Autodesk Revit MEP

[#1]

The OOTB junction box family (square) seems to be floor based, although I see no floor or face in the family file itself. The standard option to Edit Work Plane or change face is not available when creating an instance or afterward. And I see no option to rotate the instance, like a steel angle or something.  Am I missing something here? For something so simple, I was hoping I wouldn't have to create another family.

[#2]

The OOTB junction box is not hosted to anything at all. It is free to be placed anywhere.

If you want it to be work plane based then you will need to edit the fmaily to select work plan based in the family categories window, in the options at the bottom.

If you want it face based - never object based in MEP such as walls/floors/ etc - the you will have to rebuild the family in a face based template. It should take you around 5mins to add some rectangular geometry linked to parametric reference planes and nested symbol geometry. You can save the symbol out as a file to import into your new family.

[#3]

Thanks Julian. Regardless of not being hosted, I could not for the life of me get that junction box to rotate from floor/ceiling orientation to wall orientation yesterday.  After looking around for the solution and finding none that worked, I just made my own junction box. I did make it face based, so I'll have to see how that goes.

[#4]

The culprit was probably the "Always Veritcal" option...

[#5]

Wow. I thought for sure you were right. I often forget about the "Always Vertical" box. But...it didn't resolve the issue. When I attempt to rotate the junction box, I get the same error message (with or without the Always Vertical" box checked: Can't rotate element into this position.

[#6 · Accepted solution]

Unfortunately the always vertical option does not always solve this. Talking to a colleague I remember we had this problem before with another family and if memory serves correctly it is to do with the geometry being assigned to the default reference planes in the family. These planes stop the family from being rotated. We got round it by adding new reference planes with angles between the default planes and the new ones.

It was a pain in the butt to resolve and was quicker to rebuild in a face based template.

[#7]

Yep, you're right. The non-hosted families always proved to be a pain-in-the-neck. Face-Based is the way to go.

[#8]

Agreed. If I have to add new reference planes and monkey with the dimensions and controls, I might as well just make my own. Much faster, and it will function as expected. Thank you both for your quick responses.  Now I know I've covered all the bases and have found the most effective solution.