Rotate Family in Multiple Axes: Nesting Face Based

paul_anstey — Mon, 13 Oct 2025 12:36:51 GMT

Hey everyone,

I’m trying to build a family that can rotate on multiple axes, but I’m running into an issue where the geometry’s orientation changes once I nest the family for the second rotation, so that it's facing a different direction.

I’m following the method shown in this great video: Revit MEP - Rotating family - Option 1

Here’s how my setup is structured (from the innermost nested family to the outer host):

Geometry – Face-based family containing the actual model.
Rotation in Ref. Level – Face-based family using Reference Lines to control rotation from the top-down view.
Rotation in Left Elevation – Another face-based family using Reference Lines to control rotation from the side view.

The problem: when I nest the second rotation (the Left Elevation version) and host the geometry to the new Reference Lines, the original rotation gets lost. The geometry’s base orientation shifts, and I can’t get it to line up properly again.

Has anyone managed to get stable multi-axis rotation using nested Reference Line setups like this?

Thanks in advance!

Re: Rotate Family in Multiple Axes: Nesting Face Based

paul_anstey — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 21:33:09 GMT

I figured it out, using a much simpler method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELzBAY6fbC0

I had to pre-rotate my original geometry before nesting, to get the correct orientation. Then I could nest again using the same rotation method to rotate on Z axis.

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Rotate Family in Multiple Axes: Nesting Face Based

Re: Rotate Family in Multiple Axes: Nesting Face Based