In Revit workflows, families rarely exist in isolation. A family may be:

Used inside multiple details
Nested inside other families
Associated with specific details or standards

Pirros helps track these relationships with associations.

Associations show you where a family is being used providing visibility into dependencies. This helps you to better understand how widely something is used and can help simplify workflows.

What types of content are considered 'associated' content?

Details that need to be used in association with a certain family
Families that need to be used in association with a certain detail
Details that could be helpful to place into a project when placing a certain family
Families that could be helpful to place into a project when placing a certain detail

This creates a network of connected assets, not just standalone files.

What Associations Do

Associations create visible links between content. For example:

A wall section detail can be associated with the wall family it references
A typical door jamb detail can be associated with the door family it's designed for
A structural connection detail can be associated with related beam and column families

When a member views the detail, they see the associated families listed on the detail page — and vice versa.

Creating an Association

To create an association:

Navigate to a Detail or a Family
Find the Item
Select the Open Full Family/Detail button in the middle of the family/detail
Locate the Associations section on the left hand side bar
Once you click associations, you will be able to manually add any and all relevant associations via the right-hand sidebar by clicking the "+ New Associations" button".
By clicking the "+ New Associations" button," a dialog box will open up allowing you to select what details or families you would now like to associate with the original item, in this case, this family.
Hit Save and now you will be able to see the selected items you associated with the original family.

The details and families you selected will now be visible in the right hand side bar.
- Details that reference the family
- Other families nested within it
- Forward and/or Backward references

Having visibility into associations helps you understand how widely something is used

Forward and Backward Associations

Once you manually create an association, for example, linking this chair family to its corresponding dining table family, a forward association is established. This indicates that the chair is intended to be used together with the dining table as part of a complete unit.

Associations should be thought of as a directional relationship that suggests the next logical action for the user. For example:

If you download a door family, you may also want to download the door head detail associated with it.
However, downloading a door head detail does not necessarily mean the user should download every door family associated with it.

Stash or Stage for Download

Both forward and backward associations give users the option to stage or download related families or details at the same time, helping streamline workflows. For example, whenever you surfaces this chair family in Pirros, you will also see the associated table family.

It’s important to note that Pirros will not automatically stash or download all associated assets together. You must still manually choose to stage or stash each item individually.

When to Use Associations

Details that require specific families: If a detail only works with a certain family, link them so users download both
Related detail variations: Connect details that show different views of the same condition (plan, section, elevation)
Cross-referencing: Link a detail to the family it's commonly used with, even if they could work independently