Possible to change a wall based family to a face based family?

[clippincott-CL]

I have created a clock/speaker family using the "Electrical Fixture wall based" template. The problem is that it won't insert into a view where the Architectural elements are from a linked file rather than having been created in the file I'm working in. After not being able to insert it in the project with the linked file, I tried in a different project that had walls created in that project and it worked fine.

Is it possible to change how an existing family is hosted? By that I mean is it possible to change my wall based family to just a face based family? I have had this problem in the past with ceiling based families so I know that using just straight face based will work.

If that's not possible, rather than recreate the family from scratch I would like to somehow transfer the objects from my wall based family file to the "Generic Model face based" template. I tried just straight copy to clipboard and paste and of course that didn't work. Does anyone know how to transfer the contents of one family file to another family file?

Thanks for any help offered.

[simon.whitbread]

This is called 'learning the hard way'

Unfortunately - you can't, AND fortunately you can't either!!

The reason is that the objects typically being created, rely on Reference planes to control them (I know objects don't NEED ref planes) .

What this means is you just need to PLAN what you want to do.

ie:
If the clock ONLY ever goes on a wall, create it 'wall hosted'
BUT
If it can also go on a floor, ceiling, etc - its better to create it FACE based, that way it will sit on ANYTHING - even the linked file.

There may be placess where you don't even want hosted elements - like light fittings for example (even ceiling mounted ones), as the architect changes his mind THAT often, you don't want to keep redoing ALL you layouts

Its FUN eh?

Simon

[clippincott-CL]

Thanks for the detailed answer, Simon. Now that I know that wall based families will also not attach to a linked model, I will be using mostly face based templates.