*This information is based on Revit 2011.
Here are a few useful tips when saving thumbnail views of your Revit families:
1. Choose a consistent angle to view items from (ex. Front Right Isometric). Elevations or plan views often don't capture the full family well.
2. Choose "consistent colors", "hidden line", or "realistic" for view settings; whichever shows that family off better.
3. Select any extraneous information (dimensions, hosting elements you don't want to see, model lines) and clickthe glasses icon at the bottom and select "hide element" so they don't show up in the thumbnail.
4. When working with ceiling lights, try hiding the hosting ceiling and viewing the object from slightly below as if you were looking up at the light. Also hide the light source in the view because it will be distracting in the thumbnail.
5. Always hit ZE before you are ready to save so that the picture zooms in. Revit does this automatically when you save, so have an idea what it will look like before you do. If it doesn't seem like it has zoomed in far enough, find out what is still in the view and either shrink it (like a wall extending too far), or hide it (like random, far away dimensions). Do this until the family fills most of the screen when you zoom extents.
6. **IMPORTANT** When you are saving the family, select Save As>Family> and then in that dialogue box, hit "options" and select the source as Active View/Sheet (this way the thumbnail will be whatever view you have been working in) and check the box marked "Regenerate if view/sheet is not up to date". This will re-do the thumbnail, even for existing families.
7. If you find that you can't select Save As from the menu (its grayed out), it probably means you are in a perspective view, which can't be saved for the thumbnail. You can check for this by looking at the bottom left of the screen. If it says "perspective", just click the little 3D house at the top to go to the basic 3D view and then re-align your view from there and you can now Save As.
8. Always choose "thin lines" under the "view" tab so that everything is cleaner for the thumbnail image.
9. If you want to change the materials of an imported object (like car models, for example), highlight the VIEW (not the model) you are working in, and then in the properties window, click the "edit" button in the "visibility/graphics overrides" row. Click the "Object Styles..." button near the bottom and on the "Imported Objects" tab, you can change the line colors and also the materials of the different parts of the Imported Objects. So you can finally turn that Ferrari Red into British Racing Green.
Hope this helps.
Edited on: Fri, Jul 8, 2011 at 10:45:16 AM
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