Page 635 - Divyank Tyagi

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Creating the Framework For a Family ComPonent 601

Using Materials
Materials are crucial to a family. But what are often more important are the Shading setting and
the Transparency value of the material because they communicate much about the intent of your
design in the early stages (Figure 14.29).

Figure 14.29
shading and
transparency
settings in the
material Browser
dialog box

In addition, material options are often not easily created in Revit. Yes, a family can have
a material parameter. But expressing many different materials for visualization purposes is
probably best left to the visualization specialist, who understands the subtleties of creating a
compelling image, not just a rendering of a working model—and it’s unlikely they’ll be using
Revit for this purpose.
Certification Beyond visualization, however, materials in Revit are used for a host of other things. Graphic
Objective representation in construction documents and material takeoffs are two examples. If the
materials in your families are something you will need to schedule or view graphically, it’s a
good idea to define them.
Multiple materials can be assigned to a family. They are assigned based on model solids, so
if you have multiple solids (sweeps, extrusions, and the like), each one can be given a unique
material.
You have two options to define a material within a family, both being handled in the
solid’s object properties shown in the Properties palette. By default, the material is set to <By
Category>. Select this option and you can change the material to any material shown in the
Material Browser dialog box, or you can load a new one from any material library. This is
a great use for the family if you know the material is not going to change. If you know that
your casework is not going to be anything but blonde maple, for example, go ahead and set
the material within the family. Your other option is to use the tiny button to the right of the
Material field in the Properties palette to define a new parameter. In this case, you can call the
material something like Casework Material. If you were to use this same parameter for all your
casework families, once it’s placed in the model, you can change that material via the Material
Browser dialog box, and it will update all your casework families at once.

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