Understanding and managing parameters in Revit

As is well known, BIM is primarily about the I - i.e. the information that is "attached" to the components in the form of attributes or parameters. We can use this information to filter components, evaluate them in component lists or manage them in other programs.

A well thought-out parameter concept is therefore one of the most important office standards nowadays when it comes to BIM. However, there is often a great deal of uncertainty when it comes to this topic, especially among Revit newcomers. But it's not that complicated!

Specimen properties vs. type properties

Families in Revit are type-based, i.e. you can define a wall of the type "My standard wall" and specify the wall structure etc. according to your ideas.
This wall has specimen properties that can be different for each specimen of this wall - for example, its length (which is logical, because you don't want to have all walls of the same length!)
The type properties, for example the construction, are the same for all examples - if you change them, all walls created with this type will also be changed.

This is a great and equally 'dangerous' feature - so you should always keep the difference between these two property types in mind. Revit makes this much easier for us, as all copy properties are accessible directly in the properties window, but the type properties are only accessible in the separate "Edit type" dialog:

Specimen and type properties in Revit

Create your own parameters

Sooner or later you will want to create your own user-defined parameters for your projects. No problem - this is much easier in Revit than you might think!

You can set your own parameters under Manage > Project parameters create. You must note that there are some properties that you can no longer change once the parameter has been created - such as the parameter type. You should therefore think carefully about these points, as you can only change them by deleting and creating a new parameter.
This is not a problem with project templates or empty projects, but remember that if you delete a parameter in the current project, any values that may have been entered will also be deleted!

Project parameters

This is the standard case when you simply need a parameter for your model that you can evaluate in component lists. The project parameters are created directly in the project environment - it is best to create the frequently used parameters directly in the project template so that they are automatically available to you in the same way as your standard families for each new project.

However, project parameters have some restrictions: You cannot access them from other families and projects, and therefore cannot include them in labeling families. The shared parameters are available for these purposes.

Shared parameters

They are saved in a text file that you can store anywhere (including on the network) - this gives you access to the parameters defined here from all your projects and families. You can use the parameters in the labeling or, of course, make them available to your specialist planners to ensure that they use the same parameters.

Dialog for parameter creation in Revit

It all makes perfect sense, doesn't it? You can find more information on parameters in the official Revit Help.

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