Using nested and shared families is quite a simple process; however, for new Revit users or even just users that haven’t explored the power of this process, it can initially be a little daunting. Once you understand these features of Revit you will wonder how you ever lived without them, and not only that, the possibility of endless customisations of many of the RevitHQ families’ opens up to you.

To begin with, let’s break down the terms nested and shared, how they are different, and why you should utilize these powerful features.

There has been a lot of confusion as of late in my office over when is and isn't the right time to use a Callout, and what exactly is the difference between a Detail Callout and a Floor Plan Callout. This was most obvious on one particular job where someone early in the project decided to use a Callout to create their new floor plan, this floor plan didn't need a referencing Callout cloud in the host view, but this was just a quick way of creating a lower scale floor plan at the time. Along the way this went unnoticed, and every time a new floor plan was created using the duplicate floor plan technique, another Callout cloud was also duplicated on the original host plan. This continued to the point where this host floor plan view was so overrun with Callout clouds that it was simply renamed, 'DO NOT TOUCH', as deleting it would result in almost all of our developed floor plans being deleted also.
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​Another small yet potentially handy discovery:
Ever decided to right click on the padlock icon of a dimension? Well, give it a try.

​After some confusion at work around drag controls and the different way reference planes can affect families, I quickly threw this together. I hope it helps anyone else that has been confused by the topic.
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