Revit entourage families are an incredibly underrated asset that are often overlooked in Revit BIM modeling. There might be some valid reasons for that, mainly to optimize your Revit files size, but more often than not they are a fantastic tool to consider for visualizations.
Here are the top 4 reasons why we at Archibite suggest you put Revit Entourage families as a heavy consideration in your Revit workflow.
Reason #1: They save time!
Post-processing your Revit drawings can be a time wasting hassle in hectic office environments. Placing your assets in other programs adds unnecessary additional steps to your workflow, and making changes later on becomes an absolute nightmare!
Placing 2D elements is always view specific in Revit, while 3D Entourage elements are included in all views. So once your 3D model is placed in the project, it’s possible to now be viewed in every single drawing without the need to place them multiple times. This allows you to add entourage to multiple views at once and save you a lot of time in the long run, as you don’t need to spend time fine tuning multiple views entourage.
Reason #2: They can be made invisible
A big reason why people might not like to use Revit Entourage families is because they might interfer with other views. The easiest way is to obviously hide them from view templates or by filters, but they still might pop up whenever you create new views without templates to hide them.
Another way to hide these 3D models that not many consider is utilizing Revits Worksets! Just create a new Workset specifically for 3D entourage, and place all you models there. No need to hassle with templates and view specific hiding of objects anymore!
Reason #3: They save money!
Post-processing programs like Adobe Creative Cloud / Enscape / Vray etc. can cost you thousands of euros a month. The big issue especially for smaller architecture firms is running costs, and minimizing them is key.
Instead of paying thousands of euros a month, investing in a proper library of 3D Revit families can get you to your desired level of post-processing without expensive running costs, but instead with just a few one time, small expenses!
Archibite Entourage families start at only 6.99e, and gives you access to your downloaded files forever.
Reason #4: Visual Cohesion
Getting a cohesive visual style will be an issue once you mix in other programs. Revit has its own visual style with specific line weights and curved line edges, so adding entourage to your drawings in other programs can change the vibe of the image and look out of place!
Also there is the minor advantage, that placing your objects in a Revit model places them in the exact same place no matter the view! Having your objects in the same places of your buildings in both 3D visualizations and 2D drawings, brings a fun cohesion and helps showcase scale in your drawings.
Luckily, we at Archibite create our Revit Entourage models to suit both 2D and 3D drawings, so the same Entourage models can be easily used to visualize both 3D drawings and 2D line drawigs!
Conclusion
I hope this article has given you some pointers on why Revit Entourage Families would be a great addition to your workflow.
Speed, visual cohesion, flexibility and the ability to skip using multiple programs are the keys to why you should heavily consider adding Revit Entourage to your future projects.
Until next time!
Check out some of our Revit Entourage families!
