2009

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2.11MATERIALAPPLICATIONINMODELFAMILIES
Materialscanbeappliedtofamiliestodepictthereal‐worlddisplayofelementscreatedwiththefamilyinshaded
andrenderedviews.
IMPORTANT:Whenapplyingmaterialstoafamily,rememberthatmaterialsincreasethefamilysize,whichin
turndecreasesitsperformancewhenitisloadedandusedinprojects.
Dependingonhowyouapplymaterialstoafamily’sgeometry,youcancontroltheuser’sabilitytomodifythe
materialsofelementsthattheycreatewiththefamily.Usetheseguidelinestoapplymaterialstofamilygeometry:
Ifyouwantto… Then…
usematerialsthatwillnotneedtobechanged Applythematerialdirectlytothefamilygeometryby
assigningittotheMaterialparameter(Option1).
changethematerialforthefamilycategory
and/orforsubsetsofgeometriccomponentsin
thefamily
Applyamaterialtothefamilycategory.
Createsubcategories,assignmaterialstoeach
subcategory,andassignsubcategoriestogeometry
(Option2).
changethematerialforageometriccomponentin
afamilybyinstanceortype
Createaninstanceortypematerialparameterand
assignittotheappropriatefamilygeometry(Option3).
NOTE:Thisisthemostflexibleandpreferredmethodof
materialassignment.
Ifpossible,usethematerialsthatareavailableintheRevitsoftwarewhenassigningmaterialstofamilygeometry.
Ifyouneedtocreateamaterial,makesurethatthematerialnameconformstothenamingconventionsdescribed
intheMaterialNamingConventionstopic.
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OPTION1–APPLYMATERIALSWITHTHEMATERIALPARAMETER
YoucanapplymaterialsdirectlytosomeorallofthefamilygeometryintheFamilyEditor.Eachpieceoffamily
geometryhasadefaultMaterialparametertowhichyoucanassignmaterials.
USETHISMETHODWHEN:
Thematerialofthefamilygeometryisunlikelytochange,suchasforamanufacturedcomponentthatissupplied
withasinglestandardmaterial.
RMCSG—54 Version2.1
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