Family Parameter Help

[WheelerCJ]

Hi,

I'm trying to create a family with some parameters. I'm 95% done but the last bit I'm struggling with. It's basically a channel train made up of 4 extrusions (the channel, the grating cover and two end caps). I want to be able to edit the length of the channel to various sizes which I have managed to do but I can't seem to lock the end piece so it moves with the length. I'm sure its something preety simple like adding a dim and locking it.

Please find attached the family.

Thanks in advance for your replies.

[CoreyDaun]

Looking at it in the "Ref. Level" View, it looks like there are a couple instances of overlapping Reference Planes (2 at the further, 4 at the closer) so it's making the constraint a bit tricky. Is there a reason for the extra (and seemingly redundant) Reference Planes?

FTR - the attached Family (in the OP) is in Revit 2012 format.

[WheelerCJ]

This is probably where I went wrong. I stripped down the whole thing and started from scratch again. Please see the attached and decide if its an OK way of doing it. It works just how I would want it to.

Please find attached family in 2012 format.

Thanks again

[CoreyDaun · Accepted solution]

I would say nix the duplicate Reference Planes - it just makes things real messy. Try following these steps to clean it up a bit (This is all done from the Ref. Level View):

1. I don't know what the purpose of the Invisible Line is at the end of the extrusions, but I deleted it. I also flat out deleted three of the four redundant Reference Planes.

2. The remaining Reference Planes are the exact width of the Extrusions which just makes it more difficult to work with. They should really extend beyond. (See image)

3. Go to Types and change 'Channel Drain Length' to 1200 or so. Hit 'OK'.

4. Select one of the extrusions that is no longer constrained. Grab the 'stretch' grip (blue arrow) at the top center and drag it to the appropriate Reference Plane. Click the lock icon to constrain. Repeat for all extrusions as required.

5. Set 'Channel Drain Length' back to 1012.