How to Open, View and Use RFA Files

Revit Family (RFA) files contain reusable parametric components used in building design projects. If you work with Revit software or receive an RFA file, you’ll need to know how to properly open, view and use these files. This guide provides everything you need to know about manipulating RFA files.

What are RFA Files?

RFA stands for Revit Family Files. They contain families – reusable components parametrized for placement in building models. An RFA file could contain a door family, window family, lighting fixture family, furniture family and more.

Families allow designers to place copies of components precisely and flexibly while maintaining relationships between them. For example, a door placed in a wall will automatically cut an opening in the wall. If the wall moves, the door opening moves with it.

RFA files contain 2D line work and 3D geometry representing component families. They also contain parameters that control the size, shape, materials and behavior of component instances. By loading RFA files into projects, designers gain access to extensive libraries of reusable and flexible families.

Viewing RFA Files

Since RFA files store proprietary data for Autodesk Revit software, you can only view RFA geometry properly by opening the files in Revit. However, you can still preview basic graphical data in RFA files using the following free solutions:

• Text editors like Notepad++ can parse some of the XML data in RFA files, allowing you to peek inside and get a sense of their contents.
• Online RFA file viewers like Revit Dev let you see thumbnail previews of geometry stored in RFAs. This gives you a basic visual preview.
• Commercial RFA file viewers like Autodesk Design Review and NWD Model Viewer provide more robust visual previews with navigation tools. But they lack full RFA functionality.

To harness the true purpose of RFA families – their parametric flexibility – you need to open RFA files using full Autodesk Revit functionality.

Opening RFA Files in Revit

Autodesk offers several Revit products for working with RFA files, including:

• Revit LT – Entry-level BIM design and drawing software
• Revit – Advanced BIM software for architects and engineers
• Autodesk Design Review – Advanced viewer for design files including RFAs

Using any of these, you can fully open RFA files to access their parametric component families. Once opened, you can place multiple copies of families throughout a building model, editing their parameters to flexibly adapt them to design requirements.

To open an RFA file:

1. Launch Autodesk Revit LT, Revit or Design Review
2. Switch to the Family Editor interface within the software
3. Click “Load Family” and select your RFA file
4. The family loads into the current project file for placement and parametric editing

Once placed, you edit the family through use of shared and instance parameters to manipulate geometry, settings and behaviors.

Using RFA Files in Revit Once an RFA file has been loaded into a Revit project, it unlocks powerful BIM functionality. Designers use loaded families to add intelligent, parametrically flexible components to their building models.

Common ways to use loaded RFA families include:

• Placing Doors & Windows: Insert doors, windows, skylights and curtain systems to cut parametrically sized openings into walls and roofs. Control openings via instance parameters for size, operations, materials and more.
• Adding Furniture: Populate interiors with furniture families. Control placement, rotation, size, quantity and more through instance parameters. Tables, chairs, casework and more come predefined or custom-made.
• Equipping Rooms: Insert equipment families into rooms like mechanical, electrical, plumbing and HVAC components with exact shapes, sizes and clearance requirements met.
• Detailing Spaces: Embellish spaces using decorative families such as plants, furniture, accessories, trims and paneling tailored to design specs via parameters.
• Annotating Drawings: Use model text, keynotes, detail components and tags to annotate documentation drawings by schedule for contractors.

This covers many ways that loaded RFA families integrate with Revit tools and workflows, empowering parametric BIM design.

Creating RFA Files

If existing RFA family libraries lack a specific component you need in a project, no problem! Revit provides built-in tools to create your own families. This grants full control over component sizes, behaviors, parameters and more.

Steps for creating a new RFA family include:

1. Launch Revit Family Editor
2. Select appropriate family template (door, window, lighting, etc)
3. Build 2D and 3D geometry for family using modeling and modification tools
4. Add parameters to flexibly control behaviors
5. Nest related families into adaptive nesting components
6. Save file as RFA format

Now your custom component family can be loaded into any Revit project for placement and modification via its parameters.

Sharing RFA Files

A key benefit of the RFA format is the ability to save component families in standardized libraries for sharing across projects. Autodesk Seek and BIMObject offer popular online repositories hosting myriad readymade RFA files spanning architectural, MEP and construction purposes.

Or you can share saved RFA files directly with other Revit users working on common projects. This allows efficient synchronization of standardized, intelligently-flexible BIM component libraries.

Whether accessing existing files or creating new families as needed, RFA files empower functionality at the heart of parametric BIM workflows – just remember to use Revit software to unleash their full potential!