# Get Family Name vs Get Type Name

**URL:** <https://forum.dynamobim.com/t/get-family-name-vs-get-type-name/835>\
**Category:** Packages\
**Created:** [December 18, 2014, 2:52pm UTC](https://forum.dynamobim.com/t/get-family-name-vs-get-type-name/835 "2014-12-18T14:52:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Ben\_Osborne](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/user_avatar/forum.dynamobim.com/ben_osborne/32/17366_2.png) [@Ben\_Osborne](https://forum.dynamobim.com/u/Ben_Osborne)\
**Post date:** [December 18, 2014, 2:52pm UTC](https://forum.dynamobim.com/t/get-family-name-vs-get-type-name/835/1 "2014-12-18T14:52:47Z")

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![Capture](https://cdck-file-uploads-us1.s3.dualstack.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/flex022/uploads/dynamobim/original/2X/9/97d1cb5b5303bb1c1fa483c04abb371ae649eb21.png)

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See attached image. I’m trying to get the family name of each element in a list. Not the Type Name, nor the Family Name: Type Name. Just the Family Name.

If I use Element.Parameters node, I can see that there is a Parameter called “Family” that contains exactly the info I need, which is “(Concrete)-Rectangular-Framing”. When I use Element.GetParameterValueByName, I get a number 87683. What??? And to Further confuse things, if I use Family.Name **or** FamilySymbol.Name, I get the Type Name “12 x 24” rather than the Family Name.

Any ideas? What is the intended use of Family.Name if it does not give the Family Name?

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**Author:** ![Dimitar\_Venkov](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/user_avatar/forum.dynamobim.com/dimitar_venkov/32/2068_2.png) [@Dimitar\_Venkov](https://forum.dynamobim.com/u/Dimitar_Venkov)\
**Post date:** [December 18, 2014, 8:18pm UTC](https://forum.dynamobim.com/t/get-family-name-vs-get-type-name/835/2 "2014-12-18T20:18:29Z")

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Hi Ben,

The Dynamo team has tried to keep the structure of the nodes as similar as possible to their equivalents in the Revit API. That has a lot of benefits but it may be a hindrance at times too because the API has been revised and re-revised constantly for the last 10+ years and the naming scheme in the API is frankly said is a bit of a mess. However if you think logically about it, you can still find your way through it:

![2014-12-19_093119](https://cdck-file-uploads-us1.s3.dualstack.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/flex022/uploads/dynamobim/original/2X/1/10d97139cacdc79b26c5c156cb8d00797060e36c.jpg)

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-When you run a collector of all elements of a category, you get family instances.

- You have to then extract the family symbol object of those instances ( that’s the family type)

- Once you have the symbol, you can cross-reference it to the families and see the family it belongs to

- finally you can use the Name node to extract the name from the family objects as a string.

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**Author:** ![Ben\_Osborne](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/user_avatar/forum.dynamobim.com/ben_osborne/32/17366_2.png) [@Ben\_Osborne](https://forum.dynamobim.com/u/Ben_Osborne)\
**Post date:** [December 18, 2014, 8:40pm UTC](https://forum.dynamobim.com/t/get-family-name-vs-get-type-name/835/3 "2014-12-18T20:40:10Z")

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Thanks Dimitar.

That solves my problem I’m dealing with, but it does not explain the inconsistency between the Element.Parameters node finding a parameter called “Family”, but the Element.GetParameterByName node returning a 6 digit number for “Family” instead of the value that was found by Element.Parameters. Is that just some weird bug or is that 6 digit number actually the ID of the Family Type?

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**Author:** ![Peter\_Kompolschek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/dec6dc/32.png) [@Peter\_Kompolschek](https://forum.dynamobim.com/u/Peter_Kompolschek)\
**Post date:** [December 19, 2014, 1:53am UTC](https://forum.dynamobim.com/t/get-family-name-vs-get-type-name/835/4 "2014-12-19T01:53:36Z")

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it is the family’s Id