Understand the templates

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In this session of Enable Team on BIM Standards for Building Projects using Revit,

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we're going to look at and understand the templates distributed to the team and training provided on the use.

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So what is a template?

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How are they used?

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What are the View Templates versus Project Templates?

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Let's jump in and talk a little bit about those.

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So let's first talk about the different types of file formats in Revit with the following extensions.

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We first have RVT.

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That's the project file that contains your Revit model with its information.

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By using a single project file, Revit makes it easier to alter the design and have changes reflected in all your views.

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The RTE, the Revit Project Template file is a starting point for creating a new project.

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This is typically found within the BIM Execution Plan.

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It's identified there.

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It's either delivered from the client or you create it for the client.

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But that's where you'll typically start all your new projects with, is that RTE.

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Then we have the RFT.

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That's a Revit Family Template file.

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This template serves as a starting point for creating your families.

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It contains a lot of information in there.

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We'll talk more about that in a moment.

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You have the RFA.

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That's the Revit Family file.

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The Revit Family is the file that contains the model geometry and the information of your Revit element.

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So four file types there.

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The RTE and the RVT are actual Revit projects.

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The only difference between the two is that the template is used to start a new project.

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So let's get into a little bit more on these file types.

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What is an RTE file?

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This is the file that you'll use as the starting point for new models.

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Use the default templates, use the predefined templates,

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or use the ones that are identified by your client and by yourself within that BIM Execution Plan.

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A project template can include View Templates, Loaded Families, Define Settings, a lot of information in there, even geometry.

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The project standards includes things like the family types, global parameters, MEP settings (so mechanical, electrical and piping),

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annotation styles, print settings, and so forth.

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It includes all those not limited to all those.

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The project information that can be included in there that could be things such as the name of your project,

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project number, client name, and so forth.

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Project settings, for example, you can predefine line styles for components, lines, fill patterns for materials,

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you can identify your project units, snapping increments for your model views, and so forth.

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And then you also have your View Templates within that.

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The View Templates will ensure that you adhere to the office standards or the BEP standards.

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Those are preset in your template, you adhere to those quite easily.

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And then your Families.

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These include system families and all the loaded families.

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Things that are defined in the project template settings,

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and this will help you maintain consistency throughout your project or all of your View projects.

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Project Views.

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So predefined plan views, predefined levels, schedules, legends, sheets, so forth.

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Visibility and graphic settings - those are key to how you want your sheets and your models to look.

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Print settings and shared parameters - those are more things that can be found within that project template.

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Within that Revit Family Template file, that template serves as a building block that contains

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all the information you need to start creating the family and that Revit needs to place the Family and Projects.

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When you create a Family, you're prompted to select a Family template that corresponds with the type of element that your family will be -

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wall-based, floor-based, roof-based, standalone, so forth.

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And the Revit Family file contains the model geometry and the information of a Revit element.

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The RFA files are generally classified as data files that contain one or more 3D models,

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and those can be imported into 3D scene and save using the Revit Family Editor.

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Those RFA families are rich with information,

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so whatever building information modeling data that you have or that's required of you can be stored within that RFA.

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View Templates are used to standardize your project views.

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There's a lot of View Templates that are provided within Revit and you can create your own.

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Again, those are things that should be within the templates that are predefined within the BEP.

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And a View Template is a collection of view properties such as view scale, discipline, detail level, visibility settings,

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different things that you can have preset in there.

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So it makes it easier to go to and from the setting, the view, or the sheet that you want.

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And then you can use the View Templates to control the views in a couple of ways.

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You can apply properties from a View Template to a View and you can later change those View Templates and those do not affect the view,

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or you can assign a View Template to a view, creating a link between the template and the view.

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So if you change the View Template, those are automatically applied to any linked views.

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So why train on a template?

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I'm big on training.

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I'm big on project upfront overview.

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So before you jump into a project, let's review the BEP.

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Let's review the templates within that BEP because what you don't know, you don't know.

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And if you have a lot of users or it's a new project type, a new client, how will you know what family to use?

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How do you know what style to use?

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Those are things that you should spend half a day or a day at least up front in a project training on,

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and definitely throughout the course of a project have periodic trainings on that same information.

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So have that kick off meeting, review the templates, go through each object style to review the naming convention and the use type.

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It may sound like a tedious task that you're just reviewing something.

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Maybe have a dummy project, whatever that is.

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You want people to go in there and see what is in those template and when they should be using those things.