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Workflow Library / Stairs, Railings & Families

Customize a Door Family in the Family Editor

A door whose panel, frame, materials, and view behaviour are exactly what your project needs, reloaded without breaking placed instances.

  1. Open the family from the project:
    1. Select a placed door and click Edit Family on the Modify tab (or double-click it).
    2. Revit opens the .rfa in the Family Editor — a separate environment with its own ribbon and Project Browser.
  2. Understand the family before touching it:
    1. In the Project Browser, open the Floor Plan: Ref. Level, the Elevations, and the 3D view.
    2. Open Family Types (button on the Create tab) to see which dimensions are driven by parameters (Width, Height, frame sizes).
  3. Adjust panel/frame geometry:
    1. Select the panel or frame solid (usually an Extrusion or Sweep) and click Edit Extrusion / Edit Sweep.
    2. Modify the sketch; keep it locked to the reference planes so the geometry still flexes with Width/Height.
    3. Finish with ✓, then open Family Types and flex the family: change Width, click Apply, and confirm nothing breaks.
  4. Wire up materials properly:
    1. Select the panel geometry and find Material in Properties.
    2. Click the small Associate Family Parameter button at the right of the value field.
    3. Link it to an existing parameter (e.g. Door Panel Material) or click New Parameter… — make it a Type parameter under Materials and Finishes.
    4. Repeat for the frame; now the project's Type Properties dialog controls the finishes.
  5. Control how the door displays per view:
    1. Select a solid and click Visibility Settings on the Modify tab (Mode panel).
    2. Untick Plan/RCP for 3D-only detail (e.g. handles), and set Detail Levels so heavy geometry shows only at Fine.
    3. Remember: in plan, doors are drawn by Symbolic Lines, not by cutting the 3D solids.
  6. Reload into the project:
    1. Click Load into Project and Close.
    2. Choose Overwrite the existing version and its parameter values — every placed instance updates.
  7. Save the edited family as your own .rfa (File → Save As) so the customization survives outside this one project.

Note: Always flex the family (Family Types → Apply) after every geometry edit — a family that breaks only at unusual widths will fail silently in the project months later, when someone duplicates a type you never tested.

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Customize a Door Family in the Family Editor | Archidemy