Change materials of family objects

Hello,

In a project, I have accessory pipe families, where I would like to change the materials of all the “objects” contained in the family

I have a shared parameter Materials1 with a definition of a material (in the script, I change this definition)

Then for all the objects contained in the family, I want to associate the Material parameter with my Material1 parameter

My problem is that I cannot find a node to have the List of “objects” contained in my family

(Translate with Google :blush:)



Hi @alain.hamel
If the objects are nested families, in a project you can use the node FamilyInstances.RetrieveNestedComponents (Rhythm package), and in a family the node Family.GetNested (Orchid).

1 Like

Hello,
No nested families, just extrusions

In a family you can use SelectModelElements (window selection), but i guess you want to do it for several families in the same time

did you try All Elements of Type ?
element of type

I am in the project at the base, not in the family editor

You can stay in a project and open several families in the background using some nodes from GeniusLoci or Orchid Packages.

there may be a lot of family. No way to do it without the editor?

If i undestand what you want to do (add a material parameter to the extrusions contained in several families), as far as i know you can not do it in a project, you have to edit the families to modify them. You can do it by batch using dynamo.

Changing the default material in the Object Style tab won’t solve your problem ?

no, it’s not for all families. the materials may change depending on the type

Correct - without going into the family environment you can’t modify the contents of the family itself, only parametric content (ie: parameter values, location points) can be adjusted in the family environment.

So I need another approach …
Thank you for your comments, I had been looking for a solution on the site for 2 days.

Opening the family first and then running the graph should resolve. Make that work on one family, and then you can try using Dynamo for Automation or other means to bulk process a list of files.

What is the best approach for you?
Edit from the background project in the editor or open in the editor from a directory?

Hi. I apologize if I should indeed open a new topic, but I consider the original query isn’t fully resolved, at least not for me. I have been fighting this issue for 2 days straight, both from project environment and from the family itself and I finally settled on your statement. I would like to associate shared parameters for materials per subcategory, in my case, to some 50 window families, increasing in number. Right now I need to open each family, select the different parts and then map the right shared parameter to them (I have previously used Dynamo to open all families in the background creating the needed shared parameters on them from a Excel sheet, as explained by Aussie BIM Guru).

But the thing is that the geometry I am selecting on each family usually responds to well defined subcategories, it’s always Frame/Mullion, Trim or Glass, so, in theory, I should be able to open all families in the background and then select all elements that belong to each mentioned subcategory, then I would set the parameter to the desired shared parameter for each material, save and close each family.

My problem is that I can’t figure out how to select elements per subcategory while in the family and I can’t figure out how to associate a shared parameter to those elements either.

Any help greatly appreciated, this would be critical for BIM Management, I believe.
Thank you