Great tutorial! How can I do a stacked array with horizontal & vertical options for a single row? Thanks.

[bimskool]

This is going to be great for switchboards and MCCs. Yes some sections realistically are different sizes but that only matters for LOD 400

[AlbrechtJ]

Thanks Jeff, for a good lecture. This help me a lot on my works.

[petarppenchev]

Update with Revit 2025 34:58 - now you CAN have an array of 0 or 1 = ) P.S. Thank you for the grat content!

[JFASACM]

This really helped me! Thank you, sir!

[abhaykumar-cdgu]

hi can you make turotial for false ceiling of 600 x 600 mm calcium silicate false ceiling with gypsum borders to avoid cutting tiles. and the calcium silicate tiles are 100 above the gypsum border with vertical gypsum boards closing the opening

[kkdad]

Dale from Albuquerque. Awesome site for learning REVIT. Shared with all ny coworkers

[PamChaiyachakorn]

Hi! I've nested this box array family in another family. It's a radiator with valves that stick out on the sides of it. I'm having difficulty snapping to the center of array to the rest of the nested objects. Do you have any advice for this?

[mahinabil]

hello i have a problem finishing a family (movable wall) very detailed and i was hoping if you have a video that explains such a family ???

[athulsvi]

Great presentation.
Wt if there is a fractional number in case of no: of boxes? Or is there any way to get the boxes get trimmed at the ends, (for use in railing) ?

[prestonbaird]

I feel like I am trying to do something similar to this. I am trying to make a trench drain with a set width of bar and set distance between the bars, and an adjustable overall length of the drain so it can be long or short depending on the distance of the opening in the floor. I want to keep the spacing between the bars the same and keep the bar size the same regardless of the total length of the drain, and if I were to stretch the drain length to be longer, have it create more equally spaced bars, and if stretched shorter, to reduce the number of evenly spaced bars to remain within the space created by the length of the line. Is there a way to do this by telling it to array into infinity but be defined by the length of the drain so that it only creates more bars within the defined length?
Great video and I feel like some of the methods in it could be used in the issue I am trying to solve, just not sure how. Thanks!!

[AirV]

Is it possible to use this theory for window & door mullions as a type parameter? With the only controls being the size of the window/door, the size of the mullion, and the # of mullions(equally spaced) And if so, could you make a video? I'm struggling to make it work. (I know this works in a curtainwall system, but would like to use in a window/door family were I only create 1 family and have many types with different parameter settings)

[sallyvandal]

Hi there. Great video. I wish to use an instance parameter for a specifically sized locker. I can't seem to get the array to be associated with the length of the line. I'm guessing there's a formula I need to put in, but I'm not sure what that should be.

[AhmadChesti]

Great video. Very helpful. Could you please show if we can make a parametric array in which the last element is a part of the first element. For example, I need to fill a room with tiles of fixed dimensions and I need 5.3 tiles on one side. Is it possible? if not how can i do this parametrically?