line based components snapping undesireably

[Anonymous]

I'm having problems with some line based families I made for toilet partitions.  If the corners get too close the **** things snap to each other.  If they were walls there would be a way to stop it by disallowing joining.  There doesn't seem to be an option like that here.

[Michael_Ruehr]

Your Origin  of the family is in the center of the geometry 

Have it on the internal or external side of you geometry and use the flipcontrols

If you need a gap its better to have an offset parameter for control

[Alfredo_Medina]

Why not simply do all that with a wall type? It would be a lot easier. Line-based families don't cleanup at corners.

[Anonymous]

I was thinking the best way to do this was with a curtain wall.  It just seemed too time consuming to set up all the different panel types.  On top of that I don't want every toilet partition door being counted as actual doors and filling up my schedules.  Since they're all duplicates of a few standard types I thought components was the way to go.  

I didn't count on someone thinking components needed to snap to each other and then not give us a way to turn it off.  Frankly I think the developers should have more faith that their customers know what they're doing and stop adding all these 'helpful' whistles and bells that only get in the way.

I should know better by now. 

[Anonymous]

The origin of the family is at the start of the line.  If that's not how Revit intended us to use this family type why did they create it in the first place?  What's the point off having a line based family that can assume lengths other than what the user intended.  Can anyone from Autodesk even explain where this is useful?

Your solution doesn't help by the way.  I discovered this problem with an open corner after I had already laid in four other bathrooms.  I'd have to fix all of them when they go half a width off their original positions and possibly start snapping to each other in funny ways.

[Alfredo_Medina]

Simply use walls and doors, and put something in type comments, to filter out these elements from schedules.

[loboarch · Accepted solution]

Dragging does give the autosnapping/autojoining behavior.  However you can use the align tool to get the effect you are lookign for.

http://screencast.com/t/liOpMzWxuNLw

Not sure why the autojoining is happening?

[Anonymous]

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@Alfredo_Medina wrote:

Simply use walls and doors, and put something in type comments, to filter out these elements from schedules.

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That method will not display properly, especially in 3D.  It might be fine for a quick 2D plan to have a 1" wall stand in for a toilet partition but it won't have shoes, hardware, a bracing bar, etc.  Those things would have to be added later as separate componnents that have to be looked after in case there are changes, and if I don't want to see those items at some scales or display settings they might get forgotten until they show up floating in midair in a rendering three weeks later.

Aligning worked well with the corner but now I've got some intermediate panels snapping to end panel midpoints when I changed them from new construction to existing.  The align tool isn't working.  In fact, the side panel is snapping even if I drag it as much as an inch away.  I ended up hiding the bad element and redrawing as detail lines and in that, Autodesk, you failed.

[Alfredo_Medina]

I don't think you have to model all the hardware of the partitions. Usually, bathrooms are modeled with walls, doors, and the accessories such as paper dispensers, hand dryers, etc, but the hardware of partitions is usually shown in typical details. But, of course, that's up to you.

However, If you still want to do this with a line-based family, then spend some time making that family a little smarter, including parameters for gaps at both ends, so that you have maximum flexibility of adjusting the start and end point of the partition.

By the way, I don't see any "failure" of Autodesk in regards to the line-based family. It is what it is, a platform for something. It is not intended for any particular function such as drawing toilet partitions. It's the user who has to adapt the family for the function. If you see that the family has this behavior of joining endpoints, then put a gap in the family, put smart accessories in it, and problem solved.