Built Tools / Door Builder
Door Builder
Swap a nested component inside a Revit family without opening the Family Editor three levels deep. Try it below, in a working replica of the tool.
no nest-divingv1.7Experimental, in testing with colleagues
3,398Lines of IronPython in the tool
2022+Revit versions supported
0Changes to the source family
At a glance
One swap in thirty seconds
Pick the handle in the component tree, try a replacement that loses a parameter link, switch to one that carries both, then build. The new family is written, loaded and placed; the source is never touched.
Try it
Door Builder, running in your browser
Click Door Builder on the KSR ribbon tab, browse to the library, pick a door from the project, then swap its handle or panel. Check the parameters, preview the result and press BUILD: the door in the elevation updates.
A replica with sample data, rebuilt from the tool’s own window layouts and logic. It does not connect to Revit. Family names follow the KSR library; parameters, previews and the project are illustrative. Best on a desktop.
How the real tool works
Pick, swap, re-link, build
01
Pick the family
From the open project or a folder. The tool opens every nested family in turn and lists the tree, including Family Type parameters that drive nested types.
02
Choose a replacement
Only similar components are offered: handles for handles, panels for panels, filtered by the Revit category read from each .rfa file.
03
Check compatibility
Before anything is built, each replacement’s instance parameters are compared with the links on the current component, by name and storage type.
04
Build a new family
The swap is applied to a copy, every parameter link is restored, unused materials are purged and a new .rfa is saved, then optionally loaded and placed.
Design rules
What the tool refuses to do
- Never modifies the source family. It writes a new one, and nothing is saved or loaded unless every step reports success.
- Never overwrites the library. A changed container is named
<base> + <changed parts>; if that component already exists it is reused, otherwise a new one is written to the Components folder. - Never counts a name match as a match. A parameter with the right name but the wrong storage type is reported as lost.
- Never drags the Material Browser along. Unused materials are purged so a door doesn’t carry the whole library into every project.
- Handles Revit’s type-parameter limit itself. Revit won’t associate a nested type parameter to the family above, so the tool promotes it to instance on the new copy.
Current position
The family suites are in use and the builder is being tested with a small group of colleagues. Testing focuses on component replacement, parameter behaviour and common configurations; wardrobes are next, with a similar but different set of nested elements.