Uploading models

Revit families, FBX and OBJ — what to send and how to package it.

The VUE teamLast updated 9 August 2026

What VUE accepts

Format	Notes
`.rfa`	A Revit family. The best input by a distance — it carries types, parameters and material assignments, so the configurator and the specification readout come out of it for free.
`.txt`	A type catalogue, uploaded alongside a family. Not a model on its own.
`.fbx`	Geometry and materials, no types or parameters. Options can be defined by hand afterwards.
`.obj`	Geometry, with materials if an `.mtl` comes with it.
`.zip`	An FBX or OBJ with its textures and `.mtl`. The reliable way to send a textured mesh.
`.adsklib`	A Revit material library, imported into your material library rather than as a model. See materials.

FBX and OBJ import is a plan feature. If your plan does not include it the upload page only offers Revit families.

Revit families

Upload the family as it is. You do not need to open it, purge it or prepare it — VUE reads it directly.

Two things make a noticeable difference to the result:

Assign real materials. A family whose geometry is all <By Category> converts to a grey object. VUE keeps the materials the family assigns; it cannot invent ones that were never set.
Name your parameters for a reader. The configurator uses parameter names as its control labels. Finish becomes a good label; Param_07 becomes a bad one. You can rename them in VUE afterwards, but starting from the right name saves the step.

Type catalogues

A type catalogue is the .txt sitting next to a family that lists its types and their parameter values. Revit uses it so a large family does not have to carry hundreds of types inside the file.

If your family has one, upload it. Without it, VUE only sees the types embedded in the .rfa — which for a catalogue family is often a single placeholder. This is the most common reason for “my family has 40 sizes but VUE only found one”.

The catalogue also supplies parameter types — that a column is a length in millimetres rather than free text. That is what lets VUE sort a size dropdown numerically instead of alphabetically, and recognise a material column as something that should be shown as swatches.

FBX and OBJ

A mesh file has no types and no parameters, so it arrives as a single default type. That is fine for a product with one configuration, and if you want options you can define them by hand — duplicate the type, then add a control and give each type a value. See types and the configurator.

Export with metres or millimetres as the unit and the model roughly at origin. VUE frames the model on load, so scale errors show up as a product that is correct on screen but wrong in AR, where real size matters.

Sending textures

An FBX references its textures by path — a path on the machine that exported it, which does not exist here. So an FBX uploaded on its own converts without them.

Either:

zip the FBX together with its texture files (and the .mtl for an OBJ) and upload the zip — the reliable option; or
select the textures alongside the model file in the upload picker. VUE matches them by filename.

Either way the names must match what the model references. A texture called oak_diffuse.png will not be found by a model asking for Oak_Diffuse.PNG on a case-sensitive server.

Limits

Types per model is capped by your plan. VUE checks before converting and tells you the real number rather than failing partway.
Number of models is capped by your plan.
Conversion time is the metered resource — see plans and conversion time. A family with many types costs proportionally more, because each type is converted.

Replacing a model later

Upload the new version as a new model and repoint your embed, or delete and re-upload if you want to keep the same name. Anything you set by hand — renamed option axes, material overrides, per-type presentation — is stored against stable keys rather than against the converted output, so it survives a re-conversion of the same family.

If a type disappears between versions, VUE keeps your settings for it and shows them as orphaned rather than deleting them silently. A type that is new appears with its raw name for you to relabel.