BLOCS

Place Autodesk® Revit™ families from Rhino® blocks

BLOCS places family instances in Revit at the position, rotation and mirroring of Rhino block instances. You can import the families from the .beam or use families that are already in the project.

Export the file from Rhino with BLOCS or BEAM.

Import and place families

Click BLOCS on the BEAM tab and pick the file in Select .beam. Choose Import Family.

Option	Default	What it does
Place Instances	On	Place an instance for each Rhino block instance. Turn it off to only load or update the families.
Update Parameters	On	Write parameter values from Rhino
Workplane Based	On	Create work-plane-based families
Import Curves / Import Nurbs	On / Off	See Curves & Linework

Pick a Location and click BEAM.

To update the family geometry without placing new instances, turn off Place Instances.

Workplane-based or not

• Workplane Based on: the family accepts every block transformation, including tilt. Use it when geometry needs full freedom.

• Workplane Based off: the family is always vertical. Use it when you will move instances between levels by hand later. Only rotation in plan is applied.

Place an existing family

Choose Use Existing Family and pick a family from the list. BLOCS places it at the block transformations in the .beam.

• <Automatic> matches each block to the family with the same name.

• The list shows work-plane-based and level-based families, and adaptive curtain panel families with one adaptive point. Native and BEAM-imported families both work.

• Always Vertical and Workplane Based show how the chosen family behaves. You cannot change them here.

Families that are always vertical or not work-plane-based only take translation and rotation in plan. Check that your Rhino block transformations suit the family.

How instances are updated

Each Rhino block instance has a Mark. On import, BLOCS looks for a Revit instance with the same Mark:

• If it finds one in the same place, it leaves it.

• If the transformation changed, it replaces it.

• If there are duplicates, it removes the extras.

Mirrored blocks are mirrored in Revit.

The level comes from the block's level, matched by name. If no Revit level has that name, BLOCS uses the closest level below. A Workset parameter set in Rhino is applied too.