Understanding Artcraft Revit Families

Overview

Every cabinet you place in Revit is called a Family.

A family is much more than a 3D model.

It contains the geometry, dimensions, product information, and parameters that define how a cabinet looks, behaves, and interacts with the rest of the project.

For Artcraft, Revit Families form the foundation of the entire Design-to-Order workflow.

What is a Revit Family?

A Revit Family is a digital representation of a product.

In the case of Artcraft, each family represents a cabinet from the Artcraft catalog.

Families are intelligent objects.

Rather than being simple lines or shapes, they contain information such as:

Width
Height
Depth
Product parameters
Cabinet options
Scheduling information

This allows Revit to automatically generate plans, elevations, sections, schedules, and 3D views from a single model.

Why Artcraft Revit Families are Different

While many manufacturers provide generic Revit families, Artcraft Families have been developed specifically to support the complete Artcraft Design-to-Order workflow.

They are not simply visual cabinet models.

They have been built around the same product logic used within Accolades.

This means the information created during design can continue flowing through scheduling, pricing, and ordering without needing to be recreated manually.

Artcraft Families vs Generic Revit Families

A generic Revit family may look similar to an Artcraft cabinet, but it does not contain the product intelligence required for the Artcraft workflow.

Generic families are typically useful for visualization and documentation only.

Artcraft Revit Families, on the other hand, are designed to support the entire project lifecycle.

They include:

Artcraft product definitions
Shell Codes
Master Codes
Cabinet parameters
Standard Artcraft modifications
Schedule information
Data required for export into Accolades

Because of this, Artcraft Families become much more than drawing objects.

They become the source of information used throughout the project.

Why This Matters

As you place Artcraft cabinet families into your model, Revit automatically builds a cabinet schedule.

That schedule can then be exported and prepared for import into Accolades.

If generic Revit families are used instead, this workflow is broken.

Although the project may still look correct visually, the information required for scheduling, pricing, and ordering will not exist.

This means cabinet information would need to be recreated manually before the project could be quoted.

Using Artcraft Families eliminates this duplicate work while helping improve both speed and accuracy.

Built Around Accolades

One of the unique advantages of the Artcraft system is that the modifications available within Revit closely mirror the modifications available within Accolades.

For example, when you modify:

Cabinet dimensions
Door hinging
Drawer front sizes
Recessed bottoms
Toe-kick recesses
Door reveals

you're working with many of the same options that will later be used during pricing and ordering.

This creates a consistent experience from design through manufacturing.

Best Practices

Always use Artcraft Revit Families when designing Artcraft kitchens.
Avoid substituting generic cabinet families.
Load only the families required for your project.
Modify cabinets using the built-in parameters rather than creating custom geometry.
Keep your Artcraft Family Library up to date by downloading the latest versions from Accolades.

Key Takeaway

Artcraft Revit Families are more than cabinet models.

They are intelligent products built specifically for the Artcraft Design-to-Order workflow.

By using Artcraft Families, you're creating a model that supports documentation, scheduling, pricing, and ordering—all from the same source of information.

This is what makes the Artcraft Revit workflow faster, more accurate, and fundamentally different from using generic Revit content.