Families and their sizes

What a family is

A family is one kind of thing in several sizes: a single swing door that comes 32, 36 and 42 inches wide, or a table that comes long and short. In BimCraft you see the family once, with its sizes under it, instead of a long list of types.

IFC has no families. In the file each size is an ordinary type (a door type, a window type, a furniture type…), and the family is a group that lists its sizes. Other BIM programs read the types and the group as they are; BimCraft reads the family back from them.

Where to find them

• The project browser's Families group lists the families in this model, with how many sizes each has and how many are placed. Below them are the Starter families: the doors and windows of the Door and Window tools, and a table, a shelf unit and a base cabinet.
• Build › Families… shows the same list in a window.
• Click a family to open it: its sizes, what each size's values are, and how many elements use each.

Doors and windows

The Door and Window tools list the families of that kind, then a size list beside them. Pick a size, or type W and H: a width and height no size has yet becomes a new size of the family when you place the door. Doors of the same size share one type.

In Properties, a picked door or window shows its Family and Size. Choose another size from the list, or type a new width or height. Open the family opens the family it belongs to.

Each door's or window's frame follows its own wall's thickness, as before families. The size's type also keeps the door drawn in a 140 mm wall, for programs that read types.

New size from this family

1. Open the family.
2. Under New size from this family, type its values (Width, Height and the family's other parameters) and, if you like, a name. Without a name it is named from its values.
3. Click Make the size.

Two sizes cannot have the same values. Rename changes a size's name; Remove takes away a size nobody uses; Select picks the elements of that size.

Place furniture

1. Build › Place family, or Place in a family's window.
2. In the bar, choose the family and its size.
3. Click on the plan to place it on the level. Press RR to turn it 90° before you click. EscEsc stops.

A placed piece's Properties show its size, where it is and how far it is turned; fn DeleteDelete removes it. Every piece of one size shares that size's shape, so changing the family changes them all.

Duplicate a family

You do not have to start from nothing. Duplicate copies a family with its parameters, solids and sizes under a new name. Change the copy in the editor; the original stays as it was.

Family files

• Save the family file saves a .ccfamily.json: the family's parameters, solids and sizes. Open it in another model with Open a family file… in the Families group.
• Save as IFC saves the family as a small IFC file: its sizes' types and its group, declared by an IFC project library. Other programs open it as a set of types; BimCraft opens it as the family again.

A family file opened here is read as data and checked before anything is written. A family whose key is already in the model comes in as a separate family.

Other programs' types

Types made by other programs show in the Families group too, grouped by a guess: by the part of their elements' names before the first colon, else by type names that differ only in their numbers. The family window says which guess it used. They are listed and you can select their elements, but they are not edited here: they have no family recipe.

See also Edit a family and Doors and windows.