Hello and welcome back to our REVIT Architecture 2009 CAD Clips on our Santa Barbara House Kit. In this lesson, it is a great add generic lesson on where we might want to take any sort of family in REVIT Architecture Structure or MEP, very generic lesson here and we want the ability to be able to turn on and off certain components of the family.

So in this case, we have got a family, it has got a window and it is got a header and the ceil and some sash and frame information in there some objects. And what we want to be able to do in this example is to be able to click on this family and go up to the properties and turn on or off certain parts of the geometry and this can be again applied to any family.

You do not have to be the person who made the family and quite of then it can be a family that is very complex that you downloaded or got from somewhere and you say I really like this but I do like the option of be able to turn on or off different parts of the family. It could be a light, could be a door, could be a window, could be anything and this is how you do it. I am going to do this fairly quickly to try to keep the files size down and then if I go too quick then you can probably watch or rewind the video and watch it again.

So this is what we do. We click on the family after it has been placed in our project or we open up the family anyway we want. It does not matter. I am going to say edit this family. Do I want to open up my double hung window yes I do.

So inside that family what I am going to do, is start by making two parameters that are going to be yes, no parameters. Family types, this is how we make our parameters. I am going to say add a parameter and it is going to be called header visibility and it is going to be grouped under graphics okay. It is going to be instant. I want to build the change individual windows and the here is the header visibility is going to use a yes-no parameter.

You probably never use this one and wonder what it does. This is how it works. So header visibility, do want to yes or no, good hit okay. And that is grouped right there and I am going to make another one for the ceil parameters add ceil visibility and this is a really great lesson because you do not have to be the originator of the family. It could be some family you got from somewhere else. Instant, group under graphics and it is also a yes- no parameter. Hit okay and by default I am turning them on. I hit apply and okay.

Now this is where the magic happens. I am going to pick on the piece of geometry that I want which is that header object. I am going to the properties and of that header and I am going to say visible yes, this has always been available but watch I can go way over here and pick the little parameter buttons and say the visible is the header visibility which is a yes-no. Hit okay and I am done. Watch click out, grab the little ceil piece. Properties, the visibility way over to the right, click on here is going to be controlled by the ceil visibility parameter which is the yes-no parameter. Hit okay, hit okay and I am done.

Now if I want while I am in here, notice that they are kind of green. I did not make this family on family types. If I want I can by default turn them off and hit apply watch what happens, they go kind a gray. They get grayed out and can it also you will get a different effect if your thin or thick lines are by default I do want them turn on when I first insert the family. So I am going to go back here and say yes by default. I want them turned on. Hit okay, I am going to do a Save or I could do is Save As if I want to make a new family type or a new family.

I am just going to do a Save and now I am going to load in into my project Santa Barbara House Kit Project good. Bring it in, it is going to say do want to redefine it? Yes I do and now the magic has been done and all I have to do now is pick on my new revised window family and guess what I can go under the properties, ceil visibility, no header visibility, no hit okay and those pieces of geometry will disappears.

So that little lesson can then be applied to any family that has solid geometry where you want to have the option to turn the visibility of that geometry on or off.