Catalogue, Family, Part, Item

Question

HI there, 
 
 I'm new to AECOsim. I have started my journey some day ago. Initially, I have stuck with the concept or catalogue, family, part, and items. I can get how elements are grouped here in AECOsim. Could anyone please help me by example. 
 For example in Revit, we have Category, Family, type, and instance. How could we define these things in AECOsim? 
 For example a double panel window or door. How to categories it ?

Thanks and Regards, 
 Usman

Usman Sattar · Accepted Answer

I'm on v8i. The answer is not clear yet. I got the idea of catalogue item. But, how a catalogue item be affected by family and part? It's confusing. If we type data for cataloguesl item, what will be superseded by family and part? 
 Is it family and part that superseed the catalogue item's dataset or other way around? 
 If a wall is external in the data set and we choose internal in the family, what affecte will it have ? 
 What is type in AECOsim and where it is used 
 
 Thanks

Marc Thomas · Answer

Family and Part simply provided the symbology, so pre-applied materials, model symbology (that is: element colour, line weight etc) and cut plane symbology (wieght and colour of cut line, hatching/patterning). 
 A catalog Item is created then a family and part is linked to it. 
 Generally we create wall types that are either internal or external and link then to appropriate internal/external parts. 
 It would be entirely possible to have a Wall Catalog Item that could be used as either internal or external linked to a part whose symbology was appropriate in both situations. A generic wall Catalog Item for initial design stages would be an example of this.

Marc Thomas · Answer

Hi Usman, 
 Just some headlines which may help steer you in the right direction through our documentation: 
 The Catalog contains Items which have DataGroup properties. You can create new Catalog Items and new (or custom) DataGroup properties to apply to Catalog Items. The Properties are populated by Definitions, you can also create your own definitions when needed, although it it always worth looking for existing properties and definitions first! 
 Family and parts provide the symbology for modelling and drawing production (they do have some residual quantification and other functions which some users still make use of, but these are almost all superseded by the functionality in the Catalog). 
 Which version are you using? We can direct you to some appropriate learning materials. 
 We do have a course directly aimed at the transition from Revit, you can find this through CONNECT Advisor. Open this inside AECOsim, enter revit as the search term and you should find the "AECOsim Building Designer 3D and BIM Essentials for Revit Users course listed near the top of the list (2nd in my case):

Catalogue, Family, Part, Item

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