Fan Selector
Select a fan by duty inside Revit — the manufacturer’s own type catalogue is the database
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General usage instructions
State the duty — air flow and pressure, in the project’s own units. Fan Selector reads the manufacturer’s type catalogue (the .csv that already sits beside the .rfa) and lists every duty point that can deliver it, ranked, with the motor power, speed, specific fan power and sound power beside each one. Pick a row, click a point in the view, and that exact type is placed with the figures written onto it.
The type does not have to be in the project. A catalogue holds a couple of hundred duty points; a project typically holds a handful of sizes. When the chosen size is missing, the family is loaded from its own file so Revit builds the type from the catalogue line — nothing already in the model is touched or overwritten.
Setup is one pass through Options per family — which catalogue column carries which figure, and which family parameter each figure is written onto. It is built for MEP engineers and HVAC modellers tired of selecting fans in a manufacturer’s separate program and then hunting for the matching Revit type by hand. Point each family at its catalogue once and the whole fan library becomes searchable by duty.
Key features
- Searches the whole catalogue — every duty point in the file, not just the sizes already loaded in the model.
- Works with any Mechanical Equipment fan family that has a Revit type catalogue.
- Per-family mapping: read a figure from a catalogue column, write it onto a family parameter — both dropdowns filtered by unit and pre-filled with the likely match.
- Six figures — air flow, pressure, motor power, speed, efficiency / specific fan power and sound power (the first two drive the search; the rest judge the choice), plus any number of extra columns.
- Ranking, not just filtering — by closeness to the requested duty, lowest specific fan power, quietest, or lowest motor power, with adjustable tolerance on both figures.
- Units come from the catalogue’s own header and are shown in the project’s units — CFM / in.wg or m³/h / Pa both work; an unrecognised unit is reported, never assumed.
- Optional duct stub: a short round duct off one connector at its own diameter, capped by an air terminal carrying the searched air flow — a fan with a real connected duty.
- Optional inlet and outlet attenuators, in duct diameters (0, 1 or 2), for families that build them.
- Places a missing size by loading the family from its .rfa — never overwrites a type the project already has, and never edits the catalogue or the family file.
- A photograph of the fan beside the results (axial, centrifugal or in-line), and three example fan families with catalogues installed alongside.
How to use it
- 1On the first run Options opens by itself: pick the fan family, confirm the catalogue column that names the Revit type and the figure mapping (catalogue column → family parameter). This is a one-time setup per family.
- 2Enter the duty — air flow and pressure — in your project’s units, and set the tolerance and how results are ranked.
- 3Fan Selector lists every matching duty point with motor power, speed, specific fan power and sound power; pick the row you want.
- 4Optionally turn on the duct stub and the inlet / outlet attenuators.
- 5Click a point in the view — the fan is placed on its level with the selected figures written onto it, ready to schedule and connect.
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