In addition to creating Revit families and advancing your Revit project, sooner or later you’ll require to expand your data schema and will be forced to make decisions on how to add new parameters to your project and families.
In Revit, there are different types of parameters, all of which serve different purposes. In this post we’ll cover the different types of parameters; not to be confused with parameter typologies, which can be understood as Length, Text, Yes/No, etc… Or its Type/Instance setting.
Mastering the different Revit parameter types can help you create more powerful templates for your projects as well as improve the efficiency of your data workflow for any project.
These are the types (5) of parameters available in Revit:
Type of Parameter
Listed in Tags?
Scheduled?
SYSTEM PARAMETER
These are the default parameters that Revit has for families, and components. They cannot be eliminated or modified.
Yes
Yes
PROJECT PARAMETERS
These are parameters are included within a project. They can be assigned to various categories within the project and can also include SHARED PARAMETERS. When a PROJECT PARAMETER is created, a GUID is assigned to it. If that parameter is deleted, the GUID will remain in the project.
No
Yes
FAMILY PARAMETERS
Family parameters are similar to PROJECT PARAMETERS but only pertain to families, within the Family editor. They can have formulas associated to them. SHARED PARAMETERS can also be included as FAMILY PARAMETERS.
No
No
Shared parameters are parameters that have an assigned GUID that allows Revit to manage them within its categories. This means that they can be included within various families and projects and have their data shown and calculated.
Yes
Yes
GLOBAL PARAMETERS
These parameters are created within Revit projects and, like FAMILY PARAMETERS, they can have formulas associated to them. Other PROJECT PARAMETERS or FAMILY PARAMETERS can also be linked to them.
No
No
Some additional recommendations…
Not everything needs to be tagged or scheduled
While managing parameters and Revit, its best to asses which parameters need to include data that will need to be shown and / or listed within a project. Although it’s convenient to have all parameters tagged and scheduled, creating PROJECT and / or SHARED PARAMETERS reduces flexibility in your data schema as its harder to edit/delete GUID-associated parameters.
Have an updated SHARED PARAMETER list
If you work with families or require a specific data schema within project, it´s best to have an updated SHARED PARAMETER list, which included tooltip descriptions.
Type parameter or Instance parameter?
The question that haunts most BIM Managers. Although the distinction is quite straightforward, it can be difficult to assess which setting a parameter should have across different project scopes.
Type parameter:
Is directly linked to the Family Type. If the value within a Type parameter is changed, all copies / instances of that Family Type in a project will change.
Instance parameter:
It only affects the 1 copy / instance of the Family Type. If the value of an Instance parameter is changed, only the 1 copy / instance of the Family Type will be modified, all other values of Family Types included in the project will remain the same.
If there are many instances of an element within a project that require individual specification, assigning instance parameters are better, even if it may be more time-consuming. If the element is more standardized, and the instances are the same, then type parameters are the way to go.
Plugins that make our life easier…
While most actions of managing Revit parameters can be done manually, if there there is an extended list to manage, then the time it would take to manage them either in projects or template may require more time. And that would make it insuferable. Here are some plugins that have made our lives easier:
DiRoots One
Free!
ParaManager is an ideal tool to manage parameters on-the-go. Its also part of a plugin bundle that makes this an essential plugin for project management.
Harrison-Dean Plugins
$10 and $23 USD per plugin
Add Shared Parameters, Rename Shared Parameters, Export Shared Parameters, are just the best, especially Purge Shared Parameters since it cleans those annoying parameter-related GUIDS from project files.
