topic Re: NewFamilyInstance on a reference plane in Revit API Forum

NewFamilyInstance on a reference plane

Anonymous — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 02:29:32 GMT

Is it possible to place a new family instance on a specified reference plane? I want to select a lighting fixture or air terminal, check to see if it is hosted to an element or reference plane, then array some more of these fittings around a certain area. I have managed to make the program work quite well when families are not hosted, but when they are, it seems to not like it and place the famiies relative to the floor level.

It seems you can place a family on a reference object, but not a reference plane if I am reading the help correctly. Can someone clarify this or point me in the right direction to do it please.

Re: NewFamilyInstance on a reference plane

jeremytammik — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 08:17:06 GMT

Dear Channond,

Have you had a look at the Revit SDK PlaceFamilyInstanceByFace sample?

Best regards,

Jeremy
--
Jeremy Tammik
Autodesk Developer Network -- http://www.autodesk.com/joinadn
The Building Coder -- http://thebuildingcoder.typepad.com

Re: NewFamilyInstance on a reference plane

Anonymous — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 23:42:57 GMT

Hi Jeremy.

I did look at that, but I want to specify a refernece plane, not a face. I couldn't work out the syntax to do i though.

Re: NewFamilyInstance on a reference plane

jeremytammik — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 07:35:48 GMT

Dear Channond,

If you want it to be associative, you have to specify an reference to a face.

You cannot pass in a reference to a reference plane, as far as I can see.

Either use the reference plane to create a face somehow, e.g. using an appropriate extrusion in the family context, or lose associativity by simply specifying a point on the reference plane.

Best regards,

Jeremy
--
Jeremy Tammik
Autodesk Developer Network -- http://www.autodesk.com/joinadn
The Building Coder -- http://thebuildingcoder.typepad.com

Re: NewFamilyInstance on a reference plane

Anonymous — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 20:57:10 GMT

Thanks Jeremy.

I thought that was the case.

Re: NewFamilyInstance on a reference plane

GeomGym — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 14:18:46 GMT

Is it possible in Revit 2013 or 2014 to create a generic family instance (work plane based, non vertical) hosted on a reference plane generated from the API (I can do it manually).

Thanks,

Jon

Re: NewFamilyInstance on a reference plane

Anonymous — Fri, 17 May 2013 01:42:40 GMT

I'm in the same boat. It would be amazing if the PromptForFamilyInstancePlacement was tweaked to allow the placement mode to be changed to work-plane. Hopefully this will be something that is addressed in a future release.

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/Autodesk-Revit-API/Change-the-placement-option-for-PromptForFamilyInst...

Re: NewFamilyInstance on a reference plane

Anonymous — Wed, 17 Dec 2014 04:01:53 GMT

I know this is an old post but thought I would post the solution I came up with for the reference of others...

Re: NewFamilyInstance on a reference plane

jeremytammik — Wed, 17 Dec 2014 09:07:02 GMT

Dear Bburling,

Congratulations on solving this, and thank you very much for sharing.

Could you (always) add the code in text form, please, for easier copy and paste, and to enable it to be found by global Internet text searches?

Thank you!

Cheers,

Jeremy

Re: NewFamilyInstance on a reference plane

Anonymous — Mon, 09 Mar 2020 17:49:19 GMT

If the new family we insert (Your FamilySymbol) is based on LocationCurve, it gives an error.

"Family cannot be placed as hosted on an input face reference, because its FamilyPlacementType is not WorkPlaneBased" & vbCrLf & "Parameter name: symbol"