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A couple of families Questions....

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Message 1 of 17
rientsbruinsma
561 Views, 16 Replies

A couple of families Questions....

1, Electrical symbols. When I lay out my electricals I want to place the symbols in plan independently fron the modeled switch. When I move the symbols apart in plan so they are legible the sockets and switches in elev are about 500mm apart when they should be right next to one another.


Is there any way of moving the plan symbol independently from the modeled component with out having to use 2 different families, essentilly doing the job twice?

 

2, Drawers in a wardrobe.

I've created paramentic wardobes, and would like to create a nested family for the internal drawer unit, but would like to choose how many drawers the nested unit has. I know how to link parameters from as nested family, but I don't know how to turn things on/off.

 

Is there a way of doing this?

 

Many Thanks

 

 

16 REPLIES 16
Message 2 of 17

Both of your questions require work in the family editor. 

 

For No. 1, you can edit the elecrical symbol and add a parameter to the 2D symbol that is used in plan. This parameter should be an instance parameter and if you create corresponding reference planes, you can get it to show those little control handle grips when you select it. With or without these grips, you will have a field on the properties palette when you select it. You can call it something like "Plan Offset" and then use this value to move it from its home position. The tricky part is getting it to allow both negative and positive values (so you can move left or right). Dimensioned parameters will break if you change from pos to neg or vice-versa. So you have to create a reference plane at some distance away, then reference to that and use formulas to make the input values more logical. It is a decent amount of work, but certainly posible. 

 

For No. 2, select the nested element and on the properties palette, there is a "Visible" checkbox. You said you were familiar with linking up parameters. You can find the small "Associate Familiy Parameter" button here next to the checkbox. Link up a parameter to this and you will have control over the visibility via a parameter. 

 

I hope that helps get you started. Let me know if you have other questions. 

paul

Paul F. Aubin




Paul F. Aubin Consulting Services, Inc.
Check out my books and training videos
paulaubin.com
Message 3 of 17
rosskirby
in reply to: rientsbruinsma

For your first question, about the electrical symbols, there are 2 ways you could go about it.  You could set offset X and offset Y instance parameters for the nested symbol family, and then adjust the symbol location as you see fit.  Kind of a pain, but workable.  The other option would be to create a tag that has the symbol nested in it, then you can tag the family and drag the symbol where you want it.  Depending on how many different symbols you want to do this with, the second solution could get cumbersome fast.

 

For your second question, you can array the nested drawer family as necessary, then mouse over the array, click on the array line (it'll have a number indicating how many instances there are and a little tick mark along the line next to each instance), then go to the drop down in the options bar that will let you assign a parameter to the array, call it "No. Drawers" or something similar, and you're good to go.

Ross Kirby
Principal
Dynamik Design
www.dynamikdesign.com
Message 4 of 17
rientsbruinsma
in reply to: rosskirby

Brilliant, thank you.

 

I have attached the movable dimmer switch.

It was really tricky getting the symbol to attach to both reference planes. It seems to work OK in the end, grip editing would be nice, but it does the trick.Smiley Wink

 

I'll try the drawers now - I think that might be a bit more involved.

Message 5 of 17

Seems to work pretty well. I saw grips when I loaded it. See image attached. 

paul

Paul F. Aubin




Paul F. Aubin Consulting Services, Inc.
Check out my books and training videos
paulaubin.com
Message 6 of 17

Ahhh. cool. I saw those but assumed they were moving the whole thing.

Thank you.

Message 7 of 17

They're a little flaky, but do the job.
paul

Paul F. Aubin




Paul F. Aubin Consulting Services, Inc.
Check out my books and training videos
paulaubin.com
Message 8 of 17

Is there a way of creating a hierarchy amongst the parameters?

 

I have a number of draws in thew same family but with 3 different depths and when I change the depth of a drawer I want the others to shuffle up & down to suit. It works ok with just the drawers, but I want a top as well which would remain 5mm clear of the top drawer and move up & down as the make up of the drawer stach changes.

 

Revit seems to want to keep the cabinet top still & move the drawers which are otherwise constrained & won't do it.

 

Any ideas?

Message 9 of 17

You might want to try <Family Types> parameters. I did a class on this at Autodesk University this year. You can download the paper from my website. It walks through a tutorial on using Family Types parameters and applying to a similar example. Posting links here always seems problematic. So please type it: www dot paulaubin dot com slash AU

 

That will take you to my AU page. Then download the Advanced Families Lab PDF and accompanying files. 

 

Hope that helps. 

paul

Paul F. Aubin




Paul F. Aubin Consulting Services, Inc.
Check out my books and training videos
paulaubin.com
Message 10 of 17

Thanks Paul,

I'll read through it, but in the meantime I might just place them manually as I'm going nowhere pretty quick at the moment.

Thanks,
Ryan.
Message 11 of 17

It can be a tough call sometimes. We want the content to be smart, but if it takes days to develop it, how much time and effort does it save in the long run. Manual isn't always bad right? 🙂

 

I am kind of slammed right now, so I don't think I can look right away, but if you want to post, I can take a look and maybe offer some suggestions. 

paul

Paul F. Aubin




Paul F. Aubin Consulting Services, Inc.
Check out my books and training videos
paulaubin.com
Message 12 of 17

Thanks Paul,

 


Given that this is my first project using Revit, I think I might have to choose my battles a little bit.

Message 13 of 17

Nothing wrong with that. From what I can tell, you're doing pretty well for a first project. Keep up the good work. 

paul

Paul F. Aubin




Paul F. Aubin Consulting Services, Inc.
Check out my books and training videos
paulaubin.com
Message 14 of 17

Now I'm trying to create a family that is a wall panel. Basically its an extrusion that is has a thickness, width with a deffernt height on the left and right hand edges, so the top slopes.

 

I can't get the points to snap & lock to the reference planes. I tried drawing the initial outline in elevation, but this doesn't seem to work either.

 

Is this a limitation of an extrusion?

 

Thanks.

Message 15 of 17

Sure you can do this. Add two reference planes in elevation. Add parameters to each one. Then when you sketch the extrusion, align and lock the endpoints of the sketch lines to the ref planes. See attached. 

paul

Paul F. Aubin




Paul F. Aubin Consulting Services, Inc.
Check out my books and training videos
paulaubin.com
Message 16 of 17

Thanks again  Paul,

 

It looks like you managed to do exactly what I was trying to do.

 

Cie la vieSmiley Frustrated

Message 17 of 17

My pleasure. Enjoy. 

paul

Paul F. Aubin




Paul F. Aubin Consulting Services, Inc.
Check out my books and training videos
paulaubin.com

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