Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Custom or OOTB

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Custom or OOTB

    I had originally decided to move my firm back to more OOTB families and just customize what we need. This is partially because we have not made all the detail components like the AISC shapes as the OOTB has and few knew about these shapes and also because programs like Fastrak (structural analysis) does not recognize our custom family names and locations. I figured it would be easier to just use the OOTB than try and repath the linking file to our families every time.

    So here are some of my pros and cons to each OOTB and Custom.
    • When things are changed from version to version, the OOTB keeps these changes rather than me having to update
    • Using the OOTB makes upgrades very easy and family maintenance easy


    My thought until recently was to mix the libraries using shortcuts to the users library, but a colleague of mine stated that my old firm is pretty much all custom now. How does one address changes like the addition of Moment of Inertia as a unit type now in custom families? Where the OOTB would generally have this addressed from the factory?

    I still partially like the mixed idea, but even the AISC DC have some modifications I would like made to them. Perhaps most model is OOTB and DC and annotation is custom?
    12
    Pure OOTB
    0.00%
    0
    Pure Custom
    66.67%
    8
    Mixed Custom and OOTB
    33.33%
    4
    Other
    0.00%
    0

    #2
    Everything is custom, we make updates year to year as we get to it... The same as the Factory. Dont fool yourself in to thinking they dote on the content and make a ton of upgrades every year... For the most part (with a few exceptions) they dont.

    A lot of my library started out as the Imperial Lib, such as the Steel Modeled shapes and the Steel Detail Components. But every single one has been edited, and the OOTB one is nowhere to be seen here.

    Plus, the OOTB stuff sucks.
    Aaron "selfish AND petulant" Maller |P A R A L L A X T E A M | Practice Technology Implementation
    @Web | @Twitter | @LinkedIn | @Email

    Comment


      #3
      How do you deal with analysis softwares and other linking programs not recognizing your custom families/naming conventions?

      Comment


        #4
        Depends on what you mean *deal* with them. Im not going to throw out good revit practice just because the folks at Fastrac decided their product will ONLY work with the OOTB Family names and Type names, thats just silly. Id rather force them to make it a more configurable product, or not use it. Or, keep the OOTB library around just for their lousy converter, then swap/reload the OOTB families for our own. I treat all add ons and external software the same way. Always configurable over hard coded. Of course, thats the reason Fastracs converter APPEARS to work so well, is because it only works correctly given that lousy library of parts. They could spend two hours coding a GUI that let you PICK which families replace the OOTB ones, and it would be the best converter ever.

        Its not just naming conventions, there is crap in the OOTB ones i dont want. The medium LOD representation is a waste (we show the fillets all the time), the symbolic linework in a lot of their content is lousy, and weve added more parameters to it. And thats just structural. Their architectural content is ABSOLUTE junk. I wont even put it in the project knowing itll be swapped out (which i would only do if i had a dire need to use Fastrac).

        As for naming "conventions..." OOTB doesnt have any, its another pet peeve of mine. They just name stuff whatever, and throw it in a folder.
        Aaron "selfish AND petulant" Maller |P A R A L L A X T E A M | Practice Technology Implementation
        @Web | @Twitter | @LinkedIn | @Email

        Comment


          #5
          I use pure custom families as well and "copy" useful unchanged OOTB stuff into my custom libraries (ie: I havent redone the structural steel column families)
          Instructions for my users:
          1. look in the custom directories (or, in our case, use kiwicodes family browser to find the family)
          2. If its not there, tell me and I'll either point you to the right place, or put one there!
          3. If urgent and Im not avaliable, go to the OOTB drectories, but still tell me
          Alex Page
          RevitWorks Ltd
          Check out our Door Factory, the door maker add-in for Revit

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by Twiceroadsfool View Post
            Plus, the OOTB stuff sucks.
            'nuff said, Aaron


            Comment

            Related Topics

            Collapse

            Working...
            X