Alignment woes

[Spiritshifterus]

Greetings, board members.

I have been learning Revit 2013 for a while, but I've come across a really annoying issue. I'm a draftsman of electrical systems, and have two families for elements that reside within wall-recessed gang boxes. One family I can align to walls whenever the wall moves (this family I've attached, called Right). However, the other family i cannot get to move at all once it is loaded into a project (this family is called Wrong). Yes, these families are copies of AutoCAD Revit OOTB families, but the problem is still the same, and I want to know how to avoid this when I have to make my own families. Can anybody help me, please?

Thank you very much, in advance.

Christopher J. Martin

[CoreyDaun]

Sorry, can you elaborate a little more about the deficiency with the "Wrong" Family or post an explanatory image? I loaded both of them into a Project and they seemed to work as expected.

[Spiritshifterus]

Dear Corey (and all other readers),

The problem with the "Wrong" family comes when I try to use the "Align" tool on the Modify ribbon tab. If I try the "Align" tool on the "Right" family, I am able to select a wall's face, and then align any parallel part of the box to the wall's face.

When I try to do the exact same task with the "Wrong" family, the symbol will not align onto the wall at all. This is both unacceptable as well as aggravating.

Please help. I hope I have explained my problem.

Chris M.

[CoreyDaun · Accepted solution]

OK - I tinkered around with them a little more. They are both Face-Based families, which means they should be hosted to a vertical face. I'm assuming that you're encountering this issue when attempting to align elements that are unassociated with a host face.

The normal behavior for such elements is actually demonstrated by "Wrong". Since these elements are Face-Based, they are hosted to a vertical plane. Even though they've been disassociated with their host, they are still constrained to that vertical plane, whether or not there is a surface there. The proper method to re-aligning the element to a Wall Face is to use the "Pick New Host" tool.

Regarding the "Right" family - that seems kinda like an anomaly. In Revit Families, there are some subtle differences between the templates which does sometimes affect functionality like this, so you must be sure that the template functions as you wish before building your families. If you want to have this specific functionality to your families, use that "Right" Family as your Template. Delete everything within it as save the blank somewhere.

[Spiritshifterus]

Dear Corey,

That sure is some weird anomaly. I spent most of today trying to figure out the differences between the two files, and still couldn't find a single clue. But, at least I do have a base family which I can save and modify, per your suggestions. And it is for that reason that I accepted your last message as a solution. Thank you very much, sir.

Chris Martin