Unlike Saving Private Ryan, here no lives are being lost, just time.
In Revit, when saving a family from within the family editor the file size might not be as good as one might expect. Let’s say you start working with a family weighting 192kb and after a lot of playing around, doing and undoing geometry, changing parameters and what not, you decide to save the family. Since you ended up just adding a couple bits of geometry and some parameters, you don’t expect the file size to increase for more than 20kb, if that. But when you look at the file size of the family you just saved, your heart skips a bit – okay, maybe not. Still you might end up being surprised that the file size is now close to 900kb.
You know that can’t be right. You’ve done or seen families done by others more complex that weren’t half the (file) size of the one you just saved. So what gives? Is there a secret formula to building light weight geometry in the family editor?
No, nothing so intriguing. The problem is with the Revit family editor. It has been there since at least the 2008 series, and up to today. And there is a workaround.
The Workaround
Saving the family with the Save As command and giving it a different name1 always works to get you the smallest file size possible. That family that we were playing with, now slimmed down to 204kb. That’s a nice file size, and you save yourself from the fat-bits that would otherwise end up in your project.
Then, if you started with the right name for the family, most likely, Save As again to rename it back to the original name.
Up until and including the 2009 series, there was little else you could do. With 2010 and beyond, a plugin could do the dirty work for you. The solution should come from the Factory, though. At least three releases sport the problem. About time it gets fixed. Since it’s Chrismas Eve, I’ll make this one wish.
And for everyone else, merry Christmas!
1 Sometimes is enough to use the Save As and keep the same name, but often is not, so better to rename.
