Family Freezer

Family Freezer

Family Freezer turns the families you choose into plain, geometry-only shapes so you can hand over a model without giving away your family library. The frozen shapes sit exactly where the originals were and look the same in every view, but they carry no family parameters, no types, no connectors and nothing to open with Edit Family.

What it does

• Reads the 3D geometry of every placed instance of the families you check.
• Creates one frozen shape per instance, in the same place and, where Revit allows it, in the same category (doors stay doors, furniture stays furniture).
• Can hide the family and type names, pin the shapes, and stop others from dimensioning, snapping or hosting onto their faces.
• Two ways to work: Make frozen copies (the originals stay in place) or Replace the originals (the originals are deleted, and their families can be removed from the project once nothing uses them).
• Every run is one Revit undo step, and you can save a report of which original became which shape.

When to use it

• Issuing a model to a client, consultant or contractor who should receive the geometry but not your editable families.
• Sharing a coordination model where the shapes matter and the family logic does not.
• Lightening a delivery copy of families that will never be edited again.

Work in a detached or Save As copy of the project. Frozen shapes have no parameters, schedules, constraints, tags or hosting behaviour. That is the point, but it also means you cannot edit them as families afterwards.

How to run it

Open your project in Revit, then start Family Freezer from BimCode's plugin list. The window opens beside Revit and you can keep working in the model while it is open.

A walk through the screens

Freeze

1. Check the families to freeze. The list shows every family that has placed instances, how many of them can be frozen, and a status. Search the list, check everything shown, or use whatever you have selected in Revit.
2. Choose how. Start with Make frozen copies. Decide whether to freeze every placed instance of the checked families or only what is selected in Revit right now. More options holds the level of detail, pinning, names, categories, workset and phase, and hosted families; it opens by itself when you have changed any of them and sums them up in one line while closed.
3. Check, then freeze. Check reads the real geometry and tells you what will be frozen, what will be skipped and why, and what else would be affected. Nothing changes in the model yet. When you are happy, click the one filled button: Create frozen copies, or, after typing FREEZE to confirm, Replace the originals.

Results

A summary of the run: shapes created, originals removed, families removed, instances skipped, and a table of which original became which shape. Select the new shapes highlights them in Revit; Save report writes a JSON file to keep with the issue package.

Limits & tips

Plain-language notes on what freezing can and cannot guarantee, and a suggested delivery routine.

Words used in the plugin

• Frozen shape: a plain solid that looks like the family instance but has no family behind it.
• Hide names: shapes are named "Frozen Asset 0001", "0002" and so on, instead of carrying the family and type name. You can change the wording.
• Pin: the shape is pinned so it is not moved by accident. Anyone can unpin it.
• No snapping or dimensioning onto faces: the faces of the frozen shapes are not offered as references, so others cannot dimension to them, align to them or host families on them.
• Hosted families: doors, windows and anything placed on a wall, floor, ceiling or face. Off by default, because removing the original can close its opening.

Limits

• Frozen shapes still have Revit's own built-in properties; no element can have zero parameters.
• This is practical protection, not encryption or DRM: someone with the model can still delete a shape or trace its geometry.
• Skipped on purpose: 2D and view-specific families, curtain panels and mullions, instances inside groups or assemblies, instances in design options, nested shared families, and anything with no 3D geometry at the chosen level of detail.
• Replacing hosted doors and windows can close their openings. Check the result in a delivery copy before issuing.
• Undo (Ctrl+Z) restores everything as long as you have not saved. The report is not a way to bring the originals back; keep your authoring model and family library safe.