Free Revit Add-In of the Week: FamilyReviser

This week, we are exploring another add-in made by DiRoots. It is called FamilyReviser. Managing families and types naming convention can be annoying. Users can spend countless hours manually changing the name of certain families to add prefixes and suffixes.

DiRoots has been creating free amazing add-ins for Revit. Today, we are exploring FamilyReviser.

Here is the link to install this add-in: https://diroots.com/plugins/manage-revit-families-and-worksets-with-familyreviser/

Click on the FamilyReviser icon in the DiRoots tab.

DiRoots has 3 major tools available to you: Exporter, Editor and Worksets.

Exporter

First, let’s explore Exporter. This allows you to import families contained inside a project to individual .rfa files. In the example below, you can see we select a category (Columns and Detail Items). Then, we select specific families (MCOL_Rectangular-Arch). Finally, you can select specific types to be included in the export.

If you look on the right, you see all the list of families to be exported.

You can assign folders and sub-folders for specific type of families. Hold the shift button when selecting families to assign multiple families at once.

When you are ready, click on Save Families at the bottom of the screen.

Your families folder is now created and ready!

You know all these annoying backup files that are automatically created? With the file name ending with a .0001 prefix? Turns out you can put all these files together in a Backup folder instead of polluting your main families folders. Set up this feature on the Selected Families menu.

Editor

Dynamo can be used to quickly modify the name of families and types. Many Dynamo scripts exist to add a prefix or to enact similar changes.

FamilyReviser also has this feature, but with an amazing and intuitive user interface

On the right, you can select either Loadable Families or System Families (like wall types, ceiling types, etc).

A common request among people who use our Revit Pure BASICS template is to change the RP prefix that is used in all families name to a custom company prefix. In this case, you could use the Find and Replace tool to accomplish that. In the example below, we replace all values of RP to HB.

When the operation is completed, families that had their names updated will have a green rectangle in the “Updated” column.

Worksets

The final feature included in FamilyReviser is called “Worksets”. It allows you to assign families and types to specific worksets. When you open the menu, you will see a list of all elements in your projects and which worksets they are assigned to.

You can sort these elements by parameter and quickly change the worksets. It is also possible to create “rules” to quickly correct elements in the wrong worksets.

While this is an interesting feature, remember that the best practice for worksets is to have as few as possible. Avoid using worksets for visibility. See our blog post about worksets for more information.

Finally, DiRoots released another great add-in this week called SheetGen. It allows you to quickly create sheets and assign revisions. Make sure to check it out. Thanks to DiRoots for all their great free add-ins!

Download the Pamphlets Collection

Make sure to check out our guide about the amazing pyRevit add-in. It is part of our free Pamphlets collection.