topic Re: Un-Host families from linked models? in Revit MEP Forum

Un-Host families from linked models?

dhelling — Fri, 23 Apr 2021 15:28:33 GMT

I want to un-host all my electrical families from the linked models so I don't have to track down rogue devices being thrown around. I think doing this may be very helpful for projects going into construction since I am not as active in the model as I would be during design. I have thought about this a fair amount, but I haven't tried much as it could be time consuming and I don't want to do something I regret. I don't want to loose V/G link settings or loose family associations with tags, circuiting, and etc.. Has anyone tried this or have any good ideas to do this?

Obviously this would mean elements would be "orphaned" or "<not associated>". I don't recall issues leaving them in these un-hosted states, but I have seen many posts debating this for possible performance issues due to so many un-hosted elements. I have seen projects with over a thousand elements "orphaned" and no real performance issues were obvious. So since I haven't experienced major issues in the past 10 years and I haven't heard anyone else experiencing significant issues, I assume its no big deal. Although please share any issues you have had with this as well.

Re: Un-Host families from linked models?

RobDraw — Fri, 23 Apr 2021 16:00:48 GMT

If you don't like the issues associated with using hosted families, don't use them.

LOL, this reminds me of an old joke.

Patient says to Dr., "Hey Doc, my shoulder hurts when I do this." and rolls his shoulder in an awkward fashion.

Dr. says, "Why are you doing that? Don't do that and it won't hurt"

Re: Un-Host families from linked models?

dhelling — Fri, 23 Apr 2021 16:12:01 GMT

As I said before I do like hosting families just not all the time. So the question still remains.

Good joke!

Re: Un-Host families from linked models?

RobDraw — Fri, 23 Apr 2021 16:34:59 GMT

When hosted families become orphaned, they should stay in place unless something weird is happening in the link. Can you provide an example of how they get thrown around?

Re: Un-Host families from linked models?

RobDraw — Sun, 25 Apr 2021 09:55:56 GMT

If my post, or others, has answered your question, please mark as solution so that it may help others.

Re: Un-Host families from linked models?

dhelling — Mon, 26 Apr 2021 13:04:33 GMT

Sorry, I think this question may remain question for a while. See below for some more context. I conclude with I can provide examples of rogue devices but I don't think that will address my original question of un-hosting from linked models.

Our elements are not always loosing the host and some elements are thrown around more than once before they get fixed/noticed. This is even more difficult to understand and keep track of when we work live on B360 because we don't know when it happens. Also as you may know the same item can change locations multiple times before the host element is moved in a way that actually orphans an electrical device. All that can happen before its even noticed by our staff.

One project that I am dealing with has an ~3 year construction time that we are one year into. Every time I get into the model (~1/month) to make supplemental drawings, I notice about 5-30 devices no longer located correctly. Just this one project has 21+ sheets per discipline (Ltg, Pwr, FA, T, AV, and Security). Roughly ~30,000 electrical total devices and maybe ~15,000 wall mounted electrical devices. I am not concerned with ceiling mounted stuff because those are all hosted to reference plans we control and I am not concerned with floor mounted stuff because they are hosted to levels that rarely move but we also control through copy/monitoring. So really its wall mounted items that are moving with walls or moving with other linked vertical hosts such as casework, furniture, generic models, and etc... In this project alone I have found major issues such as elements showing on the floors above/below or elements not even shown on a view anymore by either jumping above, below, or to the side of the building. On top of these wild shifts I have had a couple hundred smaller shifts that are not as noticeable. Again this is one project of a few I would like to not host families to the arch link. Each specific family jump is, I am sure, related to some underlying reason, but like any other time I dive into figure these things out, it is all speculation and we end up re-hosting them back to the correct location. Then we wait for it to happen again, with hopes it don't. Since these are active/ongoing project's, we correct the issues as we see them. So any examples I can show you would have to be through old PDF's or pictures from previous emails. I can share some of those but would they really be of any use and I don't believe it would help me figure out the quick method to un-host our families from the linked model. So any more thoughts pertaining to the original question?

Re: Un-Host families from linked models?

RobDraw — Tue, 27 Apr 2021 18:19:38 GMT

@dhelling wrote:
I want to un-host all my electrical families from the linked models

I thought this was a rhetorical question. Ironically, one way is mentioned in the OP of the thread that you resurrected. You know the one that I started wondering about possible ramifications of leaving all hosted elements in an orphaned state? The one that was solved by rehosting them?

Another way is to remove the host from the linked model.

The best way is to use non-hosted families.