When I reload a Revit family, a dialog presents the question, do you want to ‘Overwrite the exiting version’ or ‘Overwrite the exiting version and its parameter values’. What is the difference?

Revit families contain 2D\3D geometry and have instance and type parameters to allow each user to create variations of the family as desired.  When reloading a family, the “geometry” will always be updated, but you can choose if you want to update the “type parameters”.

Overwrite the existing version

This choice will update the family for geometry changes, but will preserve any changes made to type and instance parameters within your project.

This is the safest choice when reloading families into a project.

Overwrite the existing version and its parameter values

This choice will update the family geometry AND any values entered in the families type properties. Think of it as “resetting” the types within the family.  Instance parameters will remain the same for the families that are already placed in the project.

Download PDF – KB-201210-Family Reloading and Overwriting