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Link and Synchronize Materials with Finishes Items

Link and Synchronize Materials with Finishes Items

Linking Materials to Finishes Items works in the same way as linking Family Types to Items. Read more Link and Synchronize dRofus Items and Revit Family types

You can apply filters on both Revit Category as well as Responsibility Groups to make your linking process easier.

Before synchronizing, you should create an Item Attribute Configuration specifically for Materials. Within your "Attribute Configuration Settings" Panel, select "+" next to "Family <-> Item", then check the box next to "Materials" and click on "OK" as follows:

 

This option will allow you to create specific configurations for specific Revit categories.

Example:

Below is an example of an Item configuration for Materials. This example suggests a workflow where some Key Parameters under "Identity Data" and "Identity" for Materials are first managed within dRofus and then pushed in to Revit, whereas geometrically calculated values (such as areas) of the Materials are pushed from Revit to dRofus:

If you haven't already done so, you can now start to input some data within dRofus for your Finishes Item(s), say "Wall Paint 1".

Ensure that the dRofus Item attributes (that have been mapped to Revit Family Type Parameters) have some values for this Finishes Item. For the Configuration in the example above, these would be -  "Budget price", "Name", "Reference" and (within the Item Data Panel) "Manufacturer" & "Website ref" as follows:



You can then link your Finishes Item in dRofus to a Material in Revit by selecting "Items <-> Families":



A new dialog window will pop up where you can then browse or search for the new Finishes Item in dRofus as well as the corresponding Material in Revit, then link



Once the link has been made, you can synchronize using either "Sync" or "Sync All", after which you will be able to see the new values within the "Identity" tab for your Material in the Material Browser as follows:



If you then apply the material "Wall Paint 1" (using the Paint tool) to your Room's walls in Revit:



If you then insert a Material Tag (that includes "Mark"), you will be able to identify the type of paint within your model as follows:



In this example, the value "AW11" was pushed from "Reference" in dRofus to "Mark" in Revit.

 

After applying the paint within the Revit model, you can then synchronize once again so that dRofus will then be updated with the calculated (designed) "Paint Area" from Revit (as a sum) as follows:



This information that is now in dRofus can then be used for creating schedules (within dRofus) which provide the calculated areas and / or volumes of the Finishes Items.